Kicking off IGDA Finland Tampere Hub

It finally happened. With the first IGDA Finland Tampere Hub gathering held at 29.10.2013 now behind us, the whole organizing team can let out a sigh of relief. After months of planning we can say with utmost certainty that the team did a marvelous job at putting it all together. But it would not have been without all you folks taking part in the gathering and making it a night to remember. We would also like to express our gratitude towards our sponsor Fragment, a game development studio situated in Tampere. Thank you!

The event took place in Jack the Rooster, a local rock bar situated near the city center in Tampere. The doors opened at around 6 pm allowing the long queue of people to finally trickle inside and enjoy their first cool beverage courtesy of Fragment.

Once we had all the early arrivals inside, the program could commence. The official program consisted of an introduction to IGDA Finland by Tatu Laine followed by speeches from our sponsor Fragment.

Starting something new does not usually come without obstacles. First of all, due to the high turnout of people, we were having some issues with getting people inside as fast as possible. One of the biggest problems, however, was that people believed the kitchen to be open during the event. This was not the case and we will try to remedy this in the future.

Jack the Rooster proved a wonderful choice of venue. It really had that rock’n’roll feeling that we experience in the game development industry here in Finland. We were also able to negotiate great pricing for IGDA Finland members as well as our sponsors.

On a personal note, I would like to thank the whole organizing team for all the hard work they have put into making this happen! Tampere really has the spirit that becoming a great international game development hub requires.

Until next time, IGDA Finland Tampere Hub volunteers Timo Heinäpurola Annakaisa Kultima Minna Eloranta Arto Koistinen Mika Kuusisto Mikko Karsisto Jukka Mikkonen Jukka Kauppinen

IGDA Finland Oulu Hub Gathering

On the 17th of October IGDA Finland Oulu Hub arranged a gathering at the Business Kitchen premises, targeted primarily for students and game development hobbyists interested in getting a job or an internship position in a game development studio. The evening featured an array of speakers and presentations for those who arrived.

Tony Manninen (Ludocraft) took the floor first and provided the attendees with an inspiring presentation about the most important skills and traits required from a game developer

Second on the stage was Tero Takalo (Studio Outo) who shared his views on developing game graphics and what aspiring graphic artists should focus their skills on.

After the graphics presentation it was time to focus on programming, naturally. Niina Tampio (Ludocraft) told the audience what are the most important skills of a game programmer and how one should approach this highly demanding profession.

After our main presentations the floor was given for the representatives of Business Oulu, Business Kitchen, OuluSES, Oulu Game Lab and Stage, who all introduced their organizations and enlightened the attendees about how they can be of help for those interested in getting into the game industry.

The rest of the evening was dedicated for networking and socializing while having some drinks and snacks provided to us by our generous sponsors Ludocraft and OSAKO.

All in all the evening was a huge success in terms of both the number of attendees who participated and in the amount of positive feedback collected. In fact, we were so overwhelmed by the success, that we are most definitely looking into arranging a similar kind of evening during next year!

Stay gamified!

- Antti Wilenius & the IGDA Finland Oulu Hub volunteers

Autumn Turku Hub Gatherings with Tribeflame, Wargaming and Gameturku

September and October was filled with exciting events in Turku. Here’s a digest of what’s been happening in our local IGDA Finland Hub!

23.9. IGDA Finland Turku Hub gathering with Tribeflame

Tribeflame presenting

A monday night didn’t stop enthusiastic game developers and hobbyists from gathering with Tribeflame, one of the longest running game companies in Turku. Tribeflame has released a number of games, such as Light the Flower, Reiner Knizia's Labyrinth, Reiner Knizia's Clustermaster, and the latest of them being Benji Bananas that has reached 20+ million downloads combined in the Appstore and Play Store.

Gentlephant was also demoing a “Super meat boy for mobile” -kind of game which was met with great interest and a lot of cursing because of the hardcore platforming nature of the game. Together we celebrated Turku’s biggest game success so far with drinks and Bar Bryssel’s great sauna!

9.10. Turku Game Lab re-launch and Turku Hub gathering with GameTurku and Wargaming.net

The day was filled with events. Firstly the Game Tech & Arts Lab was re-launched as Turku Game Lab in the ICT-House. Turku University’s and Turku University of Applied Sciences’ game lab will strengthen the community and give tools for students and to-be developers to get their hands dirty in making games.

The day continued with a gathering in the usual place with GameTurku and Wargaming.net. GameTurku is a new portal and brand for the Turku game development scene. GameTurku is now the go-to place the get information about everything that is going on in the area: http://www.gameturku.com/

We were also very lucky to have Yury Shilyaev, the director of education and Aleksandr Zezulin, executive producer at Wargaming.net as guests for our gathering. Our gathering once again hit over 100 guests and after Alex's presentation he was met with a long Q&A session about all things World of Tanks and etc. We also learned that approx. third of the players of WOT spend money on the game and a few guys from the audience confessed to have used hundreds of euros to the game!

Aleksandr answering tough questions

We'll be back on November with more exciting guests and reasons to share a pint with a fellow game developer!

Tatu Laine & Turku Hub Coordinators

IGDA Finland Rovaniemi Hub launch

The northernmost IGDA hub in the world has now officially been opened at Rovaniemi, on 26th of September, in the arctic where it’s so cold that computers keep constantly freezing! Not really, just kidding..

The formal part of this event took place at the main campus of Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences. There we had two guests who talked about IGDA Finland, about the support it has to offer for students and starting game developers, and about their personal experiences on taking up a career in gaming industry. Total number of people listening and asking lots of good questions was 19, so one might say that we had a fairly good start considering the size of the audience.

First speaker was Tatu Laine, Creative Director from NordicEdu. He talked about IGDA, what it actually is and why we should know it, and also about educational games that his company’s focuses on.

Second speaker was Jukka Laakso, CEO from Rival Games. Among other things related to working in a game startup, he introduced us to IGDA Scholarship. It is really something you should check out if you’re planning to have a career in the business.

After the formal part we moved to have some drinks and of course talk some more. We also had totally new participants who were then introduced to the Pelilabra room at Valtakatu 19.

All in all, it was very encouraging and motivating to hear the guys’ startup stories and the things they had learned along the way. The stuff I personally learned from this event actually could have their own post some time later. Informative and fun indeed, more of this, please! Here are some photos from the gathering:

IGDA Finland Oulu Hub September Gathering

On 19th of September the local game developers of Oulu gathered once again for a relaxed night out at the restaurant 45 Special to embrace (or ward off) the closing autumn. This time there were no presentations or other official programme, but rather some laid-back socializing and casual conversation. Amongst the discussion one could hear longing for the “good old” games, listen to new game ideas being tossed around and participate in general game or game development related chat. All in all, a very warm and easy-going evening.

In October IGDA Finland Oulu Hub will arrange a “Interested in game industry” evening, targeted especially for students interested in applying for a job or an internship in a game development company. We will have a couple of presentations from professional game developers and after that we’ll spend the rest of the evening networking and having fun. And of course, you don’t have to be a student to join in; all are welcome!

For more information about our events and news concerning the Oulu game development scene, follow https://www.facebook.com/IGDA.Finland.Oulu.Hub

Antti Wilenius & IGDA Finland Oulu Hub coordinators