December IGDA Finland Turku Hub Gathering

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A year of gatherings came to an end in Turku with a special guest from the finnish mobile game history. Taneli Armanto, the creator of the famous Snake -mobile game on Nokia devices was sharing some stories behind the Snake -game and boy was it interesting. The game is probably one of the most largely distributed mobile game ever and while it was in development, it wasn't clear it would turn into a huge success. WP_20131219_18_35_07_Pro__highresVitali Kirpu, an indie developer from Turku is making a name for himself with his Pixel Piracy getting greenlighted in Steam in just a few days. In the game, the player controls the crew of a pirate ship. The player must sail the ship over a number of sea zones, each with procedurally generated events in a roguelike fashion, while facing pirates and other hostile forces, recruiting new crew members, keeping discipline, outfitting, upgrading ship and more.

pixelpiracy

The game was quickly featured in Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Polygon and Wired UK. Check out a gameplay video, it's great!

 

-IGDA Finland Turku Hub folks

 

IGDA Finland Oulu Hub November Gathering

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After a hugely successful October gathering we decided to play it a bit more conservative in November and arranged a classic pub night. This time we chose to occupy the restaurant Otto K instead of our usual place, just to explore possible future establishments for our gatherings. The place felt good and the staff was very supportive, so maybe we’ll give Otto K another chance some time during 2014.

The house was filled with around 20 local game developers who gathered around the tables to have more or less meaningful discussions with each other. The ice hockey game shown on the screen sparked some discussion about violence in games vs. violence in sports, but in general the tone of the conversations were quite casual.

At the moment we are working hard on planning and arranging the gatherings of 2014, so stay tuned and remember to play games!

- Antti Wilenius & the IGDA Finland Oulu Hub volunteers

IGDA Finland Turku Hub Gathering with TicBits

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Winter is on us with it's dark and gloomy reach but there was no sign of it in the IGDA Finland Turku Hub gathering in November!

The Turku based company TicBits was our guests of honor this time giving a brief intro into how the wholly self-funded company has grown into 10 people with some very ambitious games coming up. After this, it was time to focus on the most important things: networking, sharing ideas and drinks.

TicBits is also 3rd on the Deloitte's Rising Stars in Technology Fast 50 Finland 2013  -list. The Turku scene could not be more proud!

Turku Gathering will be back in December!

Mobile Mixer event & IGDA Finland Networking event with Facebook

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Slush and Splash! The audience of the November Gathering was presented with a double feature: Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer mixed & IGDA Finland Gathering!

First up was the Mobile Mixer panel with variety of industry veterans talking about the present and the future of mobile game development. After the panel people had the opportunity to talk to panelists and get to know a bit more about the companies represented in the panel.

After the panel there was a brief moment to let the new info sink in. After that the IGDA Finland Gathering kicked into gear with Facebook presenting their mobile gaming platform. The presentation was short and sweet with code samples detailing the implementation using different frameworks.

Here are few links for the interested: Games hub of the Facebook developer site, Open source sample apps and tutorials for iOS, Android, Unity and Canvas. Oh and last but not least here is something special: Facebook presentation with code samples.

Stay tuned for updates on the greatest party this holiday!