Get 20% off GameDev Days in Tallinn

Creative Mobile and IGDA Estonia invite you to visit Tallinn for the GameDev Days conference on April 11-12.

Founded in 2011, GameDev Days is an annual networking and knowledge sharing event, that attracts technology companies, global platforms, and game developers from the Baltics, Nordics and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Why you should consider attending? 

• Find new clients or strategic partnerships in the Baltic and Nordic regions. 

• Talk to platform representatives to find out about upcoming updates.

• Get inspired by fellow developers, learn about their innovations and technologies and share your experience. 

• Meet new talent to hire or find your dream job at the GameDev Days Careers fair. 

• Friendly atmosphere and cozy environment create pleasant experience for networking and obtaining new knowledge.

More than 70% of our audience are returning year after year, bringing friends and colleagues along. 

Companies who have already confirmed their participation include Google, Wargaming, Ubisoft, Glu Mobile, and Remedy. We guarantee a world-class speaker lineup and high quality of content and networking. 

Check out the conference website for a list of confirmed speakers and discounts on lodging and ferries.

Use promo code IGDAFIN when registering for 20% off of all tickets.

Helsinki Hub: An Epic Evening

Text by Giorgos Riskas and Roope Sorvo, photos by Casimir Kuusela & Epic Games / Dana Cowley

The IGDA gatherings of 2019 started off with a bang with a great event sponsored by Epic Games. The seminar featured a talk by Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, at the Aalto School of Business campus in Helsinki, that attracted a capacity audience of 600 attendees.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. Photo © Epic Games / Dana Cowley

The first part of the seminar revolved around Fortnite, an online multiplayer battle royale game that has enjoyed massive success since its release in 2017,  with an active user base of roughly 200 million players. Sweeney went through the whole history of the title, from its inception as a game jam project to its current status, and shared his insight about what made the title successful.

According to Sweeney, one of the defining factors was changing the monetization model to Free-to-Play without forcing the players into pay-to-win mechanics. A decision that not only changed the fate of the game, but  transformed the fate of the company. The game’s cross-platform availability was also an important reason for the constantly growing user base. However, it came with the cost of a very demanding process of optimization and maintenance, since the updates are always released simultaneously for all seven supported platforms.

Finally, Sweeney talked about the social aspect of the game by sharing some impressive statistics about players’ interactions and preferences. According to the research, the majority of Fortnite players spend time with their real life friends in the game which leads to even higher engagement, asserting the game was more like a social media app than a hardcore gaming title.

For the next topic, Sweeney talked about the launch of the Epic Game Store and explained how the technology that Epic Games offers expands beyond the game industry. Epic Games Store is a new digital distribution platform in the vein of Steam, the creation of which was brought on by a need of more competition in the field. Besides the storefront, the Epic Games platform aims to be an “opposite of a walled garden”. They have an emphasis on cross-platform, cross-service cooperation, sharing technology and assets between developers, with transparency being their key philosophy. A prominent part of this platform revolves around Epic’s Unreal engine, which makes real time graphics for all kinds of industries, ranging from sports cars to architecture in addition to video games.

Sweeney answering questions from the audience. Photo by Casimir Kuusela

The last part of the seminar was devoted to a Q&A session in which Sweeney answered, as he promised, any questions that were directed to him. In some of the most interesting answers Sweeney shared his insight about blockchain in game development.

“It’s a great tool for tech and research, but a long way from becoming a game development tool,” he said, adding “Due to the propensity of fraud it would be inadvisable to use blockchain in mainstream game development”.

When asked about the future plans for the Epic Games Store, he answered that the emphasis is on quality over quantity and the system of paying Unreal Engine royalties will remain as it is. That is, taking 5% of the game’s revenue in royalties, regardless of the success of the title. “It is the most equal approach and provides a more even playing field for smaller developers,” he said.

Before the seminar reached its conclusion, Sweeney gave a shout out to Epic Games Helsinki, a recent addition to the Epic family. It started as a collaboration with Kamu, a local anti-cheat development company that Epic acquired last year. “While it’s not a huge operation, it will grow steadily over the next few years,” he said.

The gathering was scheduled right after the seminar in the familiar location of Maxine where developers networked and socialize, while playing two games that were in the demo corner.

Demo corner. Photo by Casimir Kuusela

Chain Lightning is a fast-paced mobile game developed by Origame Studios using Unity. The three-piece team (coder, artist and a marketer) have been working at the game on-and-off since September, and plan to release it for mobile devices in a few months. A demo version is already available at Google Play.

Oceanhorn 2 is an action RPG game inspired by the classics of the same genre and it has been in development for by Cornfox Bros for the past five years. The game is a good example of what the Unreal engine is capable of when it comes to mobile gaming, since it will be released on iOS. The official release date of the game has yet to be announced.

Celebrating GGJ/FGJ with a Post Play Party

Hey Jammers! IGDA Finland and the Finnish Game Jam are teaming up to host a Post Play Party in the Helsinki Hub Demo Corner on Tuesday, February 12th for all the games that were made during the 2019 Global Game Jam.

Bring your creations, show them off with others, relive the exhausting and spirited fun you had, and encourage people to jam. Please use this form to sign-up. Space may end up being limited so we’ll let teams know if they have a spot by Sunday, February 10th.

The Gathering and Demo Corner start at 19:00.

And speakers — did we mention there’d be speakers?

These awesome folks will start sharing game jam experiences at 19:30:
Annakaisa Kultima, President of FGJ: Crazy Stunts and Awesome Numbers
Minna Eloranta: A GGJ Experience in Israel
Samuli Jääskeläinen: Jamming in China
Elie Abraham: You Never Heard a Jam Story Like This

Please note:

1. This event is not sponsored and the fee for the cloakroom is 2,50€.

2. Space is limited for the demo corner and if there are a lot of submissions there may not be space for everyone. Registration will close on Sunday, February 10th and teams will be notified they have a demo spot by Monday February 11th.

The Inaugural Games Helsinki Conference

Games Helsinki is a one-day mini-conference focusing on console and PC games. It's going to be a small, intimate event with about 100 attendees from the Finnish game dev scene. We'll take over Games Factory for a day of talks, followed by evening of mingling and finishing the night with an afterparty.

For more information see the conference website: https://gameshelsinki.com/

IGDA members get a 10% discount off the ticket price using promocode IGDA when registering. Act fast there were only 25 tickets left at the time of publication.

Get 15% of White Nights in Berlin

The winter edition of White Nights will take place in Berlin on February 12-13, 2019, with over 1,300 attendees expected. The program is already available on the confernece website.

Act fast to get one of 15 free booths at the Developer Exhibition. Participants from all over the world will present their best projects in order to meet industry professionals, find partners, publishers, meet platforms representatives and collect valuable feedback. Every team participating in the showcase will receive a free mini-booth + one free Premium all-access ticket + a good discount for team members. The application deadline is January 25th.

Developers can also take part in the Big Indie Pitch held by Pocket Gamer on Day 2. The unique speed dating format will give each developer some time with experts, meaning entrants will get real feedback from the event and a chance to win prizes! Find out more info and register on the Pocket Gamer website.

There’s still time to grab a 15% discount off your tickets by using the promo code IGDA-Finland. Feel free to contact the White Nights team at welcome@wnconf.com if you have any questions.