Vesa Raudasoja elected to the IGDA Board of Directors

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Vesa Raudasoja, a long time active member of IGDA Finland,  has unlocked quite an achievement as he was elected to the IGDA Board of Directors. IGDA Finland warmly congratulates Vesa Raudasoja for his election and wishes him continued success in his future endeavors.

The results of the election came out on Thursday the 3rd of March and new board members will officially begin their terms on 1st of April 2016.

The final results are as follows:

  • Vesa Raudasoja - 473 votes
  • Lucy Morris - 318 votes
  • Melody Schaeffer - 241 votes
  • Cat Wendt - 213 votes

More information on the election and results can be found here: http://www.igda.org/news/278072/2016-IGDA-Board-of-Directors-Election-Results.htm

Vesa Raudasoja nominated for IGDA Board of Directors / Vesa Raudasoja ehdolla IGDA:n hallitukseen

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A long time active IGDA Finland member and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Vesa Raudasoja has been nominated for International Game Developer's Association's (IGDA) Board of Directors. Raudasoja has been involved with IGDA Finland since the beginning, and is the first Finnish person nominated for the Board. Previously the Board of Directors has mainly consisted of members from North America.

A game developer himself, and having closely followed the growth of Finnish game industry, Raudasoja finds IGDA's role very important for game developer communities and wants to get European and Scandinavian voices heard more in the community.

"I'm sure that many game studios in Finland and internationally have started because of IGDA's activities. Without an organization like this the game industry in Finland, for example, would probably be much smaller. Game developer communities are very important and IGDA has been creating these for years all around the world.”

All full members of IGDA are eligible to vote on the election until the end of February. There are four candidates in total of which two will be elected.

Raudasoja will be saying a few words on his nomination at the February gathering on 9.2.

More information on the election: http://www.igda.org/?page=elections2016

Vesa's Campaign Page: https://www.facebook.com/voteforvesa

IGDA Finlandin pitkäaikainen aktiivi, Lifetime Achievement Awardilla palkittu Vesa Raudasoja on ehdolla International Game Developer's Association (IGDA):n hallitukseen. Raudasoja on ollut mukana IGDA Finlandin toiminnassa sen perustamisesta lähtien ja on ensimmäisenä suomalaisena ehdolla hallitukseen, jonka paikat ovat aiemmin jakautuneet enimmäkseen pohjois-amerikkalaisten toimijoiden kesken.

Raudasoja on itsekin pelinkehittäjä, ja on ollut seuraamassa Suomen peliteollisuuden kasvua pienistä indie-studioista satojen pelialan yritysten maaksi. Hän pitää IGDA:n roolia erittäin tärkeänä peliteollisuudelle, ja haluaa saada yhteisössä kuuluviin erityisesti pohjoismaista ja eurooppalaista ääntä.

“Olen varma, että monikin pelialan yritys niin Suomessa kuin ulkomaillakin on saanut alkunsa IGDA:n ansiosta. Ilman tällaista toimijaa peliteollisuus etenkin Suomessa olisi varmasti pienempi. Yhteisöt ovat erittäin tärkeitä ja IGDA on luonut näitä vuosien ajan ympäri maailman.”

Kaikki IGDA:n täysivaltaiset jäsenet voivat äänestää vaaleissa aina helmikuun loppuun asti. Neljästä nimetystä ehdokkaasta kaksi valitaan hallitukseen.

Raudasoja on paikalla helmikuun tapaamisessa 9.2. ja pitää puheenvuoron ehdokkuudestaan.

More information on the election: http://www.igda.org/?page=elections2016

Vesa's Campaign Page: https://www.facebook.com/voteforvesa

IGDA Finland Gathering with Supercell!

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IGDA Finland April GatheringTime: 9.4.2013 at 19.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

We will dive tablet first into IGDA Finland’s April Gathering and we are happy to announce that the notorious Supercell returns as our sponsor! This means several things. Yes, drink tickets. But that’s not all: I have been informed we shall also have something to nibble on (the whispers say it’s something round). And don’t be surprised if the atmosphere physically hits the ceiling this time! Oh, and be prepared for flashlights, it will get you a tasty reward! There’s another reason you definitely don’t want to miss this Gathering. Surely all of you know the hot topic: the all-mighty Game Developers Conference. Here’s a great chance to discuss the living daylight out of it!

Note! Executive Director of IGDA Central (International Game Developers Association) will be visiting us, too! Let's show the world how we party!

We’ll see you there!

Peliklusteri.com - Finnish game industry in a nutshell

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It has been an amazing year for Finnish Game Industry. International press is following Finnish game studios and the whole industry much closer than ever before. New success stories materialize across Finland. To celebrate the success, IGDA Finland (Samuli Ulmanen: web design and Joonas Järvensivu: logo design) put together a landing page, peliklusteri.com. That's what Finnish game industry is in a nutshell. Fantastic scene, great companies. I salute you!

GDC 2009 Scholarships Notification

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The IGDA Student Scholarship Program for GDC09 is now underway! If you're a student interested in the field, be sure not to miss out the opportunity to meet the big guys of the gaming industry in San Francisco, California next March! Through this program, if selected, you will receive a main conference pass with access to all sessions, roundtables and keynotes, an industry mentor that will introduce you around and a chance to visit a local studio and an orientation session as well. This is a big opportunity for anyone who is interested in getting his or her career off the ground! ;-)

If you want to know more about what's ahead, check out reports from previous winners, including Liz's report from 2007. It's also worth mentioning that there's a forum post from one of the judges, Mr. David Weinstein, giving an insight in the judging process. The deadline for all applications is Thursday, January 15th, 2009.

December gathering - Finnish game developers rocked it out with Guitar Hero 3

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The last gathering of the year drew in a nice crowd of 177 attendees total!In December gathering AMD provided drink tickets ensuring the mood was indeed very merry all night long.

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The other sponsor was Microsoft and they provided us with demostands, with which we hosted 2 game competitions, as well as the prizes for those competitions. Both demostands were popular but Guitar Hero 3 demostand even had people lining up to play from time to time so it was clearly the more popular one.

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With Guitar Hero 3 competition the winner was Esko Javanainen from Digital Chocolate, the other competition with Project Gotham Racing 4 game winner was also from Digital Chocolate! Rajeev Girdhar. Way to go Digital Chocolate!

For more photos from the gathering CLICK HERE

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This time there was also the regular SCORE group from Tampere attending the gathering, with even a bigger group this time. Nice to see them bringing in new people with them! The evening carried along well in overall, another successful sponsored event, good job everyone who were part of organizing it!

November Gathering - Recoil Games pulled a full house, again!

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Despite the icy and windy weather, 243 brave game industry professionals made it to the System Rock on 13th November. 243! Thanks to everyone who attended - we clearly beat the previous record of 210 attendees set in November 2006 (which by the way was also a Recoil-sponsored event). dsc01499-1.jpgdsc01518-7.jpgdsc01544-11.jpg

Finnish game development scene was well represented from Recoil, Bugbear and Sumea to RedLynx, Ironstar Helsinki and others. Also several IT-professional joined the party to marvel at active discussion amongst game developers. IGDA Finland was happy to welcome 48 newcomers to the party as well as people all the way from Spain, Digital Chocolate's game studio Microjocs and a bit closer to home, from Tampere TTVO!

Click here to view rest of the photos taken in this event

November Gathering was sponsored by Recoil Games. People enjoyed never-before-seeing Earth No More concept art while having sponsored beers and snacks. According to Recoil Games the game is supposed to “fuse together genre-pushing emotional drama and a disaster setting with global ramifications”. The game is being developed for several platforms and will be out in 2009. Despite the huge crowd, IGDA volunteers did a great job and ensured a super-smooth night!

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Naturally most of the discussion dwelled around Recoil and Earth No More. In addition, Northern Game Conference held a week earlier in Oulu was commented. Common opinion seemed to be that the presentations were good but hiking and drinking at the dark snowy forest was an experience for many. Renewed Igda.fi got good feedback, too. We urge you all to continue the igda.fi website related discussion at the Forum. All of your comments are highly valued!

We hope to see you all again at the Little Christmas party on December 11th!

-Sonja Kangas

From the web: IGDA proposes game credits standards

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Credits Standards Committee chair to speak at GDC 08 The International Game Developers Association is pushing for an industry-wide adoption of professional standards in game credits.

A public "beta" of the proposed IGDA standards was posted online for member feedback in September, but the issue has recently come to the forefront with the news that Rockstar Vienna was snubbed in the credits for Manhunt 2.

"Accurate, complete, and fair credits are essential to ongoing employment, professional development, and artistic fulfillment for all developers," said the IGDA's executive director Jason Della Rocca.

"Further, having accurate credits helps employers make informed hiring decisions."

The IGDA has established a Credit Standards Committee with the goal of establishing generally accepted guidelines that all studios and publishers can use.

John Feil, the chair of this committee, will be hosting a roundtable session during the 2008 Game Developers Conference entitled "The IGDA Credits Movement: The Revolution Is Already Here.

Article from GamesIndustry.Biz

GDC Scholarship Notification

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It’s GDC Scholarship time again! All students interested in the game industry should really take a moment to check it out. On the surface the scholarship includes a main conference pass, a local studio visit, and an industry mentor. But what it really includes is access to a huge network of people with the same interests as you, chances to meet your favorite people in the industry, and loads of information to get your game industry career off the ground. As a 2007 scholarship recipient, I highly recommend students to take advantage of this opportunity. If you would like more information, you can check out the reports from previous winners or take a look at the article I wrote for IGDA Finland after my GDC visit.

-Liz Lehtonen, Chapter Coordinator

November Gathering - Tuesday 13th

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Greetings! It's that funky time of the month again! This time we will be packing the house full again with he help of Recoil Games sponsoring drink tickets and snacks for the first ones to arrive. Recoil Games will be presenting some concept art in the gathering from their upcoming next-gen action-adventure game "Earth No More"! Enough said, see you there! Remember, doors open at 19.00 sharp!

*IGDA FINLAND NOVEMBER GATHERING* Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 13th November, doors open at 19.00

Recoil Games was established a year ago and since then we have come a long way. The development of "Earth No More" - a next-gen original IP action-adventure game - together with 3D Realms Entertainment has proceeded extremely well. We thought this would be a perfect time for us to show our friends in the Finnish games industry what we have been up to. But don't expect to see screenshots; we're not there yet :)

-Miikka Luotio, Chapter Coordinator