December gathering - Tuesday 11th

This years last IGDA Gathering is at hand!It's XMAS party time, IGDA Finland style!

This time AMD is sponsoring free drink tickets for everyone. Microsoft is also sponsoring a couple demostations with possibility to play games like Project Gotham Racing 4 & Guita Hero 3. With both of the games there will be some competitions going on!!

*IGDA FINLAND DECEMBER GATHERING* Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 11th December, doors open at 19.00

Enough said, don't be a naughty elf, be a good one and come to party with us!

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

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

November Gathering - Tuesday 13th

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

October Gathering Turned Into a Relaxed Evening With Boardgames

The cold fall weather took it's toll on Octobers IGDA gathering attendance. Even with industry representatives from Tampere, the attendance rose to 99, just shy of a hundred. B 'n W love

Photos from Gathering - Small photos - Large photos

Most notable at the gathering were the new decorations on the wall. System Rock had gone through a small facelift, which was well received by attendees. While attendance was lower than usual, those who showed up had the rare luxury of free tables. This luxury was quickly exploited and various boardgame sessions sprung up around the room, amongst them Munchin and Scrabble. A person with a brand-new iPhone got a lot of new friends as everyone wanted to try the device out.

Overall, evening was held in very relaxed atmosphere and the extra space and less background noise meant there were more meaningful discussions and mingling among the crowd was than on the more populated gatherings.

Mats Diktonius - Chapter Coordinator

October Gathering - Tuesday 9th

That special time of the month is approaching again! It's IGDA Gatheringtime. This time it's back to the basics, regular gathering chitchat and no distractions! So come and exchange your opinions and comments about latest games like Halo 3 and industry news with your co-workers and other colleagues. Or just drop by for a relaxing drink or two.

*IGDA FINLAND OCTOBER GATHERING* Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 9th October, doors open at 19.00