November Gathering: Tuesday 11th

Would you like to know what Insomniac has learned from Ratchet & Clank or Resistance: Fall of Man on game usability and interaction design? How to test mobile and online game community MoiPal? What are the best usability and interaction design practices at Sulake?

Welcome to IGDA Finland Presentation session organized in association with SIGCHI, Remedy Games and Sulake! This time the theme is game interaction design and usability.

We have a mind blowing lineup of speakers:

Ryan Schneider (Insomniac) Ryan works as Community Director at Insomniac. Insomniac is famous for Ratchet & Clank series and Resistance: Fall of Man which was one of the PS3 launch titles.

Joakim Achren (IronStarHelsinki) Joakim is the CEO of IronStarHelsinki. Ironstar Helsinki is the first company in the world to have successfully launched a cross-platform game that allows branded virtual goods in both online and mobile environments.

Inka Vikman (Sulake) Inka works as Concept Designer at Sulake. Sulake is an online entertainment company focused on virtual worlds and social networking. They run popular online community service Habbo in 32 countries.

Olli Sinermä (Heavy Metal Helsinki / Pelit magazine) Olli works as lead designer and game analyst. He will talk about usability from game reviewer's viewpoint.

After the presentations we will have open microphone session where YOU can give quick presentations (max 5 minutes) on your usability challenges or solutions! If you would like to have you 15 seconds of fame: let us know by 6th November. E-mail: Sonja.Kangas@igda.fi

NOTE: This time pre-registration to the IGDA Finland Presentations session is mandatory. Please register at: http://igda.fi/?page_id=16 The IGDA gathering aka after party is at Cuba cafe!

* IGDA FINLAND PRESENTATION * Place: Valkoinen sali, Aleksanterinkatu 16-18, follow the IGDA signs Date: Tuesday 11th November Starts: 16.00 Ends: 19.00 — the chat will continue at Cuba cafe!

* IGDA FINLAND AUGUST GATHERING & AFTER PARTY * Place: Cuba Cafe, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 11th November, doors open at 19.00

October Gathering: housewarming party with lappish flavor

[singlepic=297,320,240,,center] IGDA Finland Gatherings moved to Cuba café and in October it was the time for housewarming party. With 185 visitors out of which 37 were newcomers the house surely was hot – packed full! Cuba staff didn’t quite get the idea of IGDA at first. They were expecting just a couple of geeks playing video games at the back and were surprised when people start floating in. Recoil, Rovio, Sumea, Sulake, Bugbear, Everyplay and Remedy were all present amongst others.

Move from the heavy metal basement of System Rock to more colorful, cheerful and cosy Cuba café was apparently well accepted. The housewarming party was sponsored by Lapland Studio which is a post-production house and game company in one. They showed an impressive show reel and talked a bit about their services. In a nutshell Lapland Studio is interested in collaboration with game companies who need high class concept art, 3D animations and motion capture. If you missed the presentation, Lapland Studio has a new web site with lots of examples of their current work.

Besides chatting about Lapland Studio, people were eagerly expecting Max Payne movie to hit the theatres. There were rumors that brand new Alan Wake trailer will be showing before the movie but only during the opening weekend? Check out by yourself if that is true! Good discussion and excellent mojitos kept the house full until the closing signal. Luckily there are several after party places nearby such as Rymy-Eetu, Ahjo or Erottaja. We had a blast! The next gathering is on 11th November – see you then!

September Gathering: Farewell System Rock

[singlepic=337,120,90,,right] Media has been full of news about global economical recession. Unfortunately game industry is not free of its impact even though the editor in chief of Pelit-lehti said that the economic slump is always good for the game industry because people tend to stick indoors playing games during the insecure times instead of spending their money elsewhere ;)

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Luckily the worries didn't show in attendance to the September IGDA Gathering which attracted nearly 100 visitors. The casual chat went from challenges in the gaming industry and global economics to funding, networking and interesting game releases. For example Little Big Planet is around the corner. Also Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was one of the releases people were eagerly waiting for. There are number of things happening in Finland as well but we have still some way to go until large domestic productions such a Alan Wake will be finalized.

Thank you all who joined the Gathering in September and be sure to join the party again on 7th October. October Gathering will be the "housewarming party" at Cuba bar sponsored by Lapland Studio.

IGDA together with its partners has also been planning exciting program for November and December Gatherings. Mark the coming Gatherings to your calendar and follow the IGDA forum and web site to keep track with the news.

October Gathering - Tuesday 7th

¡BIENVENIDO A CUBA! IGDA Finland goes to Cuba on 7th October. System Rock will soon be closed due to the Makkaratalo renovation. But no worries, from now on IGDA gatherings will be held at Cuba Café at Erottaja. Its going to be a lot of arriba! arriba! and couple of mojitos, por favor!

The Cuba housewarming party will have special program as well as sponsored drinks by Lapland Studio.

Remember to put next IGDA Gathering to your calendar and join us for the fiesta!

*IGDA FINLAND OCTOBER GATHERING* Time: Tuesday 7th October, doors open at 19.00 Place: Cuba Café, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map)

Housemarque's Multiplayer Madness gave a kick start to IGDA fall season 2008

IGDA fall season 2008 got a kick start last Tuesday when Housemarque brought out the fruits of their labor. Housemarque released Golf: Tee it up! and SuperStardust HD Team Expansion in June. SSD HD is one of top ranked best-sellers at PSN and team expansion truly was something people were really in for.

Housemarque also introduced drink ticket mingle. IGDA visitors got two basic drink tickets and one cocktail ticket. With two types of drink tickets the idea was to encourage people to trade their tickets and chat with new people. Drink ticket mingle was a solid success and will be carried out in the future as well!

There was a constant flow of people throughout the night. The total number of visitors went up to 174. Even if the total number wasn't IGDA Finland's record the number of first timers certainly was impressive – there were 45 new visitors! Housemarque Multiplayer Madness was just a start. IGDA fall season 2008 will be full of novelties and interesting action. Check out igda.fi for news!

Housemarque would also like to thank you all for joining the party:

"Many thanks for all of you attending "Multiplayer Madness" evening on behalf of Housemarque. If you didn't attend, we are sorry we didn't notice that at all as we were all so busy having fun! Our first sponsored IGDA evening turned out to be a great success and people enjoyed playing round after round of our multiplayer games - "Super Stardust HD" and "Golf: Tee it Up!". The introduction of "happy-hour booze" drink tickets seemed to elevate the feeling even further.

As a company, we continue on developing new and exciting downloadable console games. We are in the process of adding new team members in the near future. If you think you are up to the task of working with some of the best developers in this industry and would like to create some of the coolest games on this planet, do let us know. Whether it's reinvigorating some of the most beloved genres, thinking of a new kind of puzzle game or creating head exploding action, we are on our way to do this and much, much more!

Best, Ilari - CEO of Housemarque"

Last but not least: IGDA would like to give special thanks to Samsung for smooth collaboration! Samsung screens were well on display together with the games.