IGDA Finland June Gathering with Rovio!

Hey, everyone!

The IGDA Finland summer party is just around the corner so mark this date on your calendars and join us in this season's final gathering! This time we're organizing the party together with Rovio and they will offer us some free cold drinks in this heat! Come and find out what else they have for us!

Also it's been a wonderful year and thank you to everyone for being so active! After the June Gathering it's time to wish you happy holidays and we'll see you again in Fall 2012!

IGDA Finland June Gathering Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5)

IGDA Finland Presentations & Gathering: from the very start to exit

IGDA Finland May Gathering focused on the typical legal issues game companies have to deal with from the very start to exit. The evening was kicked off by a panel discussion led by Timo Skurnik from Aldea Attorneys at Law. Aldea is a Helsinki based law firm specialized in commercial law, which has been advicing Finnish game companies for over a decade and has a firm understanding on the business and the legal issues corporated therein. Together with Timo, Janne Snellman from Supercell, Markus Pasula from Grand Cru and Ville Vesterinen from Grey Area were sharing their experiences on various topics from founding a company to making contracts, setting up responsibilities and distributing shares to keep the company in a good shape for exit.

The Panelists shared their own experiences regarding the legal aspects associated with setting up, operating, funding and exiting a games company. Panel discussion was very practical and the audience took part in the conversation actively. After the panel it was time to head to Cuba bar for some drinks by Aldea, discuss and network with other professionals.

I personally felt the IGDA Finland Presentations session was one of the best ever. Yet for some reason there were empty seats. For those who missed the session for a reason or another, here's a video clip to give you some idea what was discussed at the panel.

IGDA Finland Gathering was as crowded as usual. This time we had nearly 150 people at the Cuba bar. It was perfect, there were enough room to move around and have discussions with people but still very good atmosphere and industry buzz going on. Finnish game development scene surely is hot at the moment and it was clear that when you do your legal stuff right from the start, your life will be a lot smoother when your game studio grows and blooms.

IGDA Finland May Gathering: Legal issues for game companies

On May 8th IGDA Finland & Aldea presents: "What every new company should know about juridical issues" On 8th of May IGDA Finland together with law firm Aldea will serve some quality networking, good wibes & industry insights about the key issues what every game company should understand about IPR issues and agreements. The discussion will be led by Timo Skurnik from Aldea. Timo is accompanied by Janne Snellman (Supercell), Markus Pasula (Grand Cru) and Ville Vesterinen (Grey Area). The discussion will go around lessons learned and key points to consider about business law for existing, fresh and upcoming game companies.

Please do register to the IGDA Finland Presentation (no need to print the tickets).

IGDA Finland Presentations is arranged in association with Sulake. The presentation will take place at the Diana Auditorio just a stone throw from Cuba. We'll continue the evening at Cuba bar after the presentations. Aldea will serve drinks together with a perfect opportunity for current and future game industry talents to network and learn from others. IGDA Finland Gathering starts at 7PM. We'd like to welcome everyone to join the party!

IGDA Finland May Presentations - Starting a game company - legal viewpoint Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 5-7PM Diana Auditorio, Erottaja 5, Helsinki Finland Registration required: Eventbrite

IGDA Finland May Gathering Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) No registration needed to the Cuba bar

WildChords at IGDA Finland April Gathering

Bring out your guitars! For many people it was just another Tuesday night in Helsinki, but game lovers know better. Old and new friends alike found their way to Bar Cuba to converse, relax, and participate in sudden brainstorms.

After most of the visitors had settled in the stage was claimed by Ovelin, the melodious sponsor of the evening. Cristoph Thür, co-founder and CEO of Ovelin, was so kind as to entertain us with a few words and a demonstration of their acclaimed iPad game WildChords. The innovation of WildChords is to learn to play the guitar the fun way through gameplay objectives. Be afraid, Guitar Hero.

Ovelin donated visitors a few drinks and a guitar pick, and one especially cozy corner of Cuba was reserved for those who wanted to try the game for themselves. Evening was not short of wildlife as Ovelin´s exotic mascot Carsten the Crocodile was also present, ready to pose for the multitude of cameras.

We had 140 human visitors and one crocodile. Maybe in the next IGDA gathering we will hear live guitar music from one of you? Thank you to everyone and see you in May!

  Photos by Stuart McQuade

Gangs of Boomtown at IGDA Finland March Gathering

Drawing by Jussi Simpanen

Howdy partners!

Another successful IGDA gathering brought Wild West to the heart of icy Helsinki! Evening's Western theme had inspired many outstanding costumes ranging from sheriffs to bandits. We were thrilled to see that so many of you had succumbed to our whimsy and dressed up for the occasion!

The evening was action packed. Digital Chocolate offered a few rounds of drinks and gave out Gangs of Boomtown soundtrack CDs. Head of Digital Chocolate Helsinki Studio, Kaj Häggman and Gangs of Boomtown Producer Miika Tams talked about the production of the game and shared some latest news from Digital Chocolate office in Ruoholahti. We also had a video link to Punit Soni from Google+ who is managing Games and Mobile products at Google. He greeted IGDA Finland crowd and the whole Finnish game industry all away from San Francisco, US.

Gangs of Boomtown was released as promised, and when you combine that with great conversation and live country music it comes as no surprise that the event attracted a crowd of 216 game enthusiasts.

A big thank you to Digital Chocolate for sponsoring the evening, and an equally sized thank you to all who participated. See you next time!

More photos: March Gathering 2012