Reminder: Last chance for Games First after party access!

If you still haven't joined IGDA Finland ry and want to join us for May Gathering and Games First 2015 after party on Tuesday, today is your last chance to register as a member! Join before midnight today (May 10, 2015, 23:59 EEST) and your access is ensured. Registrations any later than the deadline are not guaranteed to make it to the name list, so to make sure your entry to the event is hassle-free we recommend becoming a member sooner rather than later. See you on Tuesday!

IGDA Finland May Gathering & Games First After Party hosted by Supercell

Oh my, it’s once again the time for one fabulous night in Helsinki with IGDA. This time the gathering is merged with the Games First After Party at Kaapelitehdas hosted by Supercell.

Because this is obviously one of the most popular industry events of the year and we expect a massive amount of visitors, the gathering is only open for IGDA members and Games First guests this time. This is our way of giving a special thank-you treat to our members for your support, so remember to take your IGDA membership cards with you and show them at the door.

Don't forget that studio affiliate members are included in this invite as well! Moreover, if you are a member and haven't received your membership card yet (or join before the event!), there will be a name list at the door to make sure you won't get left out.

Welcome to Merikaapelihalli, see you there next week!

IGDA Finland May Gathering Time: 12.5.2015 at 19:00 Location: Kaapelitehdas, Merikaapelihalli, Door M1, Tammasaarenlaituri 5, Helsinki, Finland

IGDA Finland April Seminar and Gathering, sponsored by Google

googleseminar

The spring has finally arrived to this northern city far, far away. The hot Finnish gaming industry threw away its padded winter clothing and gathered at El Jefe again in April. This time we had a seminar before the monthly gathering event, and guess what… the seminar tickets were actually sold out. The seminar Evolving into the Future was sponsored by Google.

We had three very talented speakers: Noah Falstein, Robert Nyman and Mandy Waite.

Noah Falstein is the chief game designer at Google and a true veteran in the game industry. Falstein spoke about the transmogrified reality, meaning the amazing possibilities that the recent technological developments raise, such as the magical opportunities with virtual reality. Falstein also gave a surfing lesson to the Finnish audience, just like he had promised.

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After Falstein the stage was occupied by Robert Nyman, who talked about the tools and options that Google offers for game developers. In his presentation Level up your game with Google Nyman presented interesting numbers about business drivers, retention and player progression. The presentation slides can be found here.

Next there was Mandy Waite from Google Cloud Platform’s team. She talked about Firebase, which is a solution that helps developers focus on the applications rather than backend programming and servers.

After the seminar the doors were opened to the monthly gathering. We had once again over 200 game industry people at El Jefe.

Thanks to our sponsor Google!

Thank you El Jefe!

Keep on rocking everyone and see you again at May!

IGDA Finland Oulu hub: Polar Bear Pitching – pre party!

People attended:170Sponsors: Fingersoft, IBM, LudoCraft, PAVA Ry. Place: Gloria Nightclub Time: 24.2.2015 klo 20:00-01:00 (Afterparty @ Fingersoft jacuzzi)

IGDA Finland Oulu hub combined their forces with Oulu Pitch fest to warm up the people heading for the icy waters. This turned out to be the biggest event by Oulu hub so far with 170 people. We had a lively demo corner, snacks and drinks. We even had a polar bear visiting us!

Demo Corner presented: Icesolation (Oulu Gamelab), Gerty, Gobblin’ Goblinz (Frozen Vision), Happy Circus racing ( Meizi Games),  End State (Henry Vuontisjärvi), Fast and Futurous (Viima games), 5 seconds to kill, Disposables (Teemu Väisänen & Jonne Väisänen), Renegade Rockets (Naapukka productions)

Related links

Fingersoft (http://www.fingersoft.net/)
IBM (http://www.ibm.com/fi/fi/)
Ludocraft (http://www.ludocraft.com/)
PAVA Ry. (http://www.pava.fi/)
Polar Bear Pitch (http://www.pitchfestoulu.com/polarbear/)

Kajaani Industry Beer, now also an IGDA Finland Hub!

Industry Beer gathering had been active for two years until last February we got the title of IGDA Finland Kajaani Hub! We are really excited to have Kajaani as one of the hubs of IGDA Finland.

Game scene has been active in Kajaani since 2007, when Kajaani University of Applied Sciences started Finland’s first professional game industry degrees. Our community has been growing and working together since the beginning.

Industry Beer started in 2011 as a local game industry gathering, where people could catch up and discuss their ideas. First there were less than 10 people and the event was organized irregularly, but others showed interest and the gathering exploded. Past two years the event has been a monthly event open for everyone interested.

Starting left, Lauri Komulainen, Mikko Romppainen, Janne Remes, Jermu Joki and Aku Mähönen at Rock House Kulma

Our organizers are actively putting Kajaani scene on the map, it is important for us that the young talent that starts in the small city like Kajaani, gets discovered when the time is right.

Visions of the theme presented by Ilkka Leino from Supercell.

Visions of the theme presented by Ilkka Leino from Supercell

Ilkka talked us about how their teams are self-guided at Supercell and how important it is to have someone holding the vision of the product. He also studied in Kajaani among us and it has been great to follow a young man moving forward on his career.

We had 100 visitors at the event which is a local record, and according to official statistics 40 of them became IGDA Finland members on the site. This clearly shows how active our local developers are, and if you would like to meet them come and visit us.

Contact one of the organizers below to plan your visit to Kajaani.

IGDA Finland Kajaani Hub Facebook Group
Linkedin Aku Mähönen
LinkedIn Janne Remes
LinkedIn Lauri Komulainen
LinkedIn Mikko Romppainen