Finland to be the first chapter of International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to formalize outside North America

IGDA Finland is proud to be the first IGDA chapter outside North America to formalize as a legal entity. IGDA Finland has registered as an association under the Finnish law and its relationship with main IGDA in United States will be governed by a contract signed in September 2012 between the parties. How to become a member or renew your membership? Here! Here!

IGDA Finland will remain an official part of the international IGDA family and members of IGDA Finland will enjoy the full membership benefits. This new arrangement enables IGDA Finland to better serve the interests of the local IGDA members in Finland. This also means that more of the membership fees can be directed to better cater local needs.

As the first actions, IGDA Finland will start expanding its service offering beyond Helsinki. IGDA Finland wants to provide support to game developers across Finland. The first step is to build a network of IGDA Finland Student Club initiatives across the region.

“IGDA Finland wants to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices, help new talent to get into the local industry as well as attract foreign talent to Finland. With Student Clubs we are able to drive regional development, support local game development hubs across Finland and promote entrepreneurship”, states Sonja Ängeslevä, the first Chair of the IGDA Finland association.

IGDA Finland ry works closely together with Pelikehittäjät ry (Finnish Game developer Companies association) and Neogames Finland ry, to form Finnish Game Cluster which aims to help the Finnish game development business to develop and grow. The cluster aims to push Finnish game industry to it's present state to be even greater economical value. Finnnish games industry aims to be billion € industry by 2020.

For more information on IGDA Finland and details on how to become a member, please visit http://www.igda.fi.

Contact: IGDA Finland ry Chair: Sonja Ängeslevä Sonja.Angesleva@igda.fi Tel. +358 400 759 817

IGDA Finland ry is a legally registered association under the Finnish law. The mission of IGDA Finland is to promote the development of careers and professional skills of individual game developers (and individuals of related industries) based in Finland, and to further develop the international recognition of the Finnish game developer community.

International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is the largest non-profit membership organization serving individuals who create video games. IGDA advances the careers and enhances the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community. These core activities advance games as a medium—and game development as a profession.

Angels Game – Connecting games and business 13.11.2012

Tekes Skene-program & Finnvera Venture Capital proudly presents: Angels Game matchmaking event. It brings game companies and business angels to the same table.

How to be part of it: 1. Fill out a form at the Finnvera site by 31th October 2. Angels Game jury will go through the applications on 5th and 6th November 3. Selected game companies will be notified on 7th November 4. Companies will be provided some pitching coaching (date TBD)

The Angels Game event will be on 13th November at Finnvera, Eteläesplanadi 8, Helsinki.

IGDA Finland proudly presents: ARTtech seminar at Assembly 2012

As a summer job, UGDA Finland team put together ARTtech seminar for Assembly 2012! :) This year IGDA Finland put together the ARTtech seminar @ Assembly2012! The theme is "Tinkering" of games and electronics and you'll have a chance to hear on playful prototyping by Tuomo Tammenpää (Fri 3rd August, 12AM), why Theory Interactive build an entire engine instead of a indie game (Fri 3rd Aug 7PM) and how MiniVegas team uses game engines and C++ frameworks with traditional CG animation (Sat, 4th August 1PM). You'll also learn about 3D printing, building a arcade cabinet, Unity4, Adobe tools and so on.

Full program Thursday - Saturday - bring your sleeping bag with you! We have some presentations not to be missed :)!

Game industry events on mobile gaming & game metrics!

Check out these game industry happenings in Tampere and Lappeenranta!_______________________________________________________________ GAME METRICS EVENT IN TAMPERE, MARCH 20TH

Sign up to the event! FREE bus from Helsinki and back, sign up to the bus! Cancelled. The schedule for High Score TechTalk: 18:00 – Doors open 18:15 – 19:00 Joakim Achrén, Game Design through Key Metrics 19:15 – 20:00 Jouni Mannonen, Bike Baron Post Mortem 20:00 –> Jack the Rooster 22:00 Bus back to Helsinki

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POCKET GAMER MOBILE MIXER IN TAMPERE, MARCH 26TH Sign up! March 26th in New Factory starting at 5pm. Think. Drink. Connect. Welcome to the very first ever Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer in Finland. Created in association with Manse Games and Support from Papaya Mobile and Rovio, the event offers a vibrant mix of industry insight, heated debate and the chance to knock back some complimentary beers with the cream of the Finnish games industry.

The main event Battle Panel: Casual VS Core; Which makes the best social game? Also on the agenda:

• Introduction to Mobile social gaming from Papaya Mobile (Oscar Clark)
• Rovio reveal the latest on the Angry Bird's Space Program (Ville Heijari)
• The latest figures from the analytics expert at Flurry (Richard Firminger)
• Symbio ask develop for Windos Phone? Vision + gives short glance of their new; revenue share based investment model without dilution

Sign Up at: http://pocketgamertampere.eventbrite.com/ The event kicks off at New Factory from 5:00pm at New Factory (Väinö Linnan Aukio 15, third floor) and continues behind the corner at 7pm at Jack The Roosters (Satakunnankatu 13).

Applifier and Audiodraft are sponsoring the bus transportation from Helsinki to Tampere and back to Helsinki. The bus leaves from Helsinki next to Kiasma at 3pm. Sign up for the bus.

This event is sponsored by; Rovio, Nokia, Visio+, Symbio, Audiodraft, Applifier, Img Systems _______________________________________________________________

SKINNARILA GAME SUMMIT IN LAPPEENRANTA APRIL 18TH A game industry event and seminar series will launch 18.04.2012 at Lappeenranta! In the first seminar of the series, name of the game is: "Combining passion, learning and business in mobile game development: How to start your business in super-fierce industry and still be able to gather butter on top of your bread?". During this first seminar, our objective is to gather viewpoints from industry professionals and the audience on how they have approached the challenges faced by start-up in mobile gaming industry. Detailed topics include, but are not limited to: agile learning, gaining visibility and mixing game design and monetization. Speakers and registration dates of seminar will be published during March 2012.

Ahjo mingle on 15th March for women in games

Finnish game industry is on the threshold of hyper growth. Mentor network for women interested in game industry positions arranges Ahjo mingle on 15th March, from 6-8PM. Tia Mäki from boutique sized law firm Aldea will give a talk followed by comment from Supercell. After the talks we'll chat about open positions in games, what's needed for various positions, what's the atmosphere in game studios, what about compensations etc. After the talks it is time to mingle and network! Welcome ladies! Game industry needs you!

Event in Finnish / English.

More info / Register (ladies only): http://ahjomingle.eventbrite.com/