IGDA Finland Receives MVP Award '07

/

IGDA honors one of it's most active & succesful chapters during GDC 2007. Pictured: Liz Lehtonen, Lasse Seppänen & Jyri Ranki only moments after receiving the award

IGDA holds a VIP Luncheon every year at GDC. At the luncheon, IGDA recognises outstanding contributions to the betterment of the game development community by giving out MVP awards. The term MVP comes from a well known sports term Most Valuable Player. This year, IGDA Finland had the honor of being one of 3 recipients!

The MVP award has my name written on it, but IGDA Executive Director Jason Della Rocca asked me to convey to all of you that it really is to all those who volunteer their time and energy for the IGDA Finland chapter.

And I couldn't agree more! Without all the volunteers, my fellow coordinators and advisory board members, we wouldn't have such a successful chapter. So thank you all for your great work! It has been recognized on a global scale (see about us for full listing of people behind the chapter).

I also want to thank all of our c.200 members and the hundreds of others who regularly attend our gatherings. Without you, there would be no reason to have them. Your presence is what makes them valuable.

I will be bringing the award to the next gathering for all of you to see.

Go Finland!

- Jyri Ranki, Lead Coordinator

Finnish Game Developers Association has been founded

/

The Finnish Game Developers Association/Suomen Pelinkehittäjät ry (English name tentative) has been founded in Pasila, Helsinki on February 5th 2007.The purpose of the association is to provide means for cooperation and progress for Finnish game companies, and act as a representative body for them.

Six members were selected into the board of directors to represent various sectors of game development: PC and console games, mobile games, web games, handheld games and TV-mobile games. Ilari Kuittinen from Housemarque was selected as the chairman of the board, and Neogames' KooPee Hiltunen as the representative of the association.

Companies in the games industry that focus on the creation of digital games will be able to join once the registration of the association is complete.

The creation of this type of association is warranted by the strong growth of the game development field and it becoming one of the leading creative industries. The FGDA will be working closely together with other games industry organizations. The FGDA is unambiguously the representative body for game development companies.

More information concerning the operation of the FGDA will be provided during the spring.

Additional information from: KooPee Hiltunen koopee@neogames.fi

-Miikka Luotio

December gathering appears in nintendo.fi

/

One of our December sponsors Amo Oy (Nintendo) decided to put IGDA Finland gathering in the news of nintendo.fi site. Last time we were mentioned in nintendo.fi was when we showed off some DS Lite action in our gathering.This time it was the Wii that broke the news barrier. We also broke the news barrier with December gathering in igda.org frontpage!

nintendo.fi article: http://www.nintendo.fi/?file=424

Jackpot for Finnish Developers in IGN Best of 2006 Awards!

/

This year Finnish developers have really hit a homerun on IGN Best of 2006 Awards. Finnish developed games gathered an impressive 9 wins across all categories on all platforms. In addition, Finnish developed games managed to gather another 8 mentions as Runner-Ups for a total of 17 nominations! Digital Chocolate also won the Best Developer in Wireless - in no small part thanks to Sumea, I'm sure. With the overall category winners still to be announced, I have a feeling there might still be more to come at least on the Wireless platform (Wireless Game of the Year?) ...

Congratulations to all winners: Sumea, Bugbear, Rovio & Universomo!

Here are the stats: (unofficial compilation - my apologies for any possible mistakes!)

* By Game (Nominations : category wins / Runner-Up positions) *

5 : 2 / 3 - Tornado Mania (Sumea) 4 : 2 / 2 - Flatout 2 (Bugbear) 2 : 2 / 0 - Nightclub Empire (Sumea) 2 : 1 / 1 - Mafia Wars Yakuza (Sumea) 1 : 1 / 0 - Mini Golf Magic (Sumea) 1 : 1 / 0 - Rollercoaster Rush (Sumea/Universomo) 1 : 0 / 1 - Beach Ping Pong (Sumea) 1 : 0 / 1 - Darkest Fear (Rovio) 17 : 9 / 8 - TOTAL

* By Company (Nominations : category wins / Runner-Up positions) *

12 : 7 / 5 - Sumea ( + Developer of the Year) 4 : 2 / 2 - Bugbear 1 : 1 / 0 - Universomo 1 : 0 / 1 - Rovio 18 : 10 / 8 - TOTAL (*1)

*1: Rollercoaster Rush has been awarded to both Sumea & Universomo in this one, that's why numbers are bigger when calculated per company. *2: 1 more Digital Chocolate game made it to Runner-Up, but it was not developed in Finland, so I didn't count that in.

- Jyri Ranki, Lead Coordinator