September Gathering & Presentation - Tuesday 11th

Greetings! It's time for IGDA Gathering yet again! The fall is settling in and weather is getting colder, but worry not IGDA Gatherings is here to bring light in your fall! The same usual premise, except this time we are starting the IGDA Finland Presentation Series!

* IGDA FINLAND PRESENTATION * Place: Pääposti Auditorium (Postikuja, C), follow the IGDA signs Date: Tuesday 11th September Starts: 17.30 Ends: 19.00 -- the chat will continue at the System Rock!

* IGDA FINLAND AUGUST GATHERING * Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 11th September, doors open at 19.00

The first ever IGDA Finland Presentations (sponsored by Remedy) session will focus on money. We will give you tips how to get a share of 300 000 €'s for your game! You'll also learn how the others have done it.

Erik Robertson from Nordic Game Programs will give you last minute hints how to get funds from the Nordic Game Program and beat the rest of applicants from other Nordic countries!

The second speaker is Ilari Kuittinen from Housemarque. He will talk about their experiences and future visions of downloadable console titles. The last presentation of the evening will be held by Timo Vuorensola. Rautataivas crew would like to share their thoughts about Rautataivas game and find out possibilities for cooperation!

The IGDA Finland Presentations will be held in Pääposti Auditorium just 5 minutes away from System Rock.

NOTE: The IGDA Finland presentations are an addition to the gathering and is not in any way mandatory in relation to IGDA Finland Gatherings.

Cya there!

Best, Miikka Luotio & Sonja Kangas IGDA Finland Coordinators

2007-2008 Season Started With A Bang - 125 Showed Up

After the relaxing summer break well-tanned game developers were full of eagerness at the IGDA August Gathering in System Rock on 28th August. This time 125 attendees joined the party. Digital Chocolate and Bugbear were especially well represented! Also professionals from Remedy, Red Lynx and Recoil were there. It was cool to see students from Tampere joining the party as well! I hope they will turn IGDA trips into tradition and act as an example to people from other cities as well. This is IGDA Finland after all!

This time a survey was put out regarding “IGDA Finland Presentations” series which is due to start in September. Thank you all who filled the survey! It’s highly appreciated!

We will arrange two IGDA Finland Presentations sessions this fall. We are doing these activities for you so it is really up to you whether the sessions will continue or not. We’ll get the lessons learned from the survey as well as from the first session within a few weeks! I personally hope people would see IGDA Finland Presentations as a golden opportunity to benefit the community as well as learn from the other professionals.

Note: Due a technical issue with the IGDA camera, we have only 2 cameraphone quality photos of the event. Apologies.

- Sonja Kangas

Chapter Coordinator

New coordinator and webmaster!

Greetings everyone! It is my pleasure to announce that IGDA Finland has gained two new members in their ranks! Sonja Kangas and Teemu Haila!

-Miikka Luotio

New webmaster - Teemu Haila:

Teemu Haila is a finnish student soon starting his second year in TPU (Tampere Polytechnic University). Teemu's major is interactive design, which basically includes a little bit of every aspect of creating interactive media, from graphics to script writing. Aside from his studies he likes the occasional doze of drawing, playing drums, taking pictures of the life around, bicycling, chilling out with friends and doing purely nerdy stuff. He is also propably listening to (DRM-less) music while doing any of the previous.

New coordinator - Sonja Kangas:

Sonja (Kangas) is working at the EGET as a game designer. She also does research and process development at her own company SoupLaLa in cooperation with game developers, console manufacturers and media houses. Sonja was asked to join IGDA Finland crew to organize IGDA Finland Presentations because she is one of the most acknowledged game researchers in Finland. She was an editor of first book about digital games written in Finnish (Mariosofia - Elektronisten pelien kulttuuri). She also did an extensive benchmarking study on mobile entertainment comparing Europe with North America and APAC in 2003. IGDA is about having fun and networking but it can also be an opportunity to learn from other professionals of the industry. Sonja sees IGDA as an excellent forum to reinforce the creative power of game developers and improve the industry.

2006-2007 Season Report, part 2: Growth Figures Show 30% Overall Growth

Hi Everyone! The 2006-2007 Season that just ended in June has again been our most successful one ever. IGDA Finland has seen some serious growth in several areas. All statistics have grown a steady one-third since last year.

In this post, we will share some of the impressive statistics of our growth and success this year. So all number nuts and chart buffs, this is for you! :)

First and foremost, our average gathering attendance hit 127.6 attendees/gathering, breaking the 100 mark this season, with a growth of over 30% compared to previous season. Even if we exclude the sponsored events (with the free beer), the average attendance is 109.3 attendees/gathering, still making it above the 100 mark.

The membership has grown this season as well, reaching 208 members at season's end this summer, breaking the 200 mark. Compared to end of last season, that's a growth of 28%.

The reach of our invitation mails has increased on par to other figures. At the end of the season, our invitations reached 705 people, a 31% growth since start of the season.

Here's the stats described above as well as some graphs showing more detailed statistics (click on images to full-sized images):

Average Attendance 2005-2006 Season: 96.4 2006-2007 Season: 127.6 Growth: 32%

Average Attendance w/o Sponsoring 2005-2006 Season: 82.75 2006-2007 Season: 109.33 Growth: 32%

Gathering Attendance - Month by Month

Memberships End of 2005-2006 Season: 162 End of 2006-2007 Season: 208 Growth: 28%

Membership Growth

Size of invitation mailing list 2005-2006 Season: 539 2006-2007 Season: 705 Growth: 31%

Growth of Mailing List

That's it for now, stay tuned for part 3 of the season report...

Jay - Lead Chapter Coordinator

You can read the first part of this three-part report here and the third part is here.

IGDA Finland August Gathering - 28th August 2007

Hello Everyone! It's time for a new season in IGDA Finland chapter! As probably most people already had their summer holidays and the weather is still sunny and hot, System Rock is a great place to catch up on industry happenings and cool yourself with a drink or two.

* IGDA FINLAND AUGUST GATHERING *

Place: System Rock, Keskuskatu 4, 00100 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday 28th August, doors open at 19.00

Miikka - Chapter Coordinator