Finnish Games Association joins ISFE

http://www.figma.fi/

http://www.isfe-eu.org/

Europe's Interactive Software Federation announced that the Finnish Games and Multimedia Association is the 26th member to join the ISFE.

FIGMA counts eleven members in its association, all of them big software companies operating on the Finnish market," said Patrice Chazerand, secretary general of the ISFE.

Its presence in the ISFE strengthens the industry's voice in Europe. It will help us do several things: push on with our mission to secure effective legislation for the protection of intellectual property rights, achieve adequate enforcement of the legislation and win unrestricted market access both on and off line.

I am delighted to announce that with the arrival of the Finns virtually the entire Nordic block is now on board."

ISFE membership will bring my member companies more scope to get their voices heard by the legislators in areas such as intellectual property, e-commerce, the fight against piracy, WTO negotiations, protection of minors and the environment," said FIGMA's Managing Director, Riku Olkkonen.

The members of FIGMA include AMO/Nintendo, Atari, Electronic Arts, K.E. Media, Microsoft/Xbox, Nokia, Nordisk Film/PlayStation, Plan 1, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Toptronics/PAN Vision, and Vivendi Games.

The ISFE was established in 1998 and represents the interests of the interactive software sector throughout the 27 EU Member States plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has been running the Pan-European Game Information ratings system since 2003.

XNA Game Studio European Tour 2007 liveblogging

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14:30 Dave

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* Dave explains the common things/tips to notice when starting a studio or just trying to get into game industry to make games * Dave moves on explaining goals of XNA * XNA goals as follows; Make it easier, Establish a vibrant community, low friction publishing channel for community games * XNA wants to establish itself as a tool to democratize game development * 700,000 downloads of toolset now, Adopted by more than 300 universities worldwide, More than 400 games (XNA Express 1.0) * Dave explains XNA as a robust educational platform & shows an example project (Aliens) that works from desktop computer using 360 controller * Dave explains XNA creators club, starter kit. Example games given with this kit, of all major genres. Shows off template functionality of XNA 2.0 briefly & shows off a template example project that users can dissect and modify freely. He continues showing a just compiled game deployed to 360 console. Looks and works exactly the same way in PC and 360.

15:00 Dave * Dave continues to explain minigames and samples provided in starter kit. Variety seems endless here. He shows off how to investigate components of the game in real-time, like a chase-camera and prototype how it works. * Dave shows off a visual game-like programming app called Boku that was made by Microsoft research, aimed towards kids. Apparently made with XNA, Boku allows you basically to create small games & interaction via a very simple programming interface. Microsoft wanted to use XNA to have fast iteration in the project. * Dave shows off Schizoid as an example. * He shows off examples from an XNA Dream.Build.Play competition, no Finland in competition apparently. Many of them games were done by one person or just a very small team. A lot of student projects also. * Dave said they will be doing the Dream.Build.Play again on December 08. * Dave showed off a Swedish made game Ragu, again wondering where is Finland. Ragu was one of the games in Dream.Build.Play competition. * Dave mentions about Imagine Cup 2008, a game development contest lobbying students to join since it's only for students. Game development is a new category in Imagine Cup 2008. * X360 XNA development will be free for students in near future apparently also and not only faculty members. * Dave thanks the university and wraps up * Jyri Ranki prepares his presentation > The presentation will be show with video and published to internet later on

15:30 Jyri

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* Jyri explains his experience and agenda & the company he comes from * Jyri briefly goes trough an overview of Finnish game industry companies & famous games made in Finland. * Jyri moves into explaining about IGDA Finland. * He explains a basic cut-through of a basic console game development cycle & a sample org.chart with explaining roles in more detail. * Jyri talks on how to get into the industry and what is required to get in the industry.

16.00 Charles Cox

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* Game in 60 minutes example

17:20 Break

17:45 Charles

* Charles goes more indepth with XNA 2.0 features * Button press deployment to XBOX360, builds and transfers it. * Allows you to use older "any" version of visual studio * Button press WINDOWS/XBOX live support * On Windows and XBOX you can store profiles (use it to save game and use other similar features) * Get the beta at creators.xna.com today! Final version avail. very soon!

* It's a wrap!

December gathering - Tuesday 11th

This years last IGDA Gathering is at hand!It's XMAS party time, IGDA Finland style!

This time AMD is sponsoring free drink tickets for everyone. Microsoft is also sponsoring a couple demostations with possibility to play games like Project Gotham Racing 4 & Guita Hero 3. With both of the games there will be some competitions going on!!

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

Enough said, don't be a naughty elf, be a good one and come to party with us!

November Gathering - Recoil Games pulled a full house, again!

Despite the icy and windy weather, 243 brave game industry professionals made it to the System Rock on 13th November. 243! Thanks to everyone who attended - we clearly beat the previous record of 210 attendees set in November 2006 (which by the way was also a Recoil-sponsored event). dsc01499-1.jpgdsc01518-7.jpgdsc01544-11.jpg

Finnish game development scene was well represented from Recoil, Bugbear and Sumea to RedLynx, Ironstar Helsinki and others. Also several IT-professional joined the party to marvel at active discussion amongst game developers. IGDA Finland was happy to welcome 48 newcomers to the party as well as people all the way from Spain, Digital Chocolate's game studio Microjocs and a bit closer to home, from Tampere TTVO!

Click here to view rest of the photos taken in this event

November Gathering was sponsored by Recoil Games. People enjoyed never-before-seeing Earth No More concept art while having sponsored beers and snacks. According to Recoil Games the game is supposed to “fuse together genre-pushing emotional drama and a disaster setting with global ramifications”. The game is being developed for several platforms and will be out in 2009. Despite the huge crowd, IGDA volunteers did a great job and ensured a super-smooth night!

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Naturally most of the discussion dwelled around Recoil and Earth No More. In addition, Northern Game Conference held a week earlier in Oulu was commented. Common opinion seemed to be that the presentations were good but hiking and drinking at the dark snowy forest was an experience for many. Renewed Igda.fi got good feedback, too. We urge you all to continue the igda.fi website related discussion at the Forum. All of your comments are highly valued!

We hope to see you all again at the Little Christmas party on December 11th!

-Sonja Kangas