Sonja at the Women In Games SIG advisory board

IGDA Women in Games (WIG) SIG has a brand new Advisory Board. WIG SIG was formed to create a positive impact on the game industry with respect to gender balance in the workplace and the marketplace. WIG SIG also just lauched GameMentor system to support new talent to join the industry. As a member of the Advisory Board I hope to encourage talented girls to seek for job opportunities in games business. It has a lot to offer! Come to talk to me at the IGDA Gatherings or send an e-mail (name.surname[at]igda.fi) if there is something I can help you with! Here's the line-up of WIG SIG Advisory Board :

• Rayna Anderson, Game Designer, Gameloft – Montreal; Advisory Board, IGDA Montreal
• Phaedra Boinodiris, Product Manager, Serious Games, IBM Software Group; Founder, WomenGamers.Com
• Amber Dalton, PMS Clan Leader
• Torrie Dorrell, SVP, Global Sales & Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment
• Tracy Fullerton, Associate Professor, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Interactive Media Division; Director, Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab
• Megan Gaiser, President & CEO, Her Interactive Inc.
• Susan Gold, Director, Program Review; Chairperson, IGDA Education SIG
• Gano Haine, President, ONAG Consulting
• Michelle Hinn, Instructor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Chair, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG; Co-Chair, IGDA Diversity Committee; Executive Director, AbleGamers.com
• Sonja Kangas, Game Director, GuppyLife MMO at GuppyWorks: IGDA Finland Coordinator; Advisory Board Member, Nordic Game Program
• Dina N. Lewallen, Diversity Specialist, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation
• Jen MacLean, Senior Vice President of Business Development, 38 Studios
• Jane Pinckard, Business Development Analyst at Foundation 9 Entertainment; Founder at GameGirlAdvance
• Sheri (Pocilujko) Rubin, CEO/President of Design, Direct, Deliver, Chair, IGDA Quality Assurance SIG
• Mary Margaret Walker, CEO, Mary-Margaret Network

March '09 Presentation: Dive into indie business

Once again people behind the Finnish game industry gathered to listen to IGDA Finland's Presentations, this time taking place at Diana-auditorio, Helsinki. Followed by the monthly Gathering event at Cuba Cafe, the presentation was held on March 10th and it was organized in association with Remedy Entertainment. The inspiring line-up consisted of Paavo Perttula from Tweehouse, Petri Purho from Kloonigames and Jani Kahrama from Secret Exit.  There were 13 were new visitors in a total of 97 participants, more than filling up every seat! Paavo Perttula presented their business plans for a social-interaction-oriented MMO game targeted for young audiences. Having offices in Helsinki and Santa Monica in California, Tweehouse secures their revenue sources by offering design and implementation services and live services alongside their own game development. They are developing their own multiplayer platform called Trunktech specifically designed for developing, deploying and managing massively multiplayer applications. Paavo also showed us their intuitive map editor which can be used to easily create large, interactive game worlds and to publish them in realtime as well.

Next up was Petri Purho from Kloonigames and the Post Mortem of Crayon Physics Deluxe. Petri begun his presentation with a relaxed and humoristic touch and told about his life before original Crayon Physics. In 2006 he got into prototyping game development which meant creating one new game every week. Petri told us this worked well for him and he started publishing a new game each month on his blog at kloonigames.com. In June 2007 he created Crayon Physics in five days which sparked so much attention and interest that Petri decided to make a better version of it. Crayon Physics Deluxe prototype video gained fame on Youtube and spawned a number of clones, both commercial and non-commercial ones. Crayon Physics Deluxe won the Seamus McNally Grand Prize in 2008.

The third presentation was given by Jani Kahrama from Secret Exit on indie game development and their experiences with it. Secret Exit started off with two people but hired two more when they received funding. They told us that the amoung of competition in indie development is huge and the marketing opportunities are lacking. Good timing is essential and to push the sales the developers should aim to remove all obstacles at the same time as opposed to one after another. Jani explained that their game Zen Bound got lots of positive feedback but the public visibility was low. They did make the front page feature and that multiplied their sales by four. The lesson in the presentation was to advertise on all available channels at the same time and to wait for sales increase and then ride on the sales with, for example, lowering the price just as the peak is beginning to fall off. Zen Bound won the IMGA award “Excellence in 3D”.

Q&A session followed the presentations. After the presentations people headed off across the street to have a party at the IGDA Finland Gathering in Cuba Cafe!

April Gathering: Tuesday 7th

Ahoy game industry pros and hangarounds, Interested in the latest game industry buzz and news from GDC09 along with good company? The best place to catch the latest news is to join the IGDA Gathering which will be held at Cuba Café on the 7th of April. The sun always shines at Cuba and they also have a great selection of drinks. Remember that IGDA members will get a good discount on mojitos and tap products!

We would also like to remind you that the current rounds of both EU and Nordic Game development funding will close in April. Don’t miss the deadlines! Click the links to find further information:

EU: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media/producer/develop/interactive/index_en.htm NORDIC: http://nordicgameprogram.org/?id=23

IGDA FINLAND APRIL GATHERING Place: Cuba Café, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) Time: Tuesday, 7th of April, doors open at 19:00

March Gathering - Presentation Afterparty

[singlepic=407,320,240,,center] Crowds were flocking in from the preceeding IGDA presentation just around the block to fill the Cuba Café nearly to the brim on March 10th. It was great to see so many faces from the presentation showing up at the Cuba to have great time with the game industry collegues.

In total, a good 153 of you turned up of which 17 were new visitors.

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Even the cold and damp weather outside wasn't enough to bring the mood down and the chattering went on for the late hours. It was perhaps no wonder that the evening's hot potato was the energetic speeches given by Petri Purho and the folks from Tweehouse and Secret Exit.

Check the rest of the snapshots at the gallery or at Flickr. Stay tuned for the next gathering on April 7th at Cuba Café!

Highlight: IGDA Finland Linkedin group

Hello everyone, it's time for yet another feature highlight! Since all of you already belong to our IGDA Finland Facebook group (right?) it probably doesn't come as a shocker that we decided to found a similar group to Linkedin, a terrific networking service centered around our business lives. Being a member of this group not only increases your sex appeal but voices support for the Finnish developer community globally.

Here at IGDA Finland we are dedicated to serving you the best possible IGDA chapter and would like you to join in and keep Finland in the world map!