April Gathering - Midspring Meeting

The cold winter had passed but left the midspring weather a bit chilly. However, the people in game industry showed what they're made of and joined the Monthly Gathering on April 7th. It was a good evening for IGDA as Cuba Café saw a total of 97 visitors out of which 7 were new.

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One of the main topics of discussion was of course the Game Developers Conference 2009 and the good vibes it left on people. There were other major topics in addition, including the prospering of Finnish titles in App Store and our new industry partner, Walkthru, a Finnish company concentrating on translating games from English to Finnish.

People also talked about the Special Interest Group, Women in Games or "WIG SIG" which got a new advisory board. Sonja Kangas is now a board member in WIG SIG as well as Nordic Game Program and IGDA Finland. You can find more details from Sonja's article about WIG SIG.

The game development club Score is exclusively representing Finland in Microsoft Imagine Cup semi-finals with two titles: Villa Penguila and Unity. Both games can be downloaded from Nordic Game Portal.

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You can check out the rest of the snaps at the gallery or alternatively at Flickr.

Don't forget to add the next Gathering Event on your calendars! It'll be held on May 5th, same place, same time. See you there!

May Gathering: Tuesday 5th

World Premiere of Tower Bloxx Deluxe and surprises on May at the next IGDA Finland gathering! "Experience the ridiculously addictive smash-hit that's already played by millions across the globe! Create swaying, tipping and tumbling towers sky-high in this action-puzzler. Get the full HD experience exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade and challenge yourself with 6 massive game modes, revolutionary social scoring, Xbox Live avatar integration, power-ups, and even party multiplayer. How high can you go?"

Vappu will be nothing compared to the blast provided by Digital Chocolate on May the 5th, and their smash hit Tower Bloxx -- played by millions across the globe -- will be just an appetizer! The world premiere of Tower Bloxx Deluxe for Xbox live Arcade will be at the IGDA Finland gathering on May. Digital Chocolate will also give a taste of other projects they have been working on.

This is your change to meet the developers and see what will soon come out from Digital Chocolate!

IGDA FINLAND MAY GATHERING Place: Cuba Café, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki (map) Time: Tuesday, 5th of May, doors open at 19:00

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