November Gathering: Presentation Afterparty

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Cuba Café was bustling once again with people from the game industry joining the afterparty of another IGDA Finland Presentation held earlier on June 17th. A total of 102 visitors attended the gathering and the main topic of discussion was hard to miss - many of the visitors had just seen the presentation about Global Game Jam brought to us by Gorm Lai, and what a thought-provoking concept it was! Both experienced senior developers and fresh interns alike showed plenty of interest in it. Another point of discussion was of course the presentation about presentation techniques given to us by Remedy Entertainment and hosted by Jay Ranki and Sam Lake. The example used in the presentation was conveniently close at hand, as Alan Wake made an appearance on the big screen with a new demo of the game.

A small gaming rig was put up on the higher platform in Cuba Café where people could try out some of the excellent titles created in Game Jams around the world. Especially the game 'Make My Head Grow' was popular. More games from Global Game Jams can be found from the GGJ Archives

We got some good feedback from the audience and visitors about IGDA Finland presentations held so far. People clearly want the audience more involved. We greatly appreciate all feedback from you and encourage posting your comments on IGDA Finland Chapter Forums, or to send it by email to webmaster@igda.fi.

Next up in early December, little Christmas party brought to you by IGDA Finland and sponsored by Futuremark. Read more from the announcement here.

October Gathering: More good times at Cuba Cafe

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Cheerful group of game developers gathered once again to Cuba Café. In October 112 attendees joined the Gathering. Finnish game companies are doing nicely despite the slight economic downturn. Still bad news from Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel, definitely was the topic of the evening. There was a constant flow of people through the evening and besides Sulake discussions went around Nordic Game applications. Many have applied development funds from Nordic Game Program and hopefully more than few will get some. More about that in December! During last spring and this fall we have had an interesting trend in the attendance records. Every month we get new visitors, warmly welcome! We have also increasing number of anonymous visitors. Why is that? Don't people want to be informed (aka to be in the mailing list) or do they prefer other channels like Facebook to keep on track of what's up within Finnish Game Development scene? If anyone is willing to open up your reasoning for anonymity, I would be very interested to hear.

We have also got feedback that you like IGDA Finland Presentations sessions but there could also be more something to do and play at the bar. We hear you and have already done some improvements. IGDA Finland Game League is slowly starting and it is basically up to you what you would like it to be. If you have good ideas and suggestions talk to the main organized Kari Perho! Also we are inviting all game studios to present their games at the Gatherings. We can organize playing sessions, short presentations, surveys, discussions... again it is up to you what you would like IGDA events to be like! Please contribute :)

We have had very good start of the season. We hope to see many of you again at the Presentations and at Cuba Cafe on 17th of November. We will have kick-ass program for you!

igda_oct09 Here are more good moments from October Gathering.