IGDA Finland March Gathering with Remedy!

/

Check it out! Would you believe that after last months record breaking gathering that we would follow up with an event even more spectacular? Well we think we have!

IGDA Finland is proud to present March's Remedy sponsored gathering featuring a presentation entitled "Alan Wake, the writer who made us rewrite our engine” by Olli Tervo and Markus Mäki. The presentation will take place before the Gathering @ the Sulake Auditorium. Then around 7pm the Gathering heats up as we head over to Cuba Bar where there will be free drinks and a sneak preview of Death Rally with iPads available to test the game.

So mark the date and join us for what will for sure be an amazing time!

Presentation

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 5:30pm Sulake auditorium, Korkeavuorenkatu 35 Helsinki, Finland Sign up for the event at Facebook or by email sonja kangas igda fi.

Gathering

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 7:00pm Cuba Bar, Erottaja Helsinki, Finland

IGDA Finland: February Excitement!

/

A record crowd, a world premiere, and other exciting stuff! By all accounts Tuesday's (Feb. 8th)  IGDA Finland Feb. Gathering was a smash hit. Digital Chocolate introduced its new Facebook game titled "Zombie Lane" to a record crowd of approx. 230 people. The game which will first be introduced as a closed release in Finland only will be released worldwide sometime in March.  Those that were in attendance will be given exclusive first access to the game so stay tuned for more details! Super big thanks to Digital Chocolate for sponsoring the evening.

Also announced at the event were the winners of the Finnish Game Jam. The top spot went to Snobli Run from Kajaani. Congrats to them! Jammers favorite also was awarded to Snobli Run and the Best Windows 7 Phone game award went to Omniludens from Tampere! Congrats!  And special thanks to all that participated in the Global Game Jam!

In other exciting news, Bugbear has announced that it is working on the much anticipated Ridge Racer Unbound. If you haven't seen the trailer watch it here. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

Another important piece of information. The story has come around that Mr.Goodliving will be shutting down after 10 plus years of operating in Finland. Mr.Goodliving was purchased back in 2005 by Real Network and apparently the company had been making money so the closure came as a complete surprise. IGDA Finland wishes the guys there all the best in their future endeavors.

Finally IGDA Finland would also like to thank the visitors  from Tampere and Turku for joining us on Tuesday.

IGDA Finland: February Gathering -- Launch Party!

/
Come join us and Digital Chocolate, Tuesday Feb. 8th as they roll out the WORLD PREMIERE of their brand new Facebook game. Those in attendance will get exclusive access to the game and early arrivers will get drink vouchers and other special goodies!  Save the date, join the launch and demo the brand new game from Digital Chocolate a leader in digital media and social games.

Additionally Finnish Game Jam Winners will be announced at the Gathering.

IGDA FINLAND FEBRUARY 2011 GATHERING Place: Cuba Bar, Erottajankatu 4, 00120 Helsinki Time: Tuesday, 8th of February, doors open at 7PM

Introducing IGDA Finland's New Advisory Board

/
A message from Jyri ‘Jay’ Ranki of Remedy Chair of IGDA Finland's Advisory Board:
As announced sometime ago IGDA Finland has a new Advisory Board.  I wanted to take this opportunity to share with those interested the whys and hows of the IGDA Finland Advisory Board.
Our chapter's lead coordinator Sonja Kangas, chair of our previous advisory board Lasse Seppänen and myself had a conversation where we agreed that we should re-invigorate the advisory board with some fresh blood and get it going again after a long passive period.

When doing so, we felt strongly about following guiding principles: - Affiliate studios should be well represented in the advisory board - All board members should be active contributors, this should not be some sort of status thing - We need a clear mission statement for the advisory board that supports the mission statement of the chapter itself to give it purpose and focus

For those of you who haven't been actively following igda.fi, here’s the full list of the new Advisory Board:

Jyri ‘Jay’ Ranki, Remedy (chair) Osma Ahvenlampi, Sulake Elina Arponen, Tribe Studios Tuomo Lehtinen, Rovio Koopee Hiltunen, Neogames Ville ’Wili’ Miettinen, Lots

The studio affiliates are represented through Elina from Tribe Studios, Tuomo from Rovio and myself from Remedy. Osma and Sulake have been chapter’s close partners in organizing the presentation events and we all know Koopee and his important work to further Finnish game industry as a whole. Wili represents continuity as he was part of the previous board as well. Wili and Koopee also represent links to organizations we want to have closer cooperation with, namely Siggraph and  ‘Suomen Pelinkehittäjät Ry’.
In order to focus the work of the advisory board we agreed on a mission statement:
The mission of the IGDA Finland Advisory Board is to help the chapter remain one of the most active IGDA chapters in the world by advising and supporting the chapter coordinators.

The following are examples of activities the advisory board will be doing: - Help lead coordinator find funding when needed - Provide suggestions for presentation topics and help secure speakers through their contacts - Offer ideas for new initiatives lead coordinator to consider - Act as a sounding board for the lead coordinator's new ideas

This mission statement will be found on the 'About Us' section of the website in near future.
As our first act, we revisited the chapter mission statement a bit by expanding the definition of "people under the chapter's banner" to include developers working in industries closely related to game development. This slightly revised mission statement should soon be up on 'About Us' - page as well.
Cheers,
Jay