IGDA Finland May Gathering: Legal issues for game companies

On May 8th IGDA Finland & Aldea presents: "What every new company should know about juridical issues" On 8th of May IGDA Finland together with law firm Aldea will serve some quality networking, good wibes & industry insights about the key issues what every game company should understand about IPR issues and agreements. The discussion will be led by Timo Skurnik from Aldea. Timo is accompanied by Janne Snellman (Supercell), Markus Pasula (Grand Cru) and Ville Vesterinen (Grey Area). The discussion will go around lessons learned and key points to consider about business law for existing, fresh and upcoming game companies.

Please do register to the IGDA Finland Presentation (no need to print the tickets).

IGDA Finland Presentations is arranged in association with Sulake. The presentation will take place at the Diana Auditorio just a stone throw from Cuba. We'll continue the evening at Cuba bar after the presentations. Aldea will serve drinks together with a perfect opportunity for current and future game industry talents to network and learn from others. IGDA Finland Gathering starts at 7PM. We'd like to welcome everyone to join the party!

IGDA Finland May Presentations - Starting a game company - legal viewpoint Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 5-7PM Diana Auditorio, Erottaja 5, Helsinki Finland Registration required: Eventbrite

IGDA Finland May Gathering Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5) No registration needed to the Cuba bar

Chartboost networking event for mobile game developers

Join Chartboost and IGDA Finland mingle & drink event with other mobile games developers on Monday 21st May!

Where: Ahjo bar, Bulevardi 2/4, Helsinki When: Monday 21st May, 6-8PM

Register to the event (no need to print out the ticket): Eventbrite.

Chartboost offers a cross-promotion technology that allows mobile game develpers to buy, sell or trade users directly with especific apps, skipping the mediation and the 50% cut of an ad network. Learn more about Chartboost and chat with other mobile game developers.

WildChords at IGDA Finland April Gathering

Bring out your guitars! For many people it was just another Tuesday night in Helsinki, but game lovers know better. Old and new friends alike found their way to Bar Cuba to converse, relax, and participate in sudden brainstorms.

After most of the visitors had settled in the stage was claimed by Ovelin, the melodious sponsor of the evening. Cristoph Thür, co-founder and CEO of Ovelin, was so kind as to entertain us with a few words and a demonstration of their acclaimed iPad game WildChords. The innovation of WildChords is to learn to play the guitar the fun way through gameplay objectives. Be afraid, Guitar Hero.

Ovelin donated visitors a few drinks and a guitar pick, and one especially cozy corner of Cuba was reserved for those who wanted to try the game for themselves. Evening was not short of wildlife as Ovelin´s exotic mascot Carsten the Crocodile was also present, ready to pose for the multitude of cameras.

We had 140 human visitors and one crocodile. Maybe in the next IGDA gathering we will hear live guitar music from one of you? Thank you to everyone and see you in May!

  Photos by Stuart McQuade

Gangs of Boomtown at IGDA Finland March Gathering

Drawing by Jussi Simpanen

Howdy partners!

Another successful IGDA gathering brought Wild West to the heart of icy Helsinki! Evening's Western theme had inspired many outstanding costumes ranging from sheriffs to bandits. We were thrilled to see that so many of you had succumbed to our whimsy and dressed up for the occasion!

The evening was action packed. Digital Chocolate offered a few rounds of drinks and gave out Gangs of Boomtown soundtrack CDs. Head of Digital Chocolate Helsinki Studio, Kaj Häggman and Gangs of Boomtown Producer Miika Tams talked about the production of the game and shared some latest news from Digital Chocolate office in Ruoholahti. We also had a video link to Punit Soni from Google+ who is managing Games and Mobile products at Google. He greeted IGDA Finland crowd and the whole Finnish game industry all away from San Francisco, US.

Gangs of Boomtown was released as promised, and when you combine that with great conversation and live country music it comes as no surprise that the event attracted a crowd of 216 game enthusiasts.

A big thank you to Digital Chocolate for sponsoring the evening, and an equally sized thank you to all who participated. See you next time!

More photos: March Gathering 2012

IGDA Finland April Gathering: time to party with Ovelin!

Ovelin, a company behind the widely-praised, award winning WildChords is yet another success from Finland. Ovelin got €1.1M seed funding from True Ventures in February 2012 enabling them to develop Wildchords further. Besides Wildchords, Ovelin is working on other ways to make world more musical. It surely is quite an achievement not only to make it in the competition but to innovate and create an original product, too. Ovelin is going full speed ahead with Wildchords and the next products. IGDA Finland April party is a fantastic opportunity for you all to see what the future holds for Ovelin. You'll have a chance to try Wildchords if you haven't already. Also if you dream of being a part of the success story, better be at Cuba on 3rd of April and meet the team behind Wildchords!

IGDA Finland chapter is one of the most active IGDA chapters in the world. We have the greatest parties, see you in April! Ps. You do not have to be a member to join the pub events at Cuba bar.

IGDA Finland April Gathering - time to party with Ovelin Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5)