IGDA Finland proudly presents: ARTtech seminar at Assembly 2012

As a summer job, UGDA Finland team put together ARTtech seminar for Assembly 2012! :) This year IGDA Finland put together the ARTtech seminar @ Assembly2012! The theme is "Tinkering" of games and electronics and you'll have a chance to hear on playful prototyping by Tuomo Tammenpää (Fri 3rd August, 12AM), why Theory Interactive build an entire engine instead of a indie game (Fri 3rd Aug 7PM) and how MiniVegas team uses game engines and C++ frameworks with traditional CG animation (Sat, 4th August 1PM). You'll also learn about 3D printing, building a arcade cabinet, Unity4, Adobe tools and so on.

Full program Thursday - Saturday - bring your sleeping bag with you! We have some presentations not to be missed :)!

Angry Birds Space at IGDA Finland June Gathering

Let´s go where no bird has gone before! Last week the Finnish game community proved its vitality through a collective pilgrimage to a certain exotic bar in Erottaja. This spring's final IGDA gathering in Cuba Bar left us wistful but excited, as the evening was a flying success.

Bar Cuba was filled with space-oriented wildlife as Rovio was the sponsor of this gathering.  Early arrivers were able to grab themselves an Angry Birds Space T-shirt and a deck of beautiful Angry Birds playing cards. Three wise men from Rovio,  Sami Lahtinen, Mikko Häkkinen and Jaakko Iisalo,  offered us a short (to not keep us from using the drink tickets they also provided) but pithy look at the development, launch, and success of Angy Birds Space. The audience was also offered a glimpse of the future. Who is Alex? Why is he Amazing?

One more gathering-related announcement before the summer break. IGDA gatherings are on a trajectory even flying birds could be jealous of: this gathering managed to lure a crowd of 295 people. We couldn't have hoped for a better way to end this season!

A big thank you to Rovio for sponsoring, and another big thank you for all you who joined the fun. See you in Fall 2012!

IGDA Finland June Gathering with Rovio!

Hey, everyone!

The IGDA Finland summer party is just around the corner so mark this date on your calendars and join us in this season's final gathering! This time we're organizing the party together with Rovio and they will offer us some free cold drinks in this heat! Come and find out what else they have for us!

Also it's been a wonderful year and thank you to everyone for being so active! After the June Gathering it's time to wish you happy holidays and we'll see you again in Fall 2012!

IGDA Finland June Gathering Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 7PM Cuba Bar, Erottaja 4, Helsinki Finland (map: http://igda.fi/?page_id=5)

IGDA Finland Presentations & Gathering: from the very start to exit

IGDA Finland May Gathering focused on the typical legal issues game companies have to deal with from the very start to exit. The evening was kicked off by a panel discussion led by Timo Skurnik from Aldea Attorneys at Law. Aldea is a Helsinki based law firm specialized in commercial law, which has been advicing Finnish game companies for over a decade and has a firm understanding on the business and the legal issues corporated therein. Together with Timo, Janne Snellman from Supercell, Markus Pasula from Grand Cru and Ville Vesterinen from Grey Area were sharing their experiences on various topics from founding a company to making contracts, setting up responsibilities and distributing shares to keep the company in a good shape for exit.

The Panelists shared their own experiences regarding the legal aspects associated with setting up, operating, funding and exiting a games company. Panel discussion was very practical and the audience took part in the conversation actively. After the panel it was time to head to Cuba bar for some drinks by Aldea, discuss and network with other professionals.

I personally felt the IGDA Finland Presentations session was one of the best ever. Yet for some reason there were empty seats. For those who missed the session for a reason or another, here's a video clip to give you some idea what was discussed at the panel.

IGDA Finland Gathering was as crowded as usual. This time we had nearly 150 people at the Cuba bar. It was perfect, there were enough room to move around and have discussions with people but still very good atmosphere and industry buzz going on. Finnish game development scene surely is hot at the moment and it was clear that when you do your legal stuff right from the start, your life will be a lot smoother when your game studio grows and blooms.