Finland to be the first chapter of International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to formalize outside North America

IGDA Finland is proud to be the first IGDA chapter outside North America to formalize as a legal entity. IGDA Finland has registered as an association under the Finnish law and its relationship with main IGDA in United States will be governed by a contract signed in September 2012 between the parties. How to become a member or renew your membership? Here! Here!

IGDA Finland will remain an official part of the international IGDA family and members of IGDA Finland will enjoy the full membership benefits. This new arrangement enables IGDA Finland to better serve the interests of the local IGDA members in Finland. This also means that more of the membership fees can be directed to better cater local needs.

As the first actions, IGDA Finland will start expanding its service offering beyond Helsinki. IGDA Finland wants to provide support to game developers across Finland. The first step is to build a network of IGDA Finland Student Club initiatives across the region.

“IGDA Finland wants to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices, help new talent to get into the local industry as well as attract foreign talent to Finland. With Student Clubs we are able to drive regional development, support local game development hubs across Finland and promote entrepreneurship”, states Sonja Ängeslevä, the first Chair of the IGDA Finland association.

IGDA Finland ry works closely together with Pelikehittäjät ry (Finnish Game developer Companies association) and Neogames Finland ry, to form Finnish Game Cluster which aims to help the Finnish game development business to develop and grow. The cluster aims to push Finnish game industry to it's present state to be even greater economical value. Finnnish games industry aims to be billion € industry by 2020.

For more information on IGDA Finland and details on how to become a member, please visit http://www.igda.fi.

Contact: IGDA Finland ry Chair: Sonja Ängeslevä Sonja.Angesleva@igda.fi Tel. +358 400 759 817

IGDA Finland ry is a legally registered association under the Finnish law. The mission of IGDA Finland is to promote the development of careers and professional skills of individual game developers (and individuals of related industries) based in Finland, and to further develop the international recognition of the Finnish game developer community.

International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is the largest non-profit membership organization serving individuals who create video games. IGDA advances the careers and enhances the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community. These core activities advance games as a medium—and game development as a profession.

ODD - Creativity for Games seminar in Finnish November 2nd 1-4PM

Oudot ideat ja rohkeat ajattelijat inspiroimassa pelisuunittelua. Ole outo - ajattele uudella tavalla.

Seminaari on suomenkielinen / the seminar is in Finnish.

Sign up to the event NOW!

Kansallinen pelipäivä 11.11.2012 - part of International Games Day

International Games Day - Kansallinen pelipäivä 11 November 2012. Press release in Finnish only - sorry: Kansallinen pelipäivä juhlii pelaamisen monimuotoisuutta ja tuo uudet pelaamisen muodot perinteisen pelien rinnalle samanarvoisina. Pelipäivä antaa pelialan toimijoille mahdollisuuden esitellä omaa toimintaansa ja kokoaa kaikki peleistä kiinnostuneet eri sukupolvien edustajat kirjastoihin, kouluihin ja nuorisotaloille pelaamaan yhdessä.

This is an opportunity for Finnish game developers as well. What about coming out of the studios and giving ordinary people an idea what you are working on. More information from the Kansallinen pelipäivä website.

IGDA Finland October Gathering with Unity and GameFounders

9th October was a day of tricks and treats for the game folk in Finland.

October’s IGDA Finland Presentations are now behind us, and they were a success! All 250 tickets were reserved in advance. The theme of the evening was Unity 4, and a few lucky ones even won themselves a full Unity Pro 4.0 license. Just in case you inexplicably missed the event, let’s recap.

Nick Jovic and his merry men from Unity Technologies gave us a taste of the next generation of their platform. Colossal Order’s very own Damien Morello shared his tips and tricks for Unity, and you even get a chance to put your freshly gained knowledge to good use: Antti Lihavainen opened VIOPE’s world wide Game Programming Contest.

What comes to the post-Unity Gathering in Bar Cuba, the words of a fellow attendee sums things up nicely: ”It's a bit crowded.”

Nick Jovic was in the mood for a popquiz, and awarded correct answers with Unity’s t-shirts. We learned, for example, where the company’s main office is situated (San Francisco, for future reference) and where Unity will established their newest office (Berlin, now you know).

The other big thing came from across the Baltic Sea. Kadri Ugand from the Estonian game accelerator GameFounders first greeted us with kind words and then dropped the proverbial bomb: the second round of GameFounders program is now officially open!

Thank you for spending an evening with us! This time the number of attendees in the Gathering went up to 261. See you in November!

Angels Game – Connecting games and business 13.11.2012

Tekes Skene-program & Finnvera Venture Capital proudly presents: Angels Game matchmaking event. It brings game companies and business angels to the same table.

How to be part of it: 1. Fill out a form at the Finnvera site by 31th October 2. Angels Game jury will go through the applications on 5th and 6th November 3. Selected game companies will be notified on 7th November 4. Companies will be provided some pitching coaching (date TBD)

The Angels Game event will be on 13th November at Finnvera, Eteläesplanadi 8, Helsinki.