IGDA Finland Gathering with Supercell!

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IGDA Finland April GatheringTime: 9.4.2013 at 19.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

We will dive tablet first into IGDA Finland’s April Gathering and we are happy to announce that the notorious Supercell returns as our sponsor! This means several things. Yes, drink tickets. But that’s not all: I have been informed we shall also have something to nibble on (the whispers say it’s something round). And don’t be surprised if the atmosphere physically hits the ceiling this time! Oh, and be prepared for flashlights, it will get you a tasty reward! There’s another reason you definitely don’t want to miss this Gathering. Surely all of you know the hot topic: the all-mighty Game Developers Conference. Here’s a great chance to discuss the living daylight out of it!

Note! Executive Director of IGDA Central (International Game Developers Association) will be visiting us, too! Let's show the world how we party!

We’ll see you there!

IGDA Finland Presentations and March Gathering with Symbio

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UPDATE! The Gathering will be sponsored by Symbio. They will provide us with drink tickets and a presentation! We are being pampered, aren’t we?

Helsinki is still snoozing under a blanket of snow, but IGDA Finland brings you a breath of fresh spring air!

On March 12th IGDA Finland will host a set of presentations in Club Adams. The hot topic of the day is game testing and automatization of testing process. To explore the subject we have managed to lure in Kalle Raita from drawElements, Babar Hussain from Paf and Ton Wolting from Symbio.  The presentations are as follows:

Kalle Raita: Quality Assurance - A Practical Introduction Babar Hussain: Importance of Testing in the Agile Release Process Ton Wolting: Work with test professionals and maximize your app’s quality NEW!

Don’t miss this unveiling of mysteries, come get your questions answered!

After the presentations we continue the fun with the IGDA Finland March Gathering, and you are all cordially invited to have a drink with us. Thanks to our new venue you don’t have to tarvel anywhere - all of the action takes place under the same roof! See you there!

- IGDA Finland Presentations Time: 12.3.2013 at 17.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland - IGDA Finland March Gathering Time: 12.3.2013 at 19.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

IGDA Finland February Gathering with Viope

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12.2.2013 something called an IGDA Gathering happened. Club Adams, the new meeting place of gaming community in Helsinki area, was baptized with style. The first one to steal the spotlight was Viope.

Viope served us a multitude of goods. Firstly, they sponsored the February Gathering and donated a fair amount of precious drink tickets. We are ever grateful!

Viope had reserved another seat at the sitting: the first show of the night was the award ceremony of Viope Game Programming Contest 2012. We heard a few words from one of the judges, Remedy’s Saku Lehtinen, and then the stage was taken over by Viope’s Kwame Afreh and Tram Nguyen, who had the honour of presenting the awards.

The nominees came all over the world, Saudi-Arabia, Macedonia and Singapore, to name a few. Eventually both the main award and the student award went to a Singaporean entry Kindly ever after by the team Ancora. Congratulations! Check out all the nominees from here.

The spotlight was occupied again later that night: it was time for the Finnish Game Jam award ceremony! This year there was no single winner, and the prizes were in fact Honorable Mentions designed to celebrate noteworthy gaming experiences. In the spirit of the Game Jam the categories were delightfully wonky, such as Beertasking and Multidrinking Award and Public Love Award. You can see a list of all the honored and nominated games from here.

So that was the February Gathering. People swarmed in like there was no tomorrow, and thanks to all of you we made a record: whopping 296 visitors! We are insanely happy! We also offer a big thank you to our host Club Adams.

See you next time!

Spotlight story: Kajaani

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From the viewpoint of game development, Kajaani is an interesting place. In the 1990s and 2000s regional development funds were directed to RAMK college and their game programming course in Rovaniemi or starting of 3D studies in Outokumpu college. Regional development turned out to be a difficult task. It was difficult to find enough applicants in order to keep up quality education and generate good results. Kajaani - tiny town with a population of ca. 37.000, located 560 kilometers north from Helsinki - managed to pull it off. Starcrossed (Kind of a Big Deal) Dare to Be Digital finalist

What went right?

Nothing happens overnight. Kajaani University of Applied Sciences (Kajak) is the key factor of the success. Kajak started offering education in game programming in 2006. In 2009 the focus shifted from sole game programming to game development introducing four different specializations: game programming, graphics, design and production. In 2012 design and production specializations were combined, game audio design and game technology (in engineering) were introduced. Kajak teams have actively taken part in different game development competitions. In 2012 the first ever team from Finland took part in Dare to Be Digital game development competition and they were one of the three winning teams (15 teams participated). As one of the three winners they are nominated for BAFTA 'Ones To Watch' category. The BAFTA gala will be held during March 2013.

In 2010 Kajak Games co-op was founded by students to function as a publisher and supporter for student developed games. 2nd and 3th year students offer Code and Art Clubs as extra curricular activities for first year students after school. Kajak Games has worked closely with various student teams, held game dev student events and has offered subcontracting jobs for it's members (customers include Futurecode, Wooga, Kainuun Sanomat and YLE). During the first or second year of studies, students are offered the chance to join Kajak Games as a member to acquire full support and services. In 2013 an EU funded project called Kainuu Gaming Cluster began in order to create a major game development cluster in Kainuu region. The project's main goals are to bring already existing companies in Finland into the Kainuu region, give birth to new companies, support existing ones and support our push game development teams towards start ups.

The building blocks at the moment are the KUAS school, Kajak Games co-op, Kainuu Gaming Cluster project, Innova project and Kainuun Etu Oy (municipality-owned regional development company).

Kajaani based game development studios

Kajak Games cooperative Studio On Mars No More Pie Rust0 Kajaani Game Studios Team Jolly Roger (student team) Indecisive Games (student team) BIND (student team)

What drives or supports regional growth

At the moment Kainuu Gaming Cluster offers resources and guidance in starting up a games company and finding funding. Kainuu Gaming Cluster also steers existing companies towards growth and success for example by offering mentoring by industry professionals around the world. Kajaani University of Applied Sciences brings enthusiastic and energetic people who are interested in game development together, and offers them education, hardware and software. These people form the working force of the future to support regional and national growth.

Local community driven by student activities

Currently students are the major driving force. Local companies exist and their numbers are growing steadily.

Kajaani tips & tricks - how other regions could succeed the same way?

1. Take it in our direction; use all means possible to create supporting infrastructure around education and entrepreneurship that keeps the talent in the area. So that there is something concrete (funding, work environments, hardware etc.) to help them to start up companies and support already existing companies. Regional development projects are one possibility.

2. Networking with the Finnish game development industry is a key for getting the area noticed and putting it into the map.

Critical Strike portable (Studio on Mars) Kajaani in 2018?

We will have substantial growth in the number of SMEs in the area; a critical mass of ~40 companies. Kainuu will be known globally for its game development cluster and education. Big players (EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft) are highly interested in the area and already have some activity in the area. A new business entity concentrating to games publishing is to be launched this spring. CSC with Finnish government. IBM built data center in Kajaani last year; there will be close cooperation in making cloud gaming concepts.

Interviewees: Janne Mustonen, Julius Fondem & Kimmo Nikkanen Kainuu Gaming Cluster Kajak Games