IGDA Presentations and June Gathering with Grand Cru

Summer is here, we think.

Prepare to pampered, because the summer starts with IGDA Finland Presentations! In June the hot topic is game design and we have gathered awesome people to tell you about it. The presentations are as follows:

Articy:draft 2 Kai Rosenkranz (CEO, Nevigo) Articy:draft 2 is the first professional tool for game design in commercial studios. This tool helps to create, organize and communicate the game vision while being tightly integrated into your pipeline. Read more here!

Game Design Miikka Junnila (Aalto University, Media Lab) : Game Design – where to start? Before we make games it is useful to know what they actually are. We’ll examine one definition of ‘a game’ and then take a brief look into what game design consists of. The presentation is especially useful for those who have just entered the world of game design.

Joni Suvanto (Design Director, Digital Chocolate) Digital Chocolate develops and publishes casual and social games for the web, Facebook, and mobile phones. The company has operations in the U.S., Finland, Spain and India. Joni is going to give us his thoughts about f2p, metrics from game design perspective, how they have used them and what the future holds for it.

After the presentations it’s time to put those sweet drink tickets to good use! We are proud to be sponsored by Grand Cru, a game company with a knack for mobile and social games. The Cru in question also seem to have a thing for mind games because they have a cryptic message for all of you: this time there is something special about the drinks! What could it be? In addition to all this you will get an update on Grand Cru’s current affairs. If you didn’t know they have a new game coming it’s about time you did!

Can you take two more plot twists? We will have the fabled Oculus Rift head-mounted display at the Gathering, here is your chance to try it yourself! Don’t forget to check out the 3D Leap Motion  controller as well (we just can’t resist cool inventions).

Grand things are happening at this Gathering, so bring your own cru to enjoy it all! See you there! - IGDA Finland Presentations Time: 11.6.2013 at 17.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland - IGDA Finland April Gathering Time: 11.6.2013 at 19.00 Place: Club Adams, Erottaja 15-17, Helsinki Finland

Peter Molyneux in Helsinki on 19th of June - Free2Play gaming summit

From developers - for developers:IGDA Finland, Neogames, and Supercell have joined forces to launch a new free-to-play gaming summit in Helsinki called Free Your Play.

The one-day event will be held on June 19 and will feature a keynote by Peter Molyneux.

Apply for a ticket.

IGDA Finland May Gathering with PlayHaven

Hi there!

Playhaven @ IGDA Gathering

We hope that you all have recovered from last Tuesday’s IGDA Gathering, the amount of awesomeness was once again very much to our liking.

When the party had properly started the stage was occupied by Ville Heijari from PlayHaven. Drink in one hand and a friend in the another we listened through a brief introduction to PlayHaven’s business. Heijari gave us some insight into in-game marketing and to the basics of knowing your diverse audience and how to reach them.

Playhaven @ IGDA Gathering

Our Hi-Tech Gathering Monitoring System informed us that 182 thirsty visitors had found their way to Adams. Thank you for coming! We had tons of fun, hopefully so did you.

See you in June!

IGDA Finland Turku Hub Gathering with Remedy Entertainment

In 18. of April, good times were had for game developers in the Turku region in the first ever IGDA Finland Turku Hub Gathering!

From Remedy Entertainment, Aki Järvilehto & Jukka-Pekka Parkkonen were our guests of honor, giving us a presentation about the Remedy approach to gamedev to a crowd of over 115 visitors. As always, the night continued on till late with drinks and socializing, also in the private sauna. That’s right, our gatherings are held at Bar Bryssel’s Arcadia Lounge with its own sauna for our dear visitors relaxing after a day’s work at the pixel mines.

Of course this wasn’t the first time the game developers around Turku region have gathered to share their experiences and connect in a night like this. The local game development club LOAD has arranged its own gatherings in the past 2 years for 13 times with guests like Redlynx, Sulake, Nitro Games and Supercell.

Big thanks to all our visitors and especially Remedy for making our Hub launch event a success. You’re welcome to join our next gathering in ye olde capital of Finland in the end of May!

Tatu Laine

IGDA Finland Turku Hub coordinator

Photos: Tomi Kokkonen & Henna Tuunainen