Housemarque 20th Anniversary Celebration

Even though the IGDA season is over, the game industry keeps on partying. Last Wednesday Housemarque celebrated its 20th anniversary, where more than 400 game developers and their friends gathered to congratulate one of the oldest game companies in Finland!

Housemarque prepared surprises for their guests: Consoles and PCs with studio's games were available for all guests, the various dishes offered were named after studio’s games. The CEO, Ilari Kuittinen welcomed everyone to the anniversary and started a party by showing recap videos of Housemarque games and company history (including the very special, previously unseen ones!). Finnish attendees were excited about the epic appearance of Apulanta (a Finnish rock band which was popular some years ago, as my Finnish friends told me). Marioke was the last surprise Housemarque prepared for the guests: Karaoke as usual, except that all the lyrics had been changed to game-related texts, for example "You are simply Tempest" or "Monkey Target".

If you didn’t get a chance to visit the celebration, you can check out photos and videos in various social media with the hashtag #hmq20. Also, here is a link to Facebook albums from the event: https://www.facebook.com/Housemarque/photos

Thanks Housemarque for a great evening!

Photos by Sami Välikangas.

IGDA Nordic UA Forum & June Gathering with TUNE

Before we would send everyone on their merry way to the summer break, it was time for the last IGDA Gathering of the spring season. This time we had an extra special treat for our guests in the form of The Nordic UA Forum sponsored by the mobile marketer extraordinaire, TUNE. With in depth presentations, panels and Q&A's about mobile user acquisition, The Nordic UA Forum has been touring all around the key Nordic capitals. It was not a surprise that the Forum was fully booked!

The presentations from Eric Seufert (Rovio) and Juha Matikainen (Seriously Entertainment) paved the way for the starstudded panel with Teemu Huuhtanen (NextGames), Olli Laesvirta (Boomlagoon) and Mika Kuusisto (Unity). Thank you again to all of the speakers, the wonderful host of the forum, Ilja Goossens (TUNE) and of course our sponsor TUNE for an insightful evening.

Guests from the forum did not have to leave empty handed since they got decked out for the summer with some cool new sunglasses and bluetooth speakers for the perfect picnic.

Now that the fun part was over it was time to have even more fun at the official IGDA June Gathering! The crowd was buzzing with interesting conversations about the previous presentations. "It was nice to hear from other companies how they have tackled the issue of user acquisition in the mobile market. It gave a new perspective on the whole topic", said one guest.

The night was drawing to a close but everyone still had some time to say their goodbyes to friends and colleagues before the summer break. Do not fret, because IGDA Finland will be back in September! Thank you to all of our guests and sponsors, it has been a busy spring and we will see you again in a few months!

IGDA Nordic UA Forum & June Gathering

Registration to the seminar is required. To RSVP book a ticket on the event's EventBrite page.

The evening will continue at 19:00 as IGDA Finland June Gathering, sponsored by TUNE.

Please note that this is the last gathering of the spring season, so make sure to stop by and say hello to your fellow devs before they disappear for the summer! The fall season starts in September when the gatherings will resume as well.

Games First Helsinki 2015 & IGDA Finland May Gathering

Hundreds of game devs flocked to Cable Factory on Tuesday, May 12, as Games First 2015 took place. The event, hosted once again by Supercell, consisted of hours of talks and lots of good times with like-minded industry professionals. Sufficient supplies of coffee, candy and cola kept the spirits high throughout the day and when the clock hit 7 PM we were treated to some delicious drinks while mingling.

The day started with veteran game designer Rob Pardo offering his insight on designing multiplayer games. He’s had his hands on major Blizzard titles such as World of Warcraft, Diablo series, Starcraft and Hearthstone so obviously we were quite thrilled to hear what he had to say on the topic.

Pardo’s talk was followed by Karoliina Korppoo’s presentation on the hugely successful Cities: Skylines. As the lead designer of the game she told us a bit of how it all came together and why it became a Steam blockbuster.

In the afternoon Thomas Puha took us down the memory lane as we were shown some of the defining moments in Finnish gaming history. Looking through the slides it was an excellent reminder that we’ve got a great thing going on here!

The last but not least presentation was held by Chief Pat and Galadon, two of the most renowned Clash of Clans YouTubers. They spoke about the mutually beneficial relationship game companies and YouTubers can have; about why it’s good for both parties and how to get the community excited and creating content about your game.

After all the talks were done it was time for the grand finale: a few dozen studios from Finland and around the world showed what they were working on in 3-minute pitches. The pitching sessions included a very wide array of different types of games in terms of genre – platform-wise the trend was clearly more focused on mobile devices.

The day was brought to an end by a feast appropriate to the festive spirit of the event. With bellies full from the delicious dinner everyone was ready to rock in a true afterparty fashion, and I believe I can say on behalf of all guests: thank you Supercell for another awesome event and we hope there’s many more to come!

Invitation to the annual IGDA Finland ry meeting

Greetings all members of IGDA Finland association! You are warmly welcome to join the statutory annual meeting. The meeting is held on Monday the 25th May 2015, from 4 PM until 6 PM, at Femman hall (address Eerikinkatu 2, 00100 Helsinki).

There will be some small snacks and soft drinks to enjoy during the meeting. We ask you to RSVP latest on May 22nd by emailing suvi.latva@neogames.fi to better estimate the servings amounts.

If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact jyri.partanen@igda.fi

Best Regards,

Suvi Latva Board Member IGDA Finland ry

THE AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL MEETING ON MAY 25th 2015

1. Opening the meeting
2. Selecting the officials for the meeting
3. Legality and power of decision
4. Confirming the agenda
5. Action report
6. Presenting and confirming the financial accounts and auditors’ reports
7. Granting the discharge for the board and others that are held accountable
8. Other emerging issues
9. Ending the meeting