Volunteers' help needed for Finnish Game Awards event!

Etsitään viittä tai kuutta vapaaehtoista, tehtävinä tapahtuman esivalmistelut tapahtumapäivänä (rollupien ym. laittelua, plaseerauskorttien laittelua), osallistujien sisäänkirjaaminen ja ohjaaminen tilassa, palkintojenjaossa avustaminen, rollupien ym. materiaalien purku tilaisuuden päätteeksi ja muut tapahtuman aikana mahdollisesti ilmenevät, vastaavanlaiset juoksevat tehtävät. Oma-aloitteisuus ehdottomasti plussaa.

The Finnish Game Awards tapahtuu torstaina 25.4. Ravintola Bankissa. Vapaaehtoisten olisi mieluusti päästävä paikalle jo n. klo 14. Itse tilaisuus alkaa klo 18, ja päättyy viimeistään klo 01:00. Tyylikäs, siisti pukeutuminen (puku). Vapaaehtoiset ruokitaan, ja heille järjestetään todennäköisesti jälkikäteen myös oma pieni karonkka.

PÄIVITYS 26.3.2019: Vapaaehtoiset tapahtumaan ovat löytyneet, kiitos kaikille mielenkiinnosta!
_________

Looking for five or six volunteers to help in the preparations of The Finnish Game Awards on the day of the gala, to help set up rollups etc., to check in guests and answer their questions, to assist in the awards ceremony and finally help take down our materials and clear the space once the event is over.

The Finnish Game Awards takes place in Restaurant Bank on Thursday, 25th April. It would be great if the volunteers could arrive already around 14:00. The event itself begins at 18:00 and will finish by 1:00. Dress nicely (suit). Volunteers will be fed during the evening and will most likely have a little thank you get together arranged for them sometime after the gala.

UPDATE 26.3.2019: Volunteers have been found for the event, a huge thank you to everyone for your interest!

Helsinki Hub: 2019 Post Play Party

Text by Giorgos Riskas and Roope Sorvo, photo by Jesse Eloranta

The February IGDA gathering at the Helsinki Hub was a non-commercial Post Play Party devoted to games and experiences created during the 2019 Global Game Jam. Four speakers of different professional backgrounds in the industry, united in their their passion for jamming, informed and amused the audience by sharing their knowledge and their personal stories.

The first to take the stage was Annakaisa Kultima, president of Finnish Game Jam and game studies scholar at Aalto University, shared her insight about game jamming or as she defined it: Improvisation of Game Development. According to Kultima’s seminar, Crazy Stunts and Awesome Numbers, Finland contributed to the global scene by producing 218 games in 26 locations by a total of 884 jammers in 2019. Unlike many other countries, a respectable amount of jammers are already working in the game industry while Finland also maintains one the highest ratios of games made to game jam participants.

Annakaisa Kultama addressing the audience

Minna Eloranta, a game artist at Secret Exit, spoke about her Game Jam experience in Haifa, Israel. Expecting more of a culture shock, Eloranta found jamming in Haifa far less different than anticipated. Tools and terminology remain largely same. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there were no differences: politics heavily affect the game development in Israel, preventing creation of larger networks and developer communities with nearby countries. On a lighter note, Israel actually is the first country to start the Global Game Jam due to Sabbat.

Superjammer Samuli Jääskeläinen told about his experiences jamming at a mall in Shenzhen, China. Jääskeläinen is a jamming veteran who for many years now has travelled to different countries to experience the Global Game Jam in a different environment each year. Jamming or not, Jääskeläinen has a goal of making a game every month, a streak currently on its seventh year. He manages this by strict prioritization: by day he works as a software engineer at Varjo Technologies, while at night he’s a superjammer, who keeps game development strictly as a hobby.

Speaking of prolific, the last seminar of the night was held by composer and sound designer Elie Abraham, probably better known among the regular jammers as “That Guy with the ‘I WANT 2 MAKE MUSIC 4 UR GAME’ Sign”. Abraham tries to partake in as many game jams as possible, and usually contributes music to over ten games per jam. During the 2019 Global Game Jam he participated in creation of 30 games! In addition to serial jamming, Abraham has held talks, key notes, and workshops at several other jams.

The Demo Corner showcased the fruits of the 2019 Global Game Jam. The full spectrum of interpretations on the theme ‘What Home Means to You’ was on display: many of the games focused on activities that you do at home:

A Vacuum-Cleaning Game and Meanwhile at Home simulate house cleaning; Dumpling Family was developed by the team of Samuli Jääskeläinen in Shenzhen, China and focuses on cooking; Party Pooper is a point-and-click game about navigating a house party.

Meanwhile other titles used ‘home’ in more abstract ways: Laika’s Super Sober Adventure in Space features the titular cosmonaut dog traversing space, waiting to return home; while in Human Rescue dogs try to find homes for stray humans.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Finnish Game Jam should visit their site: http://www.finnishgamejam.com

See you next month!

Get 20% off GameDev Days in Tallinn

Creative Mobile and IGDA Estonia invite you to visit Tallinn for the GameDev Days conference on April 11-12.

Founded in 2011, GameDev Days is an annual networking and knowledge sharing event, that attracts technology companies, global platforms, and game developers from the Baltics, Nordics and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Why you should consider attending? 

• Find new clients or strategic partnerships in the Baltic and Nordic regions. 

• Talk to platform representatives to find out about upcoming updates.

• Get inspired by fellow developers, learn about their innovations and technologies and share your experience. 

• Meet new talent to hire or find your dream job at the GameDev Days Careers fair. 

• Friendly atmosphere and cozy environment create pleasant experience for networking and obtaining new knowledge.

More than 70% of our audience are returning year after year, bringing friends and colleagues along. 

Companies who have already confirmed their participation include Google, Wargaming, Ubisoft, Glu Mobile, and Remedy. We guarantee a world-class speaker lineup and high quality of content and networking. 

Check out the conference website for a list of confirmed speakers and discounts on lodging and ferries.

Use promo code IGDAFIN when registering for 20% off of all tickets.

Helsinki Hub: An Epic Evening

Text by Giorgos Riskas and Roope Sorvo, photos by Casimir Kuusela & Epic Games / Dana Cowley

The IGDA gatherings of 2019 started off with a bang with a great event sponsored by Epic Games. The seminar featured a talk by Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, at the Aalto School of Business campus in Helsinki, that attracted a capacity audience of 600 attendees.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. Photo © Epic Games / Dana Cowley

The first part of the seminar revolved around Fortnite, an online multiplayer battle royale game that has enjoyed massive success since its release in 2017,  with an active user base of roughly 200 million players. Sweeney went through the whole history of the title, from its inception as a game jam project to its current status, and shared his insight about what made the title successful.

According to Sweeney, one of the defining factors was changing the monetization model to Free-to-Play without forcing the players into pay-to-win mechanics. A decision that not only changed the fate of the game, but  transformed the fate of the company. The game’s cross-platform availability was also an important reason for the constantly growing user base. However, it came with the cost of a very demanding process of optimization and maintenance, since the updates are always released simultaneously for all seven supported platforms.

Finally, Sweeney talked about the social aspect of the game by sharing some impressive statistics about players’ interactions and preferences. According to the research, the majority of Fortnite players spend time with their real life friends in the game which leads to even higher engagement, asserting the game was more like a social media app than a hardcore gaming title.

For the next topic, Sweeney talked about the launch of the Epic Game Store and explained how the technology that Epic Games offers expands beyond the game industry. Epic Games Store is a new digital distribution platform in the vein of Steam, the creation of which was brought on by a need of more competition in the field. Besides the storefront, the Epic Games platform aims to be an “opposite of a walled garden”. They have an emphasis on cross-platform, cross-service cooperation, sharing technology and assets between developers, with transparency being their key philosophy. A prominent part of this platform revolves around Epic’s Unreal engine, which makes real time graphics for all kinds of industries, ranging from sports cars to architecture in addition to video games.

Sweeney answering questions from the audience. Photo by Casimir Kuusela

The last part of the seminar was devoted to a Q&A session in which Sweeney answered, as he promised, any questions that were directed to him. In some of the most interesting answers Sweeney shared his insight about blockchain in game development.

“It’s a great tool for tech and research, but a long way from becoming a game development tool,” he said, adding “Due to the propensity of fraud it would be inadvisable to use blockchain in mainstream game development”.

When asked about the future plans for the Epic Games Store, he answered that the emphasis is on quality over quantity and the system of paying Unreal Engine royalties will remain as it is. That is, taking 5% of the game’s revenue in royalties, regardless of the success of the title. “It is the most equal approach and provides a more even playing field for smaller developers,” he said.

Before the seminar reached its conclusion, Sweeney gave a shout out to Epic Games Helsinki, a recent addition to the Epic family. It started as a collaboration with Kamu, a local anti-cheat development company that Epic acquired last year. “While it’s not a huge operation, it will grow steadily over the next few years,” he said.

The gathering was scheduled right after the seminar in the familiar location of Maxine where developers networked and socialize, while playing two games that were in the demo corner.

Demo corner. Photo by Casimir Kuusela

Chain Lightning is a fast-paced mobile game developed by Origame Studios using Unity. The three-piece team (coder, artist and a marketer) have been working at the game on-and-off since September, and plan to release it for mobile devices in a few months. A demo version is already available at Google Play.

Oceanhorn 2 is an action RPG game inspired by the classics of the same genre and it has been in development for by Cornfox Bros for the past five years. The game is a good example of what the Unreal engine is capable of when it comes to mobile gaming, since it will be released on iOS. The official release date of the game has yet to be announced.

Celebrating GGJ/FGJ with a Post Play Party

Hey Jammers! IGDA Finland and the Finnish Game Jam are teaming up to host a Post Play Party in the Helsinki Hub Demo Corner on Tuesday, February 12th for all the games that were made during the 2019 Global Game Jam.

Bring your creations, show them off with others, relive the exhausting and spirited fun you had, and encourage people to jam. Please use this form to sign-up. Space may end up being limited so we’ll let teams know if they have a spot by Sunday, February 10th.

The Gathering and Demo Corner start at 19:00.

And speakers — did we mention there’d be speakers?

These awesome folks will start sharing game jam experiences at 19:30:
Annakaisa Kultima, President of FGJ: Crazy Stunts and Awesome Numbers
Minna Eloranta: A GGJ Experience in Israel
Samuli Jääskeläinen: Jamming in China
Elie Abraham: You Never Heard a Jam Story Like This

Please note:

1. This event is not sponsored and the fee for the cloakroom is 2,50€.

2. Space is limited for the demo corner and if there are a lot of submissions there may not be space for everyone. Registration will close on Sunday, February 10th and teams will be notified they have a demo spot by Monday February 11th.