Grail Quest is e-sports event in Turku taking place this week from 18-20th of October at Kupittaan Palloiluhalli. We have sponsored FREE TICKETS for 80 members of IGDA worldwide for Saturday (20.10.2018).
First come - first served so grab your ticket ASAP, make sure to print and have the ticket along! :D
https://grailquestigda.eventbrite.com
GREAT NEWS EVERYONE!
Game Music Collective is giving to IGDA members 20% off from VIP tickets at their TURKU gig in Logomo!
It includes concert and after-party 🎮😎🥂
https://holvi.com/shop/exclam-digital/product/ff4ed93f9b634abf906c18c43cfe590f/
Use code: IGDAVIPxGMC, for receiving 33e VIP ticket
Menestyksekkään ensikonserttinsa innoittamana, Game Music Collective lähtee Suomen-kiertueelle ja saapuu myös Logomoon. Konsertissa nähdään ja kuullaan täysipainoinen pelimusiikkikokemus toteutettuna isolla orkesterilla sekä mieskuorolla.
Konsertissa soitetaan musiikkia mm. seuraavista pelisarjoista: Final Fantasy, Destiny, Chrono Trigger, Elder Scrolls, Undertale, Halo, Secret of Mana, Angry Birds, Journey, Mega Man ja Kingdom Hearts. Konserttien visualisoinneista vastaa kotimaisiin kärkinimiin kuuluva videotaiteiilija VJ Sellekhanks. VIP-lippu takaa paikan VIP-alueelta konsertissa, vain VIP-lippulaisille järjestetyn afterpartyn Logomossa konsertin jälkeen yhdessä muusikoiden kanssa sekä pelimusiikkiaiheisen paneelikeskustelun ennen Game Music Collectiven konserttia.
WOMEN IN GAMES
IGDA Finland Turku Hub February Gathering - event summary!
The February gathering in Saaristobaari was record breaking! Turku got visitors from Helsinki, Tampere and Jyväskylä – in fact busloads of game developers. There was obviously something magnetic with this month’s theme: Women in Games. We had a stellar panel consisting of Eevi Korhonen from Remedy, Sonja Ängeslevä from Unity (and a spider in the web of the Finnish game industry), Karoliina Korppoo from Colossal Order and Agnieszka Besz from Redlynx.
What is it like for a woman to work in a male dominated industry?
KK: Korppoo has been dealing a lot with media. It is interesting that gender is something that media always brings up in their questions. In Colossal Order there are 50/50 males and females, and it became like this naturally, without effort. In the history of game development there has always been women, it is not as uncommon as many think.
SÄ: Ängeslevä hates the question. But there are still problems, in big conferences there needs to be more women in panels for example (even though we have an “all female panel” this time). How can we get more women to apply for jobs in the game industry? Women need to be more pushy to get a foot in.
EK: Korhonen says she never had any problems. She works in Remedy, a company with its roots in the demo scene, which meant that the company used to consist of “40 dudes”. But now they are 140, and about 10 % are women. EK thinks this is a matter of company age and what kind of games the company makes. Often we tend to hire people that look like ourselves. But there are a lot of talented women out there.
AB: Besz says there are clearly more male programmers. On the mobile side women are about 23 % and over all the percentage of women is 33 %.
Audience question: How has the demo scene demographics affected the situation?
EK: Has not been a part of it.
SÄ: The demo scene is not what it used to be. Now there are game jams, and there are a lot of women there. Jams are a possible way into the industry. Assembly and making demos are no longer the only way to get in.
KK: Women play different games. Based on the player base there should be a lot of women coming into the industry. Colossal Ordes doesn’t have statistics on the gender of the players, but there are no job applications from female modders.
Do women work with different types of games? Are women mostly doing art?
SÄ: A hard question. In Finland most studios are tiny, and especially ones founded by women.
EK: Korhonen used to work for Wooga, and they had more women. The internal culture was welcoming, inclusive, which is attractive for women.
AB: In the console area the majority are men, in mobile there are much more women.
Audience question: How do we find the best talent? How do we attract the best female students? How do we get them to show more courage?
KK: Colossal Order wants the best people. We hire students too, but we are mostly concentrated on filling senior positions. Something has happened in the game industry, it is no more mostly young males. They are turning 30, getting kids, and then they quit the industry. In CO the rules are that we do no overtime, 7,5 hours a day. We very rarely need to break that rule. We just do what we promise on time. By allowing people to have a life outside of the job, we get more experienced people. Proper rest also makes us more creative. Working in CO is a job, but we also love it.
SÄ: You can bring in young trainees. Talk with teachers, to also encourage girls to come. Internships to get to know the industry. Parties for networking. In Unity we have recruitment parties, without any obligation to apply.
EK: Impostor syndrome is probably very common: do I actually have skills? It holds back young people, students. You don’t even try. Find people in the industry and talk about it. Have someone validate you. Find a mentor. Everyone feels the same.
AB: Be confident and just try. There are graduate programs, for example in Redlynx, these are opportunities to learn. We are all normal people who work in the game industry.
Audience question: Is it a recipe for destruction to aim for equality, rather than just letting it happen by itself? Can’t we just aim at being good?
KK: We did that, and got 50/50. But it is important to think of the ideas you have about people, they can affect you when you hire. Preconceived ideas might affect your decision.
SÄ: I was turned down by a company because I was the first woman applying, “You might not like it here”, they said. We need to push and we need networking.
EK: You easily hire people who look like you. Diversity also means we can make games for more people, which means more money. There was an example of a game that was accidentally racist (game mechanics based on skin colour), and it took someone with a darker skin tone to test the game until they noticed the mistake…
AB: I’m against forcing, skills are important, but diversity is also important.
Is gaming ruining your (family) life, or is life ruining your game career?
AB: I also do it for myself in my “free time”, it is a passion that affects my whole life.
KK: I haven’t had time to play at home, because of work.
SÄ: Work and life are not separate things. I do a lot of different things, both for my life and for my work.
EK: Gaming ruined my posture.
Audience question: Is not being a woman in the game industry also leverage? Is it really a problem to enter the industry? In the mobile side more women play, and a good CEO would hire more women.
EK: I never felt it, I often felt boxed in. In Wooga there was one instance where I was not a fit for the team.
SÄ: Experience is what matters.
KK: When doing interviews in the US, I had a guy with me, and all the media people talked to the man. In Finland I can sometimes be seen as just a companion to someone, that I’m not someone who “works here”. When it comes to mobile games, the diversity still needs to be there. What is a benefit to me is that people remember me, because I look different. But sometimes I need to explain that I’m not “a lady who only plays causal games” (although I like them too). I often need to explain my game preferences.
EK: All people get boxed in, for example there are dress codes: T-shirt and hoodie. If you put on something “girly” it stands out in a NOT positive way. You have a feeling you should not draw attention to yourself.
Audience question: Will women steal our jobs? Is there such a fear? In some industries there is much resistance to let women in (tech, sports etc). What annoys you the most about this? How could men help?
EK: Just treat us like professionals. I’m just a human.
KK: We’re all human. Ask questions, get to know us. We all have prejudices, then we get past them.
AB: We are not that scary.
EK: And don’t get drunk and tell us we are cute!
Audience question: I work in the car industry, which is also very male dominated. You know the idea of ladies posing next to cars, have you encountered uncomfortable sexualized stuff in games?
KK: In games conferences there have been incidents with ladies in bikinis. In some countries this is more common, but in for example Sweden they are much more sensitive, never anything offensive.
SÄ: 15 years ago it was much worse. Boobs. Now not so much. The world is changing. There are many genres now, and also “boob games” for those who want that.
EK: All of the Internet… The most annoying thing is that the sexualized stuff excludes people who don’t enjoy that.
AB: A beautiful picture sells better, gender is not always the thing.
Audience question: People are often surprised at female members in E-sports teams. How will women be part of the game industry in the future?
EK: It is unstoppable progress. One day women, and all sexes, will be a normal thing in the industry. It is only a matter of time, but it is good that there are people who criticize the situation now. This normalizes the idea of women in the game industry.
KK: It is a matter of the amount of players growing. The industry needs to make more diverse games, for different players. In 10-20 years the problem will be over. There will be more people with skills that can enter the E-sport scene, they will have more training. There’s a lot of stuff around games, streaming and so on.
EK: This notion of the “gamer”, there is no such stereotype anymore. In the future games are no longer some precious guarded playhouses.
Audience question: A producer asks: do you always have to be either an artist or a programmer? What other jobs are there?
SÄ: There are many more roles now: monetization, analytical skills, producers don’t need to know programming. You don’t even need a certain kind of background, I know one designer who used to be a librarian. Get experience in order to grow into the role you wish to land.
EK: Data is huge. Communication – engaging the community, being a buffer between audience and developers. Producing videos…
AB: Games have become bigger and more interdisciplinary. Only a programmer cannot make games for a bigger audience. There is also a need for team managers, because teams are bigger.
Audience question: About genres, there are untouched markets in PC. A lot of the games are still marketed for a certain kind of male. So many genres are not explored at all! What genres could be more explored, are there some that are more easily targeted to women?
SÄ: As an investor, and knowing investors: they invest in less risky genres. It is hard to get funding for new stuff. New genres need entrepreneurs pushing new ideas. It takes a lot of time.
KK: Yes, it is difficult to get investments for totally new ideas. Some genres are insanely expensive. With a shoe string budget you make something small, and see if it sells. Simulations you can make with a small team, but they appeal to a wide audience. What do the players actually want? Money and hours go into investigating what appears to be “untapped areas”. Cities: Skylines filled such a segment.
AB: You need money to support the team, and you need to compromise – make small changes to existing genres. New genres are too risky.
EK: indies and hobbyists can push the envelope. There are new areas to explore in art installations using game mechanics for example. New tech, VR, big IP’s like Pokemon GO can bring in new things.
Audience question: about stories, and the cliché “the scruffy white guy”. Are you accused of pandering when you don’t use that cliché?
EK: Well, look at the Remedy office and the huge posters… We have had a discussion in the company, that maybe we are finished with telling the story of the “anguished white man”. I’d love to do something different…
KK: In teaching, when students use this cliché, I ask: is this the most interesting character? Would you get new players with another kind of character? Would something else be valuable? You get a tiny extra bit of attention with other characters…
Walid O. El Cheikh from Aalto University presenting Game Executive Program.
Sleepy Sentry showing their game at demo-corner.
We are organizing demo corner at the Turku Hub May gathering. The demo corner is a place for developers to show their games and get some feedback. The space is intended for everyone: from teams continuing something they started at game jams to commercial studios. Space is limited to ten spots. People demoing will get a table and power outlet. If you have special needs please mention them in the form.
Demo corner is free and open for all. Collected information will be used for event organization only.
NOTE: Provide your own laptops, phones, tablets or other devices your game needs to run. If you need to plug more than one device to a power outlet, require a lot of space or need anything else we might have not thought about, let us know here. (Mobile devs might want to bring their own chargers.)
The March gathering was back in Hunter’s Inn, and this time with presentations by Rival Games and Shark Punch. Also in the demo corner: BitByByte’s first game Planet Shock.
The future is looking good for Rival Games. After a hard year 2015 they have received funding and are soon ready to publish the third and last episode of their game The Detail. The Detail has a very decent metacritic score and has been received with much delight by both players and critics. The company is one of the more successful ones in the Turku game development scene. And more success is sure to come for this hard working studio. Rival Games currently employs 16 people, and they will be hiring more people this year.
On Wednesday the audience had the pleasure of hearing CEO Jukka Laakso talk about sales figures for The Detail on Steam, and lead writer JD Sorvari gave us insight into the process of writing the game.
The Detail is a graphic novel style game reminiscent of Frank Miller. It was initially planned to be five episodes long, but now the story is going to have its closure in the third episode. Sorvari told us about the shock that he as a writer had, realizing that his story would be cut shorter. First he had thought he had plenty of space to develop the plot and “romance” the players – but it was not to be. However, being forced to compress and reduce can often lead to better storytelling, which Sorvari hopes to have succeeded with in the third episode.
Releasing a game in episodes gives the business model an interesting flair. Laakso was able to visualize this by showing us graphs from Steam sales. Firstly, Steam is the number one sales platform for Rival Games, and stands for 63-70 % of their sales revenue. Other distribution channels are nowhere near as fruitful, for example iOS sales is only at 14 %, and others (like humble bundles and such) stay at 24 % of total sales revenue. For every episode and sale period the sales spike increased, while almost flat-lining in between. We wish Rival Games good luck with their third episode release!
The company Shark Punch was presented by Tero Tapio and Peter-Erik Kiis. They told about the origins, team and philosophy of the company. Shark Punch employs 13 people and their HQ is in Helsinki. The founders managed to sell their previous company to Disney, and then they went indie.
They initially released a game called The Masterplan – a 70s style heist game. After this first release they have focused on another type of development project: a distribution platform for other game developers, www.playfield.io.
There are thousands of games being released every year, and a new game very easily drowns in the static. How can developers get visibility and find the right type of player? The focus in Playfield is on helping game developers get discovered by players. Shark Punch wants to achieve this by personalizing recommendations and having a great storefront. They also have partnerships with Twitch and YouTube users.
Currently Playfield has 2000 games, and 1000 developers on board. The community is mostly between 25 and 34 years of age, and also mostly male. Half are from English speaking countries.
Playfield will be coming out of beta in Spring 2016. The point is: they don’t want players to miss “gems” in the game avalanche. They urge game developers to bravely contact them and try out Playfield.
In the demo corner we got some space ship shooting and cosmic eye candy. BitByByte Creations is a new game development team based in Turku, and the game “Planet Shock” is in Steam Greenlight at the moment, go check this link and give support!
Text: Jenny Wiik
Photos: Natasha Trygg & Toni Heinonen
IGDA Finland Turku Hub
This November the Turku Hub went analog with Iraklis from LudiCreations, who gave the developers of digital games a glimpse to a slightly different world: that of board game development and publishing. When Finnish people think of board games, the first one that probably pops to the mind is Afrikan Tähti, whereas in the English-speaking world the stereotypical board game might be Monopoly.
Board gaming has come a long way in the last couple of decades. “You might be surprised to hear this, but Monopoly is a horrible game”, told Iraklis. “Four people start the game, but after a while two of them drop out and just sit and watch the two chase each other around the board.” The renaissance of board games started in 1995 with the publication of Settlers of Catan. According to Iraklis modern board games aim to give players agency, interesting choices and interesting experiences around the table, not just luck-based die rolling like in Chutes and Ladders – an old game from India that was originally designed to teach the players about the inevitability of fate. Instead of competing with each other, in many modern games the players co-operate, either by trying to overcome a common obstacle, or building something together.
According to Iraklis the latest big thing in board games is a so-called Legacy phenomenon, where the actual game will change permanently according to how it is played. This can mean that the players are supposed to tear apart a card when the rules tell them so, write on the game board or add stickers there, or change the rules of the game in some way. The end result is a game board and state which can be unique from other groups. The problem with Legacy games is to find a stable group to play them with.
Some things in designing and publishing board games sound familiar to people working in the digital games, such as the role of licenced games and the problems around them. There is a history with licensed board games that are badly slapped together. License holders can be very protective of their IP, and they are more concerned with the look and feel of the game instead of the mechanics. As a result there is a certain amount of preconception with licensed board games being bad, which is familiar from video games.
Ideally creating and publishing a board game is not a solitary job, but like video games it requires a talented team – a publisher, a game designer, an illustrator and a graphic designer, rule designers, proof readers, production manager and a team of playtesters. A board game should go through at least a hundred blind playtests, which means a test where the publisher or designer is not present.
Unlike in video games, where the unfortunate norm is to publish a buggy game and patch it post release, board games should be thoroughly tested. Are half-baked games published in the board games business? “More than I’d like to admit”, was Iraklis’ reply. The games are becoming more visual and the players pay more attention to art than the mechanics. A certain amount of “we’ll fix it in the expansion” attitude is creeping in.
Although board gaming is living a new heyday, Iraklis still describes it as a minuscule business compared to digital games, and Finland as a minor business area. Most of the big business comes from Germany and United States, which also applies to the designers. Iraklis describes the designer and publisher community as a small and tightly knit one, where everybody knows each other, what they have published and done. There is perhaps ten people in the world who make their living off designing board games. As a company LudiCreations has published ten games, three of which have had a Finnish designer. The minimum print of a game is 1000 copies, and one that sells more than 5000 is a hit. This doesn’t mean that board games are just a curiosity, since for example in Germany there are board game reviews in newspapers next to movie reviews, and according to Iraklis there are weekly events where 100-200 people gather to play.
How about tips for an aspiring board game designer? “Look, if you really love board gaming, my advice is not to do this, seriously”, said Iraklis with a smile. “Every year I’ve been publishing is I’ve been playing less and less. One reason I’m not developing is that I’d have to play the same game again an again, and it gets very boring. Why to do it? When everything else is gone, 300 years in the future everyone is still enjoying your game. It’s a creative pursuit with so many facets - how the game is created, distributed, and so forth. I love board games and bringing them to people. I’m surrounded by very, very talented people who help me bring the games to the people and see them enjoy them. It’s definitely not the money, but then again board games are a low risk, low reward pursuit.”
What other learnings are there to take home from board games to the digital side of the fence? “There’s the saying that if you can design a good board game, you can design a good digital game, and that’s absolutely true. The effort that goes into balancing and designing a single board game is incomparable to designing an average digital game.”
After Iraklis’ excellent presentation the 30-odd people enjoying the evening at Hunter’s Inn had the chance to try out a selection of new and old board games.
IGDA Finland Turku Hub was again happy to have Epic Games as a guest in our gathering. This time we tried another a slightly bigger venue Ravintola Mauno which turned out great. The gathering was the official party for this years Turku Game Day.
Sjoerd De Jong gave a live gamedev demo of Unreal Engine 4 and also showed off his own project Solus by Teotl Studios. We were very impressed what kind of freedom the tools in UE4 give to designers. Solus has basically been pieced together by Sjoerd almost on his own so quite an achievement.
We also had the pleasure of hosting guests from Fingersoft in our gathering so the night was great in many ways. 120 people attended the gathering this time so that sets a new record for IGDA Finland Turku Hub gatherings!
We’ll be back in May!
September came quickly around the corner and it was once again time to gather around to talk about games and game development with BoostTurku, the local entrepreneurship society! This time, we had a showcase where people could come and and present their awesome indie game projects & companies.
BoostTurku with it’s accelerator program Startup Journey has been a great source of very promising game companies and they are really central in the development of the game scene in Turku!
Here’s what’s hot in the Turku area!
NordicEdu, an educational and serious games company is about to release Tile Tail, a unique casual number puzzle game very soon. The game has an awesome look & feel and here’s hoping it will find it’s puzzle-loving audience!
Tony Sundell, a Turku indie game developer who has been creating an adventure game all by himself for about 2 years now is reaching the beta stage with his preposterous and really fun adventure game “Bunker The Underground Game” promising over 4 hours of gameplay. Truly an achievement to behold. Check out the awesome trailer! (Amusement guaranteed!)
Walk Mode is a recently founded indie games company formed by 2 experienced game developers Juuso Mattila and Matti Faler. Their game “Papa Void’s Power Skateboarding” is not a platformer game - it’s a jumping game! Such a genre defying concept comes alive in this sweet looking screenshot and believe it, the game looks a lot better in action!
Bugbyte’s latest project is a mixture of a simplified mini game for mobile devices and a bigger game for PC! Battlestation - Humanity’s Last Hope is a game where Babylon 5 meets Faster Than Light. This ambitious project has a lot of wind under its wings so we strongly recommend to check it out! http://battlestation.fi/
NoName Games is a very recently formed games startup that is looking to combine fresh game mechanics with classic game concepts. They were showing off their infinite runner game with drawing gameplay. Follow their interesting journey here! http://www.nonamegames.fi/
FakeFish is also a very recent games startup and they were presenting their Kalevala inspired upcoming role-playing-game Northbound. The startup has a large team so we’re expecting to see big things from them! Take a look at their devblog follow their undertakings through here http://fakefish.fi/
We did this kind of Turku Indie Gathering a year ago and it has been incredible to see the immense progress happening in the local scene. Rock on and be back for another gathering in October!
Tatu Laine
IGDA Finland Turku Hub Volunteers
Game developers and alike were quick to come back from their holidays and away from the scorching heat outside to meet with Epic Games in the Fall's first IGDA Finland Turku Hub Gathering.
Andy Hess, Technology Evangelist from Epic Games (with an impressive background from Apple, Ageia and NVIDIA) was over at Turku's gathering showing off many of the amazing features UE4 has to offer. It was incredibly interesting to hear about what made Epic Games radically change course with their subscription model which of course in the end is all for the good of us, game developers. Andy's presentation was met with great interest and with a bombardment of clever questions. We wouldn't be suprised to see a few new UE4 games being developed in the area.
Almost 100 visitors came to enjoy the gathering atmosphere and of course - the drinks. Prepare to look forward to the upcoming gatherings! Next gathering will feature some of the coolest indie game projects in Turku!
Text: Tatu Laine Pictures: Henna Tuunainen Gathering: IGDA Finland Turku Hub volunteers
Wow, the year 2014 started out in a hurry! We've already had 4 gatherings in the IGDA Finland Turku Hub! 2014 Started out with a stroke of bad luck with our gathering venue as we lost our dear old Ravintola Bryssel to Sedu in January! 1½ years worth of gatherings flew past in that venue so fast. We were left with some dear memories of the great atmosphere and the lively discussions from the venue sauna... So we found a new venue and the January Gathering was held in The Castle, which attracted almost 100 visitors since it was arranged with the Microsoft LevelUp -tour. Iraklis Grous from LudiCreations was over at the gathering the show off the Kickstarted board game Gear & Piston. It was mighty interesting to hear how they arranged a successful kickstarter campaign on a game that was actually developed in Finland.
The Castle was also a great place for an IGDA Finland gathering, but on the same evening we found out that The Castle was closing down! Talk about bad karma losing 2 venues in a row... So we were off again to find a new venue! Luckily it didn’t take long to find the next suitable venue: Hunter’s Inn! We had a “test run” gathering there in February and by looks of it all, we found a new great venue. In March we combined the evening with the Turku Game Day with Mikael Haveri from Housemarque also visiting us at the gathering. We had Resogun running on the bar's big screen and the people were really impressed with the game! (Luckily we had a 1080p projector...)
Come April and because of the need for more space, we arranged the gathering this time in our old (where it all began in 2011) venue Panimoravintola Koulu since we had a big guest for the evening, Wargaming.net! We had the biggest hall for us and free drinks for the evening and Alexander Shilyaev, the Director of Global Operations at Wargaming.net gave an insightful presentation about the growth of the company and other fun details along the journey. Suffice to say, it was a great evening for game developers and alike.
See you again in May! - Tatu & Turku Hub Volunteers
A year of gatherings came to an end in Turku with a special guest from the finnish mobile game history. Taneli Armanto, the creator of the famous Snake -mobile game on Nokia devices was sharing some stories behind the Snake -game and boy was it interesting. The game is probably one of the most largely distributed mobile game ever and while it was in development, it wasn't clear it would turn into a huge success.
Vitali Kirpu, an indie developer from Turku is making a name for himself with his Pixel Piracy getting greenlighted in Steam in just a few days. In the game, the player controls the crew of a pirate ship. The player must sail the ship over a number of sea zones, each with procedurally generated events in a roguelike fashion, while facing pirates and other hostile forces, recruiting new crew members, keeping discipline, outfitting, upgrading ship and more.
The game was quickly featured in Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Polygon and Wired UK. Check out a gameplay video, it's great!
-IGDA Finland Turku Hub folks
Winter is on us with it's dark and gloomy reach but there was no sign of it in the IGDA Finland Turku Hub gathering in November!
The Turku based company TicBits was our guests of honor this time giving a brief intro into how the wholly self-funded company has grown into 10 people with some very ambitious games coming up. After this, it was time to focus on the most important things: networking, sharing ideas and drinks.
TicBits is also 3rd on the Deloitte's Rising Stars in Technology Fast 50 Finland 2013 -list. The Turku scene could not be more proud!
Turku Gathering will be back in December!
September and October was filled with exciting events in Turku. Here’s a digest of what’s been happening in our local IGDA Finland Hub!
23.9. IGDA Finland Turku Hub gathering with Tribeflame
Tribeflame presenting
A monday night didn’t stop enthusiastic game developers and hobbyists from gathering with Tribeflame, one of the longest running game companies in Turku. Tribeflame has released a number of games, such as Light the Flower, Reiner Knizia's Labyrinth, Reiner Knizia's Clustermaster, and the latest of them being Benji Bananas that has reached 20+ million downloads combined in the Appstore and Play Store.
Gentlephant was also demoing a “Super meat boy for mobile” -kind of game which was met with great interest and a lot of cursing because of the hardcore platforming nature of the game. Together we celebrated Turku’s biggest game success so far with drinks and Bar Bryssel’s great sauna!
9.10. Turku Game Lab re-launch and Turku Hub gathering with GameTurku and Wargaming.net
The day was filled with events. Firstly the Game Tech & Arts Lab was re-launched as Turku Game Lab in the ICT-House. Turku University’s and Turku University of Applied Sciences’ game lab will strengthen the community and give tools for students and to-be developers to get their hands dirty in making games.
The day continued with a gathering in the usual place with GameTurku and Wargaming.net. GameTurku is a new portal and brand for the Turku game development scene. GameTurku is now the go-to place the get information about everything that is going on in the area: http://www.gameturku.com/
We were also very lucky to have Yury Shilyaev, the director of education and Aleksandr Zezulin, executive producer at Wargaming.net as guests for our gathering. Our gathering once again hit over 100 guests and after Alex's presentation he was met with a long Q&A session about all things World of Tanks and etc. We also learned that approx. third of the players of WOT spend money on the game and a few guys from the audience confessed to have used hundreds of euros to the game!
We'll be back on November with more exciting guests and reasons to share a pint with a fellow game developer!
Tatu Laine & Turku Hub Coordinators
The fall gatherings were kicked off in the flavour of Turku based game startups and boy, was it tasty! Bar Bryssel was once again filled with enthusiasm especially because this time we had a show from a total of 6 arising game development stars!
Kuutti Entertainment, who are bringing game classics back to life
Binary Cat Games, who are developing a rock-themed puzzle platform game for PC called Synesthesia
Team Enigmatic, who are developing Enigma Elevator, an eccentric point'n'click adventure where you play as the only teenager in the world
Vitali Kirpu, an indie dev who is working on Pixel Piracy, a side-scrolling 2d, pirate roguelike game
Indium Game Stories, who are developing Unhuman, where you play as a survivor in the city of the damned. Indium is also working on a cross-platform game engine
Brainboxing, who are developing Caligula Master, a game heavily inspired by the movie Cube
The night continued on with some special announcements. Turku’s very own Unity hero, Veli-Pekka Kokkonen, who has been really active in boosting the local gamedev community also treated us with live news about Unity2D from the Unite ‘13 conference. He’s been involved in creating the Unity2D framework and so the news were met with cheers and requests for demos and premium support!
Also, one of the longest running game companies in Turku, Treehouse was over to playtest one of the most ambitious games the Turku game scene had seen so far. Fierce battles were had between contestants with this highly competetive game, but we’ll get back with this awesome game a bit later...
Tatu Laine & IGDA Finland Turku Hub coordinators
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