IGDA Helsinki Presents:
April Meetup with Nextcon and Game Makers of Finland
14.04.2026
Join us for a packed IGDA Helsinki Meetup this April sponsored by Nextcon and Game Makers of Finland! On stage we'll have an informative Finnish Game Industry QA panel. We'll also have an update on the IGDA Finland Grant 2026. At Chat Corner, we'll have an AMA session with Ari Arnbjörnsson, Senior Software Engineer for Developer Relations at Epic Games. Finally, the Finnish/Swedish language learning cafe, Café Lingua, is also making a return!
Please see further below for more details on our sponsors, panel and panelists, language cafe and Chat Corner AMA! ⬇️
📣 Note: No pre-registration is required to join our Meetup.
WHAT:
IGDA Helsinki April Meetup with Nextcon and Game Makers of Finland
WHEN:
Tuesday 14.04.
Doors open at 17
Program starts at 17:45
WHERE:
Maxine, Kamppi shopping center, 6th floor (Elevators can be found on the E-floor, between Jungle Juice Bar and Rax). Note that Maxine is a 18+ venue, hence you must be 18+ years of age to attend.
PROGRAM:
🎤 Finnish Game Industry QA panel with panelists Senior QA Lead Karol Truchan, QA Lead Henry Lunabba and Senior QA Specialist Riku Salpakari.
📢 IGDA Finland Grant 2026 info session! The IGDA Finland Grant team will share more about this year's Grant and how you can apply.
🕹️ Wanna showcase your game at our Demo Corner and get some valuable feedback? Sign up here: https://forms.gle/ZCDmR8TjVktrU9W97
Deadline for signups is April 11th at 23:59. Note, you will need to submit a 10 - 30s gameplay video!
💬 Our Chat Corner will be open and ready for chatting! Our AMA session at 19 - 20 is hosted by Ari Arnbjörnsson, Senior Software Engineer for Developer Relations at Epic Games.
Topics: Game Industry, Game Engines, Studio Workflows, Games' Performance (profiling & optimizing), Programming, Knowledge Sharing.
🗣️ We are also trialing Let’s speak in Finnish/Swedish - Café Lingua
Interested in practicing and improving your Finnish or Swedish language skills by chatting with native-speaking game industry professionals? Join Café Lingua at the April Meetup in Maxine between 17-17.45.
🎤 Panel Topic: QA in the Finnish Games Industry
This panel brings together QA professionals from across the Finnish games industry to unpack the evolving role of quality assurance in modern game development. The discussion will explore what QA really means beyond testing, who truly owns quality across a team, and how YOU can build strong quality practices.
Panelists
Karol Truchan - Senior QA Lead at Moonloot, a Netflix game studio
Karol is a leader specializing in Quality engineering, reliability, and AI‑enabled automation across large‑scale platforms and game studios. With two decades of experience, he helps organizations make quality a built‑in strength through better tooling, practices, and people‑first leadership.
Henry Lunabba - QA Lead at Metacore
Engineer, tester, manager, developer, thinker, philosopher, gamer, reader, writer, wanderer, dreamer, human. Henkka has close to 30 years of experience different different domains of Tech and QA, - including Telecom, Banking, Fintech, Health and now mobile games.
Riku Salpakari - Senior QA Specialist at Redhill Games
Riku is a humanist who made the jump to gaming QA 8 years ago and never looked back. He has worked on a variety of platforms from mobile to PC..
💬 Chat Corner Ask Me Anything - session with Ari Arnbjörnsson, 19:00 - 20:00
Ari Arnbjörnsson is a Senior Software Engineer for Developer Relations at Epic Games. He has over 18 years of games industry experience working on titles such as Angry Birds and Housemarque’s BAFTA-winning Returnal for PlayStation 5 as a lead programmer.
AMA topics: Game Industry (getting into it or about it in general), Game Engines, Studio Workflows, Games' Performance (profiling & optimizing), Programming, Knowledge Sharing, anything.
🗣️ Let's speak Finnish/Swedish! Cafe Lingua in the next Helsinki Hub meeting for the game industry professionals.
In some near or not-so-near future, are you aiming to participate in language tests to gain Finnish citizenship? Would you like to improve your skills in the language by chatting in Finnish or Swedish with someone who is native in those languages? IGDA Finland and Neogames are piloting Cafe Lingua to support this. In Cafe Lingua, you can speak Finnish or Swedish with the volunteers, with the everyday life topics that can be part of the YKI tests.
Cafe Lingua takes place between 17-17.45 in Maxine. There's a sofa area reserved for this, with Finnish and Swedish flags on the table.
What you need with you? Just you, and your willingness to speak Finnish or Swedish. Ideas for topics etc. are available at the table.
Are you a Finnish or Swedish speaker, and interested to join? You can join Cafe Lingua to chat in your native language! We have recruited volunteers to join, but it never hurts to have more hands on deck. All you need with you is your willingness to speak Finnish and Swedish with someone, who is learning the language.
ACCESSIBILITY:
At IGDA Helsinki we strive for making our events accessible for everyone. We kindly ask all attendees to stay away from using strong perfumes or similar fragrances. The Meetups can be crowded at times, meaning that the sound volume can also become rather loud.
Maxine is wheelchair accessible. There's a few steps at the entrance, for that please ask security at the cloakroom for a ramp. Accessible toilet can be found at the back of the space.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding any type of accessibility of our Meetups, then please contact helsinki@igda.fi and we will do our best to assist you. We also have an accessibility contact present at the Meetup until 19:00. They can be found near the entrance and are ready to assist with any accessibility-related matters!
Reminder that IGDA Meetups use the THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY Code of Conduct!
