THIS WEEK (10/2019) IN THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter
In this report we will combine week 10/2019 from the Finnish Game Industry.
News are gathered from the Play Finland group posts during the week. That is why we recommend you to post by yourself (however not flood) your Finnish Game Industry related news to the group. It also guarantees that your news will be visible in the weekly newsletter /news compilation. Play Finland is at the moment one of the main channels for sharing information inside the industry.

Events:

• Games Now Spring 2019 program:
  • James Wootton: Games for Quantum Computers – Games Now! lecture series
  • 1th March
    @ Design Factory/Streamed, 15-17 EET
    “Check your Assumptions – Making the Most of User Experience Research”
    Inger Ekman, DICE/Electronic Arts
  • 1st April
    @ Design Factory/Streamed, 15-17 EET
    “Playing with grief: What participatory game design can do for mourners.”
    Sabine Harrer, Copenhagen Game Collective
  • 6th May
    @ Learning Centre/Streamed, 15-17 EET
    “Why Godot Right Now?”
    Ariel Manzur, Godot Engine
  • 10th-12th May
    @ Learning Centre/Otaniemi
    Games Now! Jam
• 8th March International Women’s Day with Women In Games Finland
• 12 March IGDA Helsinki Hub March Seminar + Gathering with Ubisoft RedLynx
• 14 March Game Audio Awards / Oulu
• 19th March Nordic GDC Breakfast Workshop by Nordic Innovation House / San Francisco
• 18-19th March Game Connection America / San Francisco
  • see the Nordic Offer DL feb. 6th
  • Helsinki based game start-ups (less than 5 years of age) can apply Helsinki travel grants to GC America participation. There is also a quota of 4 Helsinki companies who can participate free to GC . Everything works by first come first served bases. More info about that from Henrik Keinonen. https://newcohelsinki.fi/fi/meista/
• 18th-22 March Game Developers Conference
• 26th March Women in Games Finland will a have meeting on March 26, 5 PM at for founding the NGO Games Factory
• 6th April IT and Games Job Fair Helsinki 2019
• April 11-12th; GameDev Days 2019 / Tallinn
• 22-24th May Nordic Game Conference / Malmö
  • 50% off on conference passes to Nordic Game 2019, 22-24 May in Malmö, Sweden. This counts until midnight, January 3rd.
  • CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THIS GROUP: the first 10 to select this group in the menu and enter this code, NG19PF5MLGG4, will get the Dinner Experience for free!
• 28-30 May. Casual Connect in London;
  • The submission form for the international Indie Prize scholarship at Casual Connect Europe 2019 at QE II Centre, London. Make sure to submit your game BEFORE MARCH 20.

See also The Game Industry Events calendar: http://www.neogames.fi/en/events/eventcalendar
Neogames is creating a tool for the city of Helsinki summarising all key games industry related events in Helsinki
Open jobs & Recruitment

• Iceflake Studios Oy has new open positions available
• Redhill Games announced intern program. They are eager to keep learning and would love to work with those who share same passion for games and continued improvement.
  
• Need a games job in Finland?
• Get your self matched in Game Factory Talents. Find your place in the Finnish Games Industry
  • Games Factory Talents have introduced a new platform to make your talent visible for the game studios. They are building a community of developers to showcase, making it easier for the game studios to find the talent they need.
  • “Instead of building a platform only for job seeking game industry professionals, we wanted a platform where the game studios could come and meet the talent even before they start the long and expensive process of advertising an open job position. Our Talent Board features industry professionals from all levels of experience to most of the various positions studios might be looking to fill”, explains Kim Bäckroos, CEO of the newly formed Games Factory Talents.
  • New talent is being added to the Talent Board constantly, and Games Factory Talents are inviting all industry professionals and game studios to take part. Head over Games Factory Talents to look at the talent and job positions available and make yourself visible for the hiring studios.Follow Games Factory Talents on social media for the latest news and information on any upcoming talent acquisition events.
  • https://www.linkedin.com/company/gamesfactorytalents
  • https://www.instagram.com/gamesfactorytalents
• Are you looking for game industry professionals to join your team? Oleg Paliy & José Jácome
  are inviting you to join our recruitment event in Kiev in December. You will have a chance to pre-screen the candidates in advance and conduct f2f interviews on the spot. You can also join our #PlayFinland stand at the biggest local #gamedev conference Games Gathering, this way you can combine recruitment and business meetings.
• Jobs in Games: Rovio’s Heini Kaihu on how to get a job as head of studio.
  • if people are interested in taking part in ‘Jobs in Games’ series feel free to get in touch with Craig Chapple!

 
Announcements;

• Finnish studio Critical Force names ex-CFO Sami Tolonen as its new CEO
• Nitro Games Heroes of Warland (Mobile) and Vaki Games Kingshunt has been nominated to Game Connection Development Awards
• BugByte’s Space Haven has been funded in less than 48 hours on Kickstarter. 
  • Olen pienen indie pelistudion toimitusjohtaja. Uusin pelimme sai hakemansa $40 000 rahoituksen alle 48 tunnissa joukkorahoituksella. AMA.
• Helsinki start-up Reworks raises $1.5m in funding as studio looks to challenge Glu Mobile’s Design Home / Recolor-värityshitin tekijät siirtyivät sisustamiseen – Reworks keräsi siemenrahaa pelialan kultasormilta
• Helsinki based startups can apply for a travel grant from the City of Helsinki to support their international expansion. The travel grant covers 70 % annual travel costs up to 4 000 €.

 
 
Other News;

• Gregory Pellechi latest episode of
• Undead Horde from 10tons is now out on Early Access.
• Kamu turvaa sujuvan pelikokemuksen yhdessä legendaarisen Epic Gamesin kanssa
• Elina Ahonen is conducting her bachelor’s thesis. Subject for the thesis is employee engagement in Finnish game industry and she is urgently looking for participants! The agenda is to interview human resources managers or other persons responsible of employees in game companies to gather best possible data. 
• The Aalto EE team is currently updating our Game Executive banner, and looking for game to be featured in their new visuals.
• Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince arrives this Fall on Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC!
• Great blog post from Scott Osborn; Good example about data and analytics: data is nothing unless you know how to interpret it. It can easily lead you astray and to take totally wrong actions.
• Supercellin Ilkka Paananen vastaa uutuus­peliin liitettyyn huoleen: ”Aggressiivinen rahan­kerääminen ei olisi kestävä liiketoiminta­tapa”

This is the weekly summary of news from the Finnish game  industry. If you want to have your news on the list, post them on the Play Finland Facebook group. The summary will be posted every Friday afternoon. Check out previous week’s list.