THIS WEEK (45/2018) IN THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter
In this report we will combine  week 45/2018 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:

• Happy International Games Week! In Finland the International Games Week is celebrated as Peliviikko and this year the Game Week is bigger than ever. With 170+ local events and over 300 days of events the Game Week is the biggest game event in the Nordics.
  • Peliviikon tapahtumat: 5-11.11.2018 tapahtumat löydät täältä
• 9th Nov. The Finland Unity User Group is visiting Apprien. Guest speaker for the Finland Unity User Group’s November meetup with Apprien is Bastian Blokland. Bastian is the Lead Gameplay Engineer at Armada Interactive.
• 10th Nov. DevCon Tampere 2018
• 10-11th November. Theme Park. Digital art rally 2018 / Kouvola
• 14th Nov. Xmasjkl – The Finnish Game Industry Seminar / Jyväskylä
  • Mika Rahko, Futureplay
  • Lauri Vuohensilta, Hydraulic Press Channel
  • Adam Sporka, Composer, Kingdom Come Deliverance
  • Jussi Immonen, Nitro Games
    ..and more announcements coming soon!We are super happy to have COOL people coming again as a our speaker to 2018 event at Jyväskylä, Central Finland
  • The Finnish Game Industry Seminar now annual event already 4th time!
  • You can also book the demo stand with 80€
  • NightStop playing at #XmasJKL
• 19-23 November 2018, Nanjing: IMGA Judging Sessions, China Game Design Seminar and the Awards Ceremony & Parties
• 20th Nov. IGDA Finland Turku Hub November event with Platonic Partnership
• 22 November Manse Games Event / Tampere
  • Teut Weidemann joins to talk about F2P game monetisation.
  • Petri Ikonen. The talk will focus on how the studio overcame the obstacles of designing a F2P mobile game from a well-loved IP, and how their design thinking has changed during production and running the live service.
  • Third speaker will be Co-Founder of GameRefinery Joel Julkunen. Joel will be comparing the US mobile game market with several Asian markets and focus on their differences in various areas. During this talk we will learn which genres, game features & mechanics and visual styles are hot and which are not.
  • Fourth speaker will be Kalle Kaivola! Kalle has worked on games for two decades as a producer, publisher and most recently investor as a partner in Sisu Game Ventures.
  • Fifth speaker will be Google’s Industry Manager Juho Juhantalo. Juho is your first touchpoint to Google in mobile gaming in the Northern European region. 
  • Founder of Cellense Ivan Trancik. Ivan with his team at Cellense have worked to launch and scale over 50 games with over 2 billion downloads. They have been working with fast growing game studios like Fingersoft, Frogmind, BoomBit, DoDreams and many others.
• 23-25 November Junction / Helsinki
• 30.11.2018 klo 10.00-13.45 mobiili- ja AR-teknologian työpaja / Helsinki
• 4-5th Dec. Slush
• 12th Dec Museot pelissä – Museums at Play / Helsinki
• 25-27th January Global Game Jam  if you want to run a site, apply now!
• 29th January Games First London 2019
• 22-24th May Nordic Game Conference / Helsinki
  • Gaming Track

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

• Part Time Monkey is in search of an expert designer with a technical mindset, motivated to get their hands dirty.
• Taike on julkaissut pelitaiteeseen erikoistuvan läänintaiteilijan paikan hakuun
• GamePro training program open now. Apply before Nov. 19th
• 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!

Releases;

• Part Time Monkey’s Great Race – Route 66 out for iOS
• Still Running launch The Walking Vegetables on Nintedo Switch

Announcements;

• Platonic Partnershipin Lydia palkittiin vuoden 2018 raittiustekona.
• Critical Ops surpasses 50 million downloads as v1.0 enters beta
• On 3rd November, three contestants battled live GameOn in Vilnius for a spot in the Discovery Contest Grand Finals at NG19 next May.Victory went to Finnish Panzerdog and their game Tacticool, a fast-paced multiplayer shooter. A big congrats to Panzerdog!

Discussions;

• It’s time to stop spending billions on cheap conference swag

• iterative design/development principles
• How to support juniors to get employed at game industry that is mainly looking for seniors?

Other News;

• Heroes of Warland at Huawei event in Rome, Italy, with Fatal1ty, BorasLegend, and many Finnish streamers and YouTubers!
• Blog by Tuomas Erikoinen; Being a Game Designer
• Farm League game incubator is now accepting applications: https://www.f6s.com/helsinkigamesfactory. Incubator is located in Helsinki Games Factory, and officially opening our doors in January 2019. Are you or do you know a young, dedicated team that could use some support in getting their game startup flying? Apply now!
  With any questions, please contact Suvi Kiviniemi suvi@gamesfactory.fi, linkedin, anything goes.
• 2 years ago the papers were signed between The HIVE – Turku Game Huband Turun Teknologiakiinteistöt where magic started with #turku gamedev scene. Growing teams and published games lined up already, now to keep this vibe and energy going!
• Here’s the latest The Name of the Game documentary film news! They got some help from X-Men! and the aim is to bring the film to international audiences as well. Finnish premiere on November 23rd
• Pelit kiertoon! -pelikeräys 5.-11.11.2018 Have you heard about Pelit kiertoon! -pelikeräys event? They are collecting functional games, board games and console and PC games for families living under the poverty line. We all know Activation keys are worth something, either in the context of marketing or so, but here’s the thing. These families probably couldn’t afford your game anyway. So let’s give these people an awesome Christmas gift, so they will remember that the game industry actually does give a damn.
• Baltic Game Incubator is a pilot (2018-2020) funded by the EU project. ‘Baltic Game Industry – Empowering a Booster for Regional Development’ (BGI) aims towards boosting the game industry in the Baltic Sea region (BSR), increasing the capacity for innovation and transferring the game industry in the region into a global player with worldwide competitiveness. Metropolia is looking for essential factors that help startups to develop and expand their business internationally.
• Next week Natasha Bulatovic Trygg will be giving a talk about visual narrative and vitality of visual storytelling in games at #MIGS18 in Montreal, Canada
• Videopelit ovat nyt kunnianhimoista taidetta – HS testasi neljä kehuttua peliteosta ja kävi kylässä Remedy-studiolla
• The first episode of the interactive, retro game-inspired series Alvin From Earth, funded via Kickstarter is now live. You, the viewer, can directly impact the next episode. 
• Kajaani University of Applied Sciences  introduced a brand new “Bachelor’s Degree in Esports Business” this autumn which attracted passionate students from all around the globe. The main aim is to develop business competence and knowledge in the field of esports, the industry with highest potential. “Esports Business is not about limiting the options, but increasing the opportunities”, said our Esports Business students. Be a part of future and join us next autumn – Apply between 9 – 23 January!
• Millainen peli Wilma olisi?  Wilma Goes Gaming on pelisuunnittelukilpailu, jossa parhaat pelikonseptit palkitaan. Nyt pelisuunnittelusta kiinnostuneilla on tilaisuus laittaa ideat lentoon ja omat pelisuunnittelutaidot testiin!

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.