The Finnish Game Industry, which grew nine percent last year and has survived the pandemic well so far, celebrated its successful year at Supercell’s new premises in Helsinki.
The biggest winner of the evening was Nolla Games with their original indie game Noita. Noita received, not only the main award, Finnish Game of the Year 2020, but also Big Screen Game of the Year 2020 award.
Several other traditional awards and other recognitions were presented during the gala evening. The International Association of Game Developers Finnish chapter IGDA Finland awarded Joni Finne as a Volunteer of the Year 2020. The IGDA Lifetime Achievement Award went to Natasha Skult, former chairman of the Finnish IGDA and current chair of the international IGDA. The grand prize of a Bit1 student game competition was handed to Team Script Deprived, whose game DreamScript won the competition last spring. Boom Corp was awarded as a Rookie of the Year 2020, Action Squad Studios received Creative Achievement of the Year 2020 Award, and Merge Mansion by Metacore was chosen as the Small Screen Game of the Year 2020.
The traditional The Finnish Game Awards gala was held in a hybrid model. The “Dress to Impress” gala for 100 people was held in the Supercell´s new premises “Wood City” in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. This year, the list of invited guests consisted almost entirely of the staff of Finnish game studios. The main organizer of the gala, the Finnish Game Developers Association, wanted to offer its members an opportunity to meet and celebrate after a long eventless break caused by the pandemic. The gala crowd at the party celebrated shoeless in true Finnish start-up fashion, while at the same time the gala was also shown live on YouTube as a live video stream.
Main organizers of the gala were The Finnish Game Developers Association and Neogames Finland . Finnish Game Awards 2021 gala was sponsored by Supercell, Boom Corp, Colossal Order, Electronic Arts Finland, Fingersoft, Housemarque, Lightneer, Metacore Games, Next Games, Seepia Games, Seriously Digital Entertainment, Skunkworks Games, Small Giant Games, Supremacy Games, Ubisoft RedLynx and Zaibatsu Interactive.
The gala festivities can also be viewed as a YouTube video at: https://youtu.be/nYvF_F8d4LU.
The winners of this year’s The Finnish Game Awards are:
IGDA Volunteer of the Year 2020: Joni Finne
IGDA is based on volunteering and this year the traditional Volunteer of the Year award went to Joni Finne. He has worked e.g. Member of the Board of IGDA since 2018.
IGDA Lifetime Achievement Award: Natasha Skult
Natasha Skult has been a member of the Finnish IGDA for many years and was appointed Chairman of the Board of the International IGDA in April 2021. Natasha has also been actively involved in the development of the IGDA’s IGDA Future activities for people under 18.
Rookie of the Year 2020: Boom Corp
Boom Corp is a 10-person Tampere-based game studio established 2020. Boom Corp has released the mobile game Boom Slingers. The game has reached a million audience in a short time and the company also raised more than 1.5 million euros in funding this year.
Best Creative Achievement of the Year 2020: Iron Danger / Action Squad Studios
Iron Danger is a tactical role-playing game developed by Action Squad Studios in Helsinki and published by Daedalic Entertainment. It has taken a lot of inspiration from the Finnish cultural heritage and especially the Kalevala.
Big Screen Game of the Year 2020: Noita / Nolla Games
Published on PCs, the original, retro and relentlessly difficult Witch has won the hearts of critics and gamers around the world.
Small Screen of the Year 2020: Merge Mansion / Metacore Games
Helsinki-based Metacore Games, which previously made games for smart watches, changed its direction and name in 2020. The focus on mobile games paid off, as the debut game Merge Mansion has been a major hit, having been downloaded more than 10 million times.
Main prize: Finnish Game of the Year 2020: Noita / Nolla Games
Published on PCs, the original, retro and relentlessly difficult Witch has won the hearts of critics and gamers around the world.
Learn more
Neogames Finland ry / KooPee Hiltunen / 040-5324176 / koopee@neogames.fi
Photos: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Avh8gGYzxU_vh9Y_GH3_C9Je8LYg7g?e=Ic17Yl
Finnish Game Industry
In 2020, the Finnish Game Industry reached a turnover of more than two billion euros for the sixth consecutive year. In 2020, turnover of the industry increased by nine per cent from the previous year to EUR 2.4 billion and the net result was as much as half a billion euros. In 2020, previous challenges in the gaming industry continued and were highlighted in some respects. The shortage of skilled labor and the challenges of remote work in both creative work and business development have caused delays and difficulties in completing new games. A total of about a hundred new games were published in 2020. The “middle class” in the Finnish Game Industry has grown significantly, and by the end of 2020, as many as 46 of Finland’s two hundred game studios had already achieved a turnover of more than one million euros. The Finnish Game Industry employed 3,600 people in the end of 2020. Finland is still a very attractive center for the gaming industry worldwide. The latest report on the Finnish Game Industry can be found at the new address www.playfinland.fi