THIS WEEK (20/2019) IN THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter
In this report we will combine week 20/2019 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
  • 11th March
    “Check your Assumptions – Making the Most of User Experience Research”
    Inger Ekman, DICE/Electronic Arts
  • 1st April
    “Playing with grief: What participatory game design can do for mourners.”
    Sabine Harrer, Copenhagen Game Collective
  • 6th May AT 15:00
    Games Now! Lecture: Why Godot Right Now?
  • 7th May
    @ Learning Centre/Streamed,
    Godot Workshop with Ariel Manzur
    Ariel Manzur, Godot Engine
  • 10th-12th May
    @ Learning Centre/Otaniemi

    GN! Game Jam 2019
• May 28th. The Unreal Engine meetup group is visiting Housemarque  for their first company visit!
• May 28thDevs Talk is coming again and will focus on Talent and Recruitment! Talent is universal in our industry, but opportunities are local. How do you find that talent? How do you recruit them? What do you need to keep in mind?
• 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.
• 4th June Helsinki Startup Day
• 14-16th June Eko Game Jam / Helsinki
• 17th June; Reactor invites people to Artificial Overmind, build an AI in Python that can play StarCraft II, outsmart the other players, and rise in the rankings.
• 18-20th June Finnish Game Day 2019 in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The signup for Finnish studios here

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

• Lightneer is hiring
• 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!
• Curious on how to enter the Games Industry? On March 1st, during the Futures Day, one of the topics discussed on our stream was just that! Take a look and see what industry veterans have to say on the topic. If you know what your skills are, and just need a place to apply them, take a look at http://www.devs.tv/jobs/ for the current list of all jobs available in the Finnish Game Industry!

Releases;

• Ctrl Alt Ninja released Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest on Wednesday May 15th. Get it on Steam or GOG.COM
• Joakim Achrén is launching a podcast in two weeks, where he talks to founders of games companies, to hear their story and how they have been growing their company.

Announcements;

• IGDA Finland has made a partnership with F2P Campus in Spain, offering ALL INCLUSIVE (sponsored trip, participation and stay in Spain) for 3 months of development and coaching experience for Finnish gamedev teams. Boost your current project-development and business strategies while enjoying sunny Spain!Deadline for application is 31st of May – so be fast!
• Punnu Games won the first prize Energy Hackathon in Turku

Discussions;

• Timo Palonen asks if anyone with xp on building and operating a live game on Playfab or other ”off the shelf”-solution? He would love to hear from a real case and not just sales pitches of how easy and awesome these things are.
• Heikki Kareranta  asks if there any horror/adventure games in development in Finland that might need some additional music?
• GameRefinery is moving to a new office and we have some extra work desks and chairs + small meeting room table with chairs we can give away to someone who needs them. PM Markus Råmark if you are interested, you can pick them up from Eerikinkatu 27 in Helsinki.
• Teemu Erämaa wanted to ask out of curiosity… How do you feel about A) this ad in general and B) the narrative of the game/advert?
• Games became new field open for art grant applications from Finnish Cultural Foundation (Suomen Kulttuuri Rahasto) this year. Johanna Verhiö got one from North Ostrobothnia Regional Fund. She interested in who else got an art grant and for what? And of course if you got a grant for research, please share! Johanna’s grant is for three months artistic work to design a game about emotions for the young.

Other News;

• China Game Day was a great success, big thanks to all the speakers, sponsors and attendees!
• Do you want to come along to make a dream game? Or are you a professional in gaming business and you want to give your advice and contribution to the progress of our work? join ALT Game Makers group! Together we can make this wold a better place <3 (alt-project starts in 5.6.2019)
• Devs first podcast (about people and their background in the gaming industry, how they got in, and so forth)  is released: Tommi Törönen, who’s an indie developer and student at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. They go through his backgrounds, his travels, dreams, and how crunching affected his health.
• Oleg Paliy asks game developers from Finland to join the annual Finnish Game Day and Play Finland area at White Nights Conference June 18-20 in St.Petersburg! This year they have dedicated meeting area at Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg to conduct pre-booked meetings and White Nights business assistant will allow you to book the meetings with the conference attendees both at the Consulate and the Conference! You will meet investors, publishers and founders of the leading game studios from Russia and Eastern Europe. This event has helped Finnish studios to attract investments, close publishing deals and find partners!
  
• 1 month until the Early Bird offer for the Game Executive expires. If you are not convinced yet meet some of our professors, speakers, and companies (sponsors and partners) participating in the program.
• How is it possible for Epic store and Steam operate in China?
• IGDA celebraterd its 25 birthday at Nordic Game Conf, Malmö in IGDA Nordics Party.
• Last autumn Lightneer reinvented a new strategy: hyper casual. They’ve changed  approach from an edu game studio to rapid development with small teams, and since then we’ve created and market tested 22 games. Do you know any other FI studios or indies working on hyper casual games? Let’s connect!
• DevsTalk announced more panelists for the next DevsTalk. And tickets are still available!

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.