THIS WEEK (42/2018) IN THE FINNISH GAME INDUSTRY

Play Finland’s Weekly Newsletter
In this report we will combine  week 42/2018 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:

• October 19th Monetization in Games: Past, Present and Future – ft. John Romero / Helsinki
• 24th-26th October, Join Neogames and the Nordics at Game Connection Europe / Paris
• 10th Nov. DevCon Tampere 2018
• 10-11th November. Theme Park. Digital art rally 2018 / Kouvola
• 14th Nov. Xmasjkl – The Finnish Game Industry Seminar / Jyväskylä
  • First patch of Speaker announcements!
  • 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
  • Ticket sales are open! Early Bird Prices -10% are available until 21.10.2018
  • The Finnish Game Industry Seminar now annual event already 4th time!
• 19-23 November 2018, Nanjing: IMGA Judging Sessions, China Game Design Seminar and the Awards Ceremony & Parties
• 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. 
• 23-25 November Junction / Helsinki
• 4-5th Dec. Slush
• 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
Open jobs:

• Veikkaus Game Studio is looking for a talented game artist to join one of their game teams!
• 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
• 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;

• Pako Forever is out on iOS and Google Play! Free with option to remove ads! Leaderboards are filling up quite nicely already, join the madness!
• Hot Wheels makes a spectacular return to Drive Ahead! as part of their 50th anniversary.
• Frogmind’s first F2P game, Badland Brawl, is out on the App Store and Google Play globally

Announcements;

• StepDemo on nyt haettavissa. StepDemo keskittyy sisällöllisesti peleihin ja musiikkiin. Määrärahan tavoitteena on saada nuoret hyödyntämään omaa kulttuurillista osaamistaan luoden lisäarvoa ja uusia näkökulmia luovaan talouteen. Vuoden 2018 määräraha on 150 000 €. Tukea haetaan AVEK-hakujärjestelmän kautta, haku päättyy torstaina 29.11.2018.
• Neogames is updating the list of active Finnish Game Developers. Please see the list from the link. Please let us know (in this post or suviATneogamesDOTfi) if your company is missing. It is required that listed company is registered in YTJ and is regularly releasing games or is developing those in full time.
• Neogames is listing Finnish games released globally (and for first time) on 2018. Please help and make sure that yours are listed! and please let suviATneogamesDOTfi know if there are mistakes.

Recommendations from Play Finland community;

• Niklas Saari is looking for a video editor for a game trailer

Other News;

• Due to the last weeks news we would like to remind everyone about Finnish Game Industry Code of Conduct.
• New distribution channel for games; Discord Store Global Beta Is Live!
• Want to be in with a chance to win Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards in association with Game Insight? You can nominate a game or company for an accolade (or in multiple categories) over on the Mobile Games Awards website. Lobbying ends on October 22nd, shortly after which they will announce the finalists.
• Discussion about alcohol consumption in Finnish Game Industry.
• Don’t work yourselves to death because of mismanagement! No game is worth your health.
• Iron Danger just released a new (alpha) trailer of the game. So, if you’d love to get chance to try Iron Danger early on during the alpha stage, jump into Discord server at to get more info.
• Nordic Game Discovery Contest: 3 more finalists have arrived!
  • Polar Night by Red Stage Entertainment
  • Bossgard by Sand Sailor Studio
  • Metamorphosis by Ovid Works
  • Stay tuned as these 3 finalists – and more to come – join Keg Wars and Path Out for the Grand Finals, at Nordic Game 2019, 22-24 May in Malmö, Sweden.
  • Read more about NGDC

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.