Scholarship to Nordic Game Jam

The Finnish Game Jam has sent Antti Koponen to the Nordic Game Jam held in Copenhagen on April 25-28 2019 as part of the FGJ’s Scholarship Program.

Koponen is studying game development at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences and is passionate about making games and jamming. He is a multifaceted developer having jammed in various roles including 3D artist, UI artist, sound designer, and game designer. He has solo jammed from home at Ludum Dares 40-43, participated at a number of jams at Kajaani University as well as Museo Game Jam and the Global Game Jam organized by FGJ. The scholarship includes a ticket to the event and a 300€ travel stipend.

The FGJ Scholarship Program was created to help Finnish jammers to travel to international game jams to promote the Finnish jamming scene, share jamming culture and promote international cooperation.

For more information on FGJ and our scholarship program visit: https://www.finnishgamejam.com/scholarships


Nordic Game Jam is an annual game jam held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the years the event has grown from a classic 48 hours game jam to including two days of conference with talks, workshops, round tables and a pre-party. NGJ is one of the largest game jams in the world, with 900 participants as of 2016.
Website: https://www.nordicgamejam.com

Finnish Game Jam has been awarded with Suomi Award 2018

Finnish Game Jam has received a prestige art award in Finland. Suomi-palkinto (Finland Award) is an annual arts and culture recognition and was granted by our Minister for European Affairs, Culture and Sports, Sampo Terho. Suomi-palkinto has been awarded annually since 1993 and it can be granted as a recognition of an impactful career, remarkable achievement or promising initiative within the field of arts and culture.

Finnish Game Jam organization is in great company. Six other artists and groups were also awarded: legendary musician Remu Aaltonen, Alt Arkkitehdit, author and translator Jyrki Kiiskinen, Koko Jazz Club, creative director Paola Suhonen and movie director Selma Vilhunen.

“We have a lot of talent in Finland. Some of them work in groups, but many work alone. More and more of them have also gained international reputation. Creativity is born from individuals, which can be supported by the community and the surrounding society”, explains Minister Sampo Terho.

“This year we have wanted to honor remarkable artistic expertise with the Finland Award. Artists, who have been impacting the Finnish art scene for a long time. On the other hand, we have also wanted to recognize the new trends in the Finnish art and culture”, continues Terho.

Finnish Game Jam was recognized for our impact to the Finnish game making communities and as a unique organization also within the international landscape.

Finnish Game Jam would like to congratulate all the awarded artists and communities and thank everyone participating, collaborating and supporting our events!

Source: https://minedu.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/taiteentekijoille-suomi-palkintoja

Children inspired games at the Pikku Kakkonen Game Jam

Children were acting as both creators and the audience of games in the unique Pikku Kakkonen Game Jam. Kids had drawn and sent hundreds of game characters and their characteristics for the jammers, who got to select the drawings that inspired them and create games around them.

 

As suitable, the game jam was located in the Yle’s studio in Mediapolis, Tampere, from where the Pikku Kakkonen show is aired. The inspiring surroundings featured a life-size doll house and a visit from the famous and frightening Morso. On Sunday, a group of children arrived to the site as voice actors, and tested the games.

 

There were 23 jammers, who made in total 6 games during 48 hours. The game jam was organized by Finnish Game Jam and Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle. See and download the games from the jam’s Itch page.

Pikku Kakkonen Game Jam

We’re jamming games for children in collaboration with the beloved children’s tv show Pikku Kakkonen!

Finnish Game Jam partners up with Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle to organize a unique kind of game jam. This time it’s all about the kids! Not only are they the target audience, but creators as well: Yle ran a nationwide campaign to collect drawings from children to be used as the main inspiration for the games.

In addition, jamming will take place in the studio set of Pikku Kakkonen, located in Tohloppi district of Tampere.

After the jam all of the games will be available for free on itch.io.

Pikku Kakkonen Game Jam
12.-14.10. 2018
Mediapolis, Tampere

Game jamming at Pocket Gamer Connects

For the third time in a row, Finnish Game Jam brought game jamming to the mobile game conference Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki. The Pocket Jam is run at the heart of the conference, where many bite sized mobile games and other games are born. This time the theme for the games was “Chain Reaction”, from which 10 games were completed. See them all from here!

The games that were finished and uploaded according to the deadline participated in a competition, where Pocket Gamer awarded three games and gave one honorary mention. Here are the awarded games:

1st place: ExeCUTE

Mikko “Mishicu “Aaltio – Music & Sound Design
Matti Isotalo – UI, Graphics
Emppu Nurminen – Visual Artist
Henri Sarasvirta – Programming
Joel Setterberg – Programming

2nd place: Sculpt

Miikka Harjuntausta – Code
Krista Erkkilä – Art
Nam Nguyen – Music

3rd place: Stock Market Panic

Henri Niva – Programming, Game Design
Ville Talonpoika – Programming, Game Design
Francesco Fontana – UI Design, Game Design
Hannu Koivuranta – Environment Art, Game Design
Arttu Norrlin – Character Art, Game Design
Valtteri Bade – UI Art, Game Design
Elie Abraham – Music

Honorary mention: Chain Lightning

Paavo Kyppö – Programming
Ivan Rubin – Art
Jani Gröhn – Design & Music

11 games made at the ASM Game Jam 2018

Finnish Game Jam organized the already traditional game jam at the Assembly Summer. In the sixth ASM Game Jam, participants created 11 games around the theme “Hot Hot Hot”. Everyone at Assembly was welcomed to join the jamming also as voice actors and playtesters.

See the compilation video and gameplay videos below, and check all the game projects from https://itch.io/jam/asm-game-jam-2018!

#7 hour jam, #Seittemätunnijamit, comes to SuomiAreena, Pori

Finnish Game Jam together with Veikkaus Game Studio will bring a game jam to the audiences of SuomiAreena on 19th July. This seven hour game jam will be placed at Kansalaistori at the heart of Pori at Veikkaus’ booth.

Anybody can join the jamming as voice actors at noon together with Finnish celebrities and politicians Aira Samulin, Kike Elomaa and Ilkka Kanerva. The finished games (if all goes well) will be available for play at 16:00.

Come talk about games and beat the score that Finnish YouTuber Herbalisti and Peter Vesterbacka will set for each game!

Jam Jam 2018 attracted game jam organizers around the world together

On June 29th, almost 70 game jam organizers from all over the world arrived into the middle of a Finnish forest in Sappee, Finland. Here the Finnish Game Jam organized the annual Jam Jam Festival. For three days, jam organizers and jammers discussed, networked and shared ideas.

 

Friday’s seminar was full with interesting talks, such as Sun Park talking about making weird games every month, Astrid Mie Refstrup about the obstacles for event organizing, and Arvi Teikari talking about the jam-born Baba is You game. The full list of the speeches included:

  • Project.99 – Making Weird Games Every Month – Sun Park, Turtle Cream
  • Event Organising – All the Obstacles to Look Out for – Astrid Mie Refstrup, Nordic Game Jam
  • Finding Identity of Slavic Game Jam over the Years  – Kacper Domański, Slavic Game Jam
  • Molesting the Match-3 Market and other Jammed Games – Petri Purho
  • Baba is You – Arvi Teikari
  • How I Tried to MAKE MUSIC 4 UR GAMES – Elie Abraham, Elie & Ian
  • Jamming Across the World – Some Challenges of Jamming in Different
  • Countries and Cultures – Jo Summers, Global Game Jam
  • Why Game Jam – A Story about Personal and Communal Benefits  – Miikka Harjuntausta
  • Jamming a Game while Cycling 600 km on a Tandem – Jonne Harja & Samuli Jääskeläinen

 

Saturday and Sunday consisted from more than 10 workshops, that anyone of the participants could organize. The workshops also including a 1h game jam, in which the participants created 8 games. In addition, the #JamBike duo Jonne Harja and Samuli Jääskeläinen arrived to the place with their tandem bike, coding a game as they cycled 60 km to the location. All participants were even given the possibility to try to ride and code with the bike.

  

In addition to the official program, a lot of sharing, discussing and creating new jam ideas happened in the 8 hot tubs and 9 saunas of the 8 cabins reserved for the festival. One of the saunas was even located in a bus that was driven from Kotka to Sappee just for the weekend.

   

IGDA Finland and some IGDA’s international guests convened in the Jam Jam as well, and the combination of game jam organizers and IGDA community was certainly a fruitful one.

  

Thanks to all participants for the successful event, and our sponsors Boozembly, Korulab and Futureplay Games and our supporter Neogames! Jam Jam will be back in 2019!

 

Jam Jam 2018 tickets now available

Finnish Game Jam is organizing the annual game jam retreat, Jam Jam, for game jam organizers and anyone interested in learning, discussing and sharing ideas on game jams.

The tickets are now available and will cover the rent of the cottages, Friday’s seminar, lunches, snacks and the bus rides from Helsinki and back. You can also buy a ticket only for the one-day seminar or volunteer as a help for the weekend. See more and get a ticket from Eventbrite.

Jam Jam 2018 is located in the middle of a Finnish forest, on top of a mountain called Sappeenvuori – about 2h car ride from Helsinki (see details from Sappee.fi). The Jam Jam 2018 is also supported by Neogames.

Games from Edu Game Jam

Teachers and game developers gathered together and created four new games at the first Edu Game Jam at ITK-konferenssi, Hämeenlinna. The jam was co-organized by Finnish Game Jam and the Growing Mind research project, and supported by Ministry of Education and Culture and Lenovo. Check out the games: Continue reading