IGDA Finland Building new companies through IGDA

Structure of the talk 1.Introductions 2.Finnish game industry facts 3.Retrospective on success 4.How to repeat our success 5.Q&A

Introduction – Jyri Partanen Producer at Rovio (hence the chicken) Chairman at IGDA Finland 10 years in the industry Preferred platforms mobile and xbox

Introduction – Finnish game industry Nordic game developers dominate charts in key digital platforms Small teams of Nordic are creating billions in enterprise value (e.g. Supercell, King, Mojang) Finnish Games industry is a $2B market with mobile games in phenomenal growth 2600 employees, +250 companies One of the key success factors in Finland is exceptionally well networked industry

Introduction – Finnish game industry (Neogames 2015)

Introduction – Finnish game industry (Neogames 2015)

Retrospective on success 1.Free high-tech education 2.High penetration of gaming devices 3.Demo scene culture starting from 80s 4.R&D funding from the government (cumulative: 64M€) 5.Small inner market (95% of game revenue is foreign) 6.Networked community 7.IGDA Hubs around Finland

How to build game dev communities? 1.Identify key game development enthusiasts At least 5 per site 2.Give a place and concept to create community events Any restaurant with decent AV system will do One sheet describing how to organize events is useful 3.Get sponsors to spice up the events FREE BEER!11 4.Allow people to interact and form SIG’s and project groups Empower people to come up with novel collaborations

How to enable new studios to spawn? 1.Enable communities of game developers to evolve When ingredients are in place, communities will emerge 2.Offer mentoring Good results from mentoring pilot in Helsinki 3.Facilitate meetups and information sharing Focus on senior professionals to come together, they will draw newcomers Semi-closed info sharing sessions work best for some topics

IGDA Gatherings Monthly event in Helsinki, quarterly at Hubs Industry sponsors for each event Lectures, presentations, launch events and networking Draws game industry professionals for each event 10-15% international visitors on average night

Recap: IGDA Finland as an organization Founded 15 years ago by small group of industry veterans Mission: to support professionals in games industry All significant game studios part belong to IGDA Finland Roughly 800 members either individually or through Studios Nationwide momentum Active in Helsinki, Oulu, Turku, Tampere, Kotka, Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Kajaani Cooperating internationally from Argentina to Nigeria to Japan. Events and dates:

Summary of the talk 1.Introductions 2.Finnish game industry facts 3.Retrospective on success 4.How to repeat our success 5.Q&A

Thank You!