As a part of our scholarship program, Finnish Game Jam sent Miikka Harjuntausta to the Train Jam (US) to represent the Finnish jamming scene. Miikka traveled to Chicago from where over 300 jammers boarded a train to create games during the trip all the way to San Francisco. Miikka shares his experiences and tips in this report.

Hey hey,

This is my report from Train Jam 2017. I will be writing this for you that might be participating Train Jam in the future. I made my trip with with an awesome artist called Krista Erkkilä.

Train Jam is a game jam event that takes place in a train ride from Chicago to Emeryville, eventually ending up in San Francisco. This was the 4th time it was organized, and the first year when Amtrak was involved and the whole train was reserved just for us developers. There were over 300 game developers taking part in the train jam this year, with very different background varying from students to industry veterans. Continue reading →

Finnish Game Jam’s fourth scholarship is for the legendary Train Jam, as was our very first scholarship a year ago. This time we received a record-breaking number of applications, and with many excellent candidates the selection process was especially hard.

Miikka Harjuntausta was selected with the vast experience of over 20 game jams, including every Global Game Jam since the first Finnish Game Jam in 2010. We proudly send Miikka to the Train Jam to represent the Finnish jamming scene, and are looking forward to hear from his experiences! Miikka shared his feelings before the trip:

This is huge!

I’ve been participating in different game jams ever since FGJ crew has been organising them. To me game jams are about community, good times, bad times, stress, challenge, inspiration and growth.

Game jam can be a tool to prototype new idea/concept with freedom of failure. It can be a time to learn something new, or it can be about meeting people.

It can be so many things!

I am immensely grateful that there are people who keep organising these events, and that I’ve been given this opportunity to participate in one of the most interesting jams in the world. I am happy, exited and terrified.

Thank you FGJ! Thank you Finnish Game Dev Community!

Finnish Game Jam ry is proud to announce our fourth jam scholarship! For the second time around FGJ is supporting one jammer’s participation to the Train Jam 2017 (United States).

Finnish Game Jam organization is awarding a ticket to the legendary Train Jam (http://trainjam.com/) and a 1000 Eur travel aid to a prominent jammer willing to represent Finnish game jamming scene in the United States and bringing back the lessons learned to the community. The candidate for the scholarship is selected based on the applications sent prior to Monday 30th January 2017 16:00 (GMT +2). A great applicant has participated to at least one FGJ game jam between 2010-2017 and has a broad experience on game jams in Finland (and/or elsewhere) as well as an interesting portfolio of game jam projects.

Train Jam is a great opportunity to network with international game jam community and to spend an amazing trip from Chicago to San Francisco right before the GDC (http://gdconf.com) week. Train Jam 2017 is the 4th organized annual event of 52h (or in case of the train being early on final destination, only 51h) game jam taking place in a moving train. The jam is organized by Adriel Wallick, independent from Finnish Game Jam organization.

Finnish Game Jam Scholarship Program is founded to improve the mobility of the Finnish jammers and further enhance the international collaboration of the global jamming scene.

See all the details and apply for the scholarship from here.

Finnish Game Jam ry organizes the annual jam organizer get together, Jam Jam, at the Sappee ski resort during June 30th – July 2nd 2017. This year we invite all the organizers around the world to join us!

The Finnish Game Jam Awards will be held on April 26, 2017 at Steam Hellsinki and on Twitch.tv/finnishgamejam. The FGJ Awards is about celebrating Finnish jamming and giving recognition for creativity and the courage to stand out from the crowd.

You are all invited! Keep tuned for the registration and details!

The main game jam event of the year is approaching! Global Game Jam is arranged on 20-22.1.2017 co-located with Finnish Game Jam 2017. Finland is participating with multiple locations all over the country!

Find the best location for you and register on Eventbrite! Follow our #FGJ17 event page for more detailed information and updates.

The third annual Quantum Game Jam will be organized on November 25-27. Quantum Game Jam brings together scientists and game makers to create games that help solve scientific problems and teach intuition of quantum phenomena. This year the main site will be at the Centre for Quantum Engineering (Otaniemi, Finland), but there are will be satellite sites around the globe for you to choose from or you can even organize your own satellite site. You can register to the main site or as an online jammer through this link.

In order to participate, you don’t need to be a professional game developer or a quantum scientist. All skills are needed from programming to drawing, from thinking quantum to making coffee. Game jamming is a constant learning process for beginners and pros alike, so come and learn together with others!

See more information from the Quantum Game Jam 2016 site.

Finnish Game Jam selected Panu Akrenius to receive a scholarship to join the InnoGames Jam at the gamescom and represent the Finnish jamming scene. Panu traveled to Cologne, Germany to jam among the 180 participants from 27 countries, and has now returned from the inspiring journey and shares his experiences in this report.

Jamming in Gamescom: The epic mix of work and fun

A very big Thanks to Finnish Game Jam and InnoGames for inviting me to a game jam in Cologne, Germany. I visited Gamescom two years ago, and I thought it was the best thing ever. Now I also had a chance to make games in there. The scholarship meant that basically my flights, accommodation and the ticket to Gamescom would be free. It’s difficult to think of anything as awesome as this.

Continue reading →

Finnish Game Jam is proud to announce the world’s first ever Pocket Jam! Pocket Jam is organized in collaboration with Pocket Gamer at the heart of the Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2016 mobile games conference. This 30 hour game jam runs at the same time with the conference and we are excited to see what jammers are able to create in such a short time and with so many great possibilities to get distracted…

More information on the jam can be found at the jam’s Facebook Event page and the tickets can be acquired from the jam’s Eventbrite page. All other inquiries can be directed to: aakoo@finnishgamejam.com.

As the third scholarship in Finnish Game Jam’s scholarship program, we awarded a ticket for InnoGames Jam in Germany. In addition to the ticket, Finnish Game Jam will cover up to 500 euros of the jammer’s travel expenses. This scholarship will take the jammer to the first major game jam arranged at the gamescom trade fair. Selected projects of the jam will have an opportunity to showcase their jam game at the world’s largest game convention.

We selected Panu Akrenius from several great applications. Panu has created music and sound design for several jam games, but is a versatile jammer and can take various roles. Panu sends his regards and describes his expectations: “Like most of the creative processes, I expect that the upcoming jam session is going to be about inspiration and discouragement, hope and despair, humans and zombies, awesome ideas that are a nightmare to implement, and so on. But in the end, it’s hopefully going to be an experience that leaves a positive sense of accomplishment, and a handful of new acquaintances.”

Have a great jam at the InnoGames Jam, Panu! We are looking forward to hear the experiences and lessons learnt from this jam!