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.

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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!

Finnish Game Jam awarded a scholarship for one jammer to join the Castle Game Jam 2016. We selected Henri Sarasvirta to represent the Finnish game jamming scene on the week-long game jam happening inside a castle in Sweden. Henri enjoyed the journey and shares his experiences with us in his travel report. If you are interested in the Finnish Game Jam scholarship program, you can now apply for the scholarship for InnoGames Jam 2016.

Week in a castle

Back in 2015 Newnorth technologies had this crazy kickstarter project of doing a game jam in an actual castle. I hadn’t noticed the kickstarter in time, but luckily for me Finnish Game Jam association had an extra ticket for their scholarship. Big thanks for letting me be the one to get to jam in a castle! The jam differs from usual jams not only by its location but also by the length of the event. Jam started on Sunday with a pre-party and continued with lectures and group forming on Monday. From that point on it was jamming until Saturday morning. Continue reading →

Finnish Game Jam ry is proud to announce our third jam scholarship! This time we are going to send one jammer to Germany to the first ever game jam organized at the Gamescom! InnoGames Jam is a three-day game jam in Germany organized on August 17th-19th 2016. The best projects of the jam will have an opportunity to showcase their jam game at the world’s largest game convention.

Finnish Game Jam organization is awarding a ticket to the InnoGames Jam and a 500€ travel aid to a prominent jammer willing to represent Finnish game jamming scene and bringing back the lessons learned to the community. The candidate for the scholarship is selected based on the applications sent prior to Monday 1st of August 2016 16:00 (GMT +3). Apply now!

InnoGames Jam is organized by InnoGames.com, 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.

What would Assembly be without rapid game development? Finnish Game Jam brings jamming to Assembly once again! ASM Game Jam is a lot like other game jams with an Assembly twist. This year ASM Game Jam is collaborating with FIVR, so we expect to see a lot of VR games – but you can always choose your own platform and technology.

You can participate by buying the special ASM Game Jammer ticket from Eventbrite or by purchasing a normal ticket directly from Assembly. The ASM Game Jammer ticket will include a computer place and all the normal access on Assembly area. If you already bought a ticket but would like to move to the jammer area please contact vesa@finnishgamejam.com. You can jam wherever you want during the Assembly Summer weekend as long as you are at the Assembly area.

Join our Facebook event page to get all the updates to the jam. If you have any further questions on ASM Game Jam 2016, please contact the main organizer: vesa@finnishgamejam.com

Finnish Game Jam run a second round of our scholarship program with the Scholarship for Castle Game Jam 2016 (SWE). The ticket for the scholarship came from a private donor, as Rachel Ponce was not able to participate to Castle Game Jam and wanted to hand out the ticket to our scholarship program. We thank of this opportunity! In addition to the ticket, Finnish Game Jam will offer a stipend of 300 euros to cover the travel expenses.

We decided to select Henri Sarasvirta from the applicants for his outstanding jamming background. He has participated in more than a dozen game jams and every Global Game Jam since the very first Finnish Game Jam in 2010. Henri sends his regards: “Jam jam jam! Castle jam sounds like an awesome possibility to take jamming one step further. Having one week to develop games means a total of 168 hours of active development time (Not…). Big thanks for FGJ for making this possible!”

We are happy to send Henri to represent the Finnish game jam scene, and look forward to hear how jamming in a castle feels like!

Castle Game Jam is organized by James Newnorth from Newnorth Technology. For more information, go to: http://www.castlegamejam.com/

Finnish Game Jam ry is proud to announce our second jam scholarship! This time we are going to send one jammer to Sweden to the amazing Castle Game Jam! Castle Game Jam is a week-long event in July 4th-10th, 2016 where jammers and game developers around the globe gather to create games and party together – in an actual castle!

Finnish Game Jam organization is awarding a ticket to the Castle Game Jam 2016 (http://www.castlegamejam.com/) and a 300 Eur travel aid to a prominent jammer willing to represent Finnish game jamming scene and bringing back the lessons learned to the community. The candidate for the scholarship is selected based on the applications sent prior to Sunday 13th June 2016 16:00 (GMT +3). Go and apply now!

Castle Game Jam is organized by Newnorth Technology, 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.

Finnish Game Jam ry organizes the annual jam organizer get together, FGJ Jam Jam, at the Sappee ski resort during July 1st-3rd 2016. Sign up now!