During the summer, the active organizers of Finnish Game Jam convened for the already traditional weekend to plan the future, organize the forthcoming events, and select a new board for the association.

Annakaisa Kultima was selected to continue as the president, while the new vice president is Kosti Rytkönen. Maiju Suutari continues as the treasurer and Kati Alha as the secretary for the board. Other selected members are Tatu Laine, Vesa Raudasoja and Mikko Karsisto.

The board is enthusiastic about the future of jamming and looks forward to work hard to advance game culture, creativity, experimentation and sense of community in game development hobby.

Finnish Game Jam brought game jamming to Assembly once again and the success was guaranteed this year as well! During the weekend we saw 10 teams put together 10 games in the middle of Assembly shenanigans. The theme of the game jam was “Oldskool” in honor of Amiga’s 30th anniversary.

In a typical game jam fashion the teams were driven by limited time and unlimited creativity. Despite the unusual setting game jam is at home at Assembly. Both events have to do with creativity, passionate community and challenging oneself. All of these elements were present this year as well, as demonstrated by the collection of games each more surprising than the other.

See all the games from here.

Finnish Game Jam ry is organizing a game jam event at Assembly Summer. ASM JAM ’15 is open to everyone participating in Assembly Summer 2015. Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/673752432769635/

How to participate:

• If you need a computer place: We have special jammer tickets available at the price of 40 euros which can be purchased from the Finnish Game Jam webshop (https://holvi.com/shop/FinnishGameJam/product/c9af13c992a596d8c623008529f9a901/).
• The Finnish Game Jam Association grants limited scholarships to the most enthusiastic jammers. Tell us why should you get a free place at ASM Jam and thine wish might just come true! Let us know by sending email to vesa.raudasoja@finnishgamejam.com at latest on July 14th.
• If you already have a computer place: It is possible to jam anywhere on the Assembly site. Just come to the ASM JAM info desk before the registration time ends, register your team and start jamming! If you want to be relocated to the jamming area let us know.

Teams are formed on site but you can come with a team. Game jams are about teamwork, meeting new friends and exploring new idea as well as an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded people.

Program:

The theme is announced on Thursday at 18.00 and jamming starts 19.00. You can start/join jamming until Friday 21.00. Game submitting deadline is on Sunday 09.00. The timetable is subject to change.

Got questions? Ask freely: vesa.raudasoja@finnishgamejam.com

Finnish Game Awards has awarded Finnish Game Jam ry as the Sensation of the Year 2014. FGJ ry was praised for its importance in promoting the hobby scene in the game development ecosystem. In 2014, the amount of both locations and jammers increased substantially, and the FGJ Bus was an interesting addition to the whole.

Other nominees in the category was eSports/SEUL and Pelitaito.fi.

We want to thank all the volunteers organizing the events as well as all the jammers participating in them. A special thanks both to the national and local sponsors making it possible to keep the events mostly free of charge. Finnish Game Jam would not be possible without you all.

Love and jam on!

Annakaisa Kultima, Vesa Raudasoja, Kosti Rytkönen and Tatu Laine from Finnish Game Jam ry were present at the Finnish Game Awards gala.

Finnish Game Jam to hold the online awards show for the first time

Finnish Game Jam 2015 was organized in January 23rd-25th 2015 as a part of the Global Game Jam 2015. World wide, the event gathered more than 20 000 game makers for one weekend to create games together from the scratch. Finland hosted the event in 15 different locations with almost 700 participants. This resulted in 175 games.

Although Finnish Game Jam is not a competition, Finnish Game Jam ry wants to praise creativity and give recognition to the games that show courage of creating something divergent for the world of games. Therefore FGJ ry will give out a few honorable mentions, which will be revealed in the awards ceremony.

The award ceremony will be an online gala, and everyone’s invited to participate!

• announcements of the Honorable Mentions of FGJ 2015
• special game developer guests playing this year’s FGJ games
• interviews with jammers, organizers and Charlie the Unicorn, the mascot of Finnish Game Jam.

You can follow the Twitch broadcast from http://www.twitch.tv/finnishgamejam, starting at 20:00 on Friday, 20th of March.

Dress code for the event (also at your home!): “black tie” or your creative choice. Take a picture of your attire and post it to twitter with hashtag #FGJAwards.

If you are interested in hosting a public screening of the gala at your hometown (list of screening events will be at https://www.facebook.com/FinnishGameJam/events) or have any other inquiries, please contact:
Annakaisa Kultima, aakoo@finnishgamejam.fi

The world’s biggest game jam is on the doorstep, and Finland is once again strongly involved: as many as 15 locations from Helsinki to Rovaniemi will gather jammers and create dozens of games during the last weekend of January.

See more information and updated news from the event page.

Finnish Game Jam ry co-organized a game jam, where a group of quantum physicists and game developers gathered to Tuorla Observatory in Kaarina to create games around quantum physics. In this world first Quantum Game Jam, the goal was to address real scientific problems – in just one weekend. Some of the games take advantage of the fulldome projection of the Tuorla Planetarium.

The event is organized in collaboration with the University of Turku, the University of Tampere and Finnish Game Jam ry.

The results will be presented at the Science Café on Sunday, 14th of December. The event is open for everyone. In addition to the showcases from the jam, the event will feature talks from Adj. Prof. Harry Lehto, Prof. Heikki Hämäläinen and sci-fi author Ph.D. Hannu Rajaniemi.

Global Game Jam has opened the registration for the locations of the next Global Game Jam. The next year’s biggest game jam event will have hundreds of locations from all over the world. If you want to organize a game jam in your town, you can apply now!

Finnish GGJ locations are part of the co-operation organized by Finnish Game Jam ry. If you have a brand new location for the next GGJ or you are not yet part of the co-operation for some other reasons, contact us to gain help, instructions and the support of your peers. Contact our president and coordinator Annakaisa Kultima (aakoo[a]finnishgamejam.fi) for further information.

Finnish Game Jam ry is organizing a game jam event at Assembly now for the second time. ASM JAM ’14 is open to everyone participating in Assembly Summer 2014. You can jam from wherever you wish inside the party venue with a normal ticket, or you can buy a special Game Jam computer place ticket which grants you a place near the other jammers.

The jam starts on Thursday at 18.00 and ends on Sunday at 06.00 but you can join whenever is suitable for you. Teams are made on site so join along by yourself or with friends.

The topic will be released on Thursday and it will be the same for everyone. The jam is a game development event, not a competition. That means you can go and try to create some of your wildest ideas. So, make a game in one weekend from an idea to a playable game. Qapla’!

The timetable is subject to change.

More info: vesa.raudasoja@finnishgamejam.fi

We want to thank everyone who stood against the IeSF on the issue of men-only tournaments and those who supported our message to the Assembly organisers to not take part in events supporting discriminating practices. Due to the vocal gamer community and the outrage in social media and news, the IeSF moved quickly and changed their eSports gender policies. Following the IeSF’s rule change, the IeSF competitions at Assembly are now open for everyone. This is an important achievement for eSports, the gaming community and equality in general.

We would like to emphasise that FGJ will never be part of any event which supports – directly or indirectly – any discrimination based on race, gender or sexuality and we are ready to act decisively in order to ensure an equal and comfortable game jamming environment for everyone.

Finnish Game Jam loves Assembly and we are happy to continue the organising process of ASM FGJ 14 to provide more opportunities for the jamming community to collaborate and share their passion for game development.

Stay tuned for the registration for ASM FGJ 14 – See you at Assembly Summer 2014!