We are happy to announce that the 4th international Jam Jam Festival will be held on 13-15 June 2020!
JAM JAM 2020!
#FGJ20 Report
Another FGJ has been completed! Thank you everyone for participated no matter what role!
Every year despite limited time, we are amazed what you jammers can do. This year in Finland we had 32 sites, more than 700 jammers who developed 238 games.
You can find all the games developed in Finland on the Global Game Jam page:
https://globalgamejam.org/2020/games?title=&country=FI
This year, GGJ had over 48,700 jammers attending 934 jam sites across the world in 118 countries, all coming together became the biggest jam ever! Once again GGJ has broken all of last year’s records and become the newly-crowned Biggest Game Jam Ever!
GGJ had 9 new countries take part for the first time ever: Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cyprus, Mauritius, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe, adding 213 jammers and 35 new games to the mix. One of GGJ’s biggest aims is to be able to bring new emerging voices and talent into the game making space, and welcome these new site organisers and jammers to our big jam family.
The global theme for GGJ20 was repair and jammers incorporated this theme as a concept in their games in different ways: various states of repair, breaking and repairing buildings and pots, repairing relationships, and plants repairing themselves.
In Finland we were lucky to have amazing national and local sponsors this year as well. We want to extend a big thank you to all sponsors one more time, we could have made #FGJ20 this awesome without them.
#FGJ20 wouldn’t be possible without Futureplay Games as our national GOLD Sponsor for the event! A huge thanks to this inspiring company!
Thank you again everyone who attended or followed the action through our streams and social media, it was crazy but amazing weekend! Follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and see you all at the next jam!
#FGJ20 IS ON!
#FGJ20 has just started, and it wouldn’t be possible without Futureplay Games as our national GOLD Sponsor for the event! A huge thanks to this inspiring company with no-nonsense approach to the industry!
Follow #FGJ20 LIVE and remember to post your awesome jamming pictures to discord!
Also you can find out more what Futureplay does at http://www.futureplaygames.com/
FGJ20 is getting closer!
This year we have 22 sites! More information about each of them you can find at #FGJ20 website www.finnishgamejam.com/2020 or in Eventbrite.
Don’t forget to follow #FGJ20 live on Twitch and Mixer.
Follow our Facebook, Twitter
Finnish Game Jam 2020
The main event of the year is getting closer! Finnish Game Jam 2020 (#FGJ20) is arranged from January 31st to February 2nd, 2020 as a part of Global Game Jam.
It is again time to get jamming with the rest of the planet. Global Game Jam 2020 will be held throughout the entire world at the same time. Naturally, Finland will participate, now for the 11th time!
All sites are listed on our official Finnish Game Jam 2020 website.
Hurry up and register in
If your area is missing a site here is your chance to organize one yourself! Site applications can be made through Global Game Jam’s website. Site application is open until January 12th, but we recommend you act fast to be able to prepare for the jam.
IMPORTANT! Registration is open until January 23rd 11:59 PM.
Follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more news and latest updates!
These are the Finnish Game Jam Awards of 2019!
On
All of the awarded games have been made in different game jams organized by Finnish Game Jam during the 2019 season.
Games
Life Of John
Long John Award
FGJ19 Kuopio
- JP Hakoluoto
Home is a place that keeps us warm and safe. But what happens when you end up without a proper home and even your temporary dumpster gets taken away? Life Of John provides a unique and emotional experience while reminding us that helping others when they are at their lowest point might save humanity. Life Of John is a beautiful narrative experience with simple yet interesting gameplay. This immersive game essay created in a one-man team clearly stands out from the Finnish jam games of 2019.
Poopster
HamsterBoy Award
ASM Game Jam ‘19
- Samuli Jääskeläinen
- Pekka Kujansuu
- Pyry Takkunen
- Julia Rässa
- Jari Miranda
- Arttu Kurttila
- Juho Korhonen
What do you get when you combine hamsters, pears and awesome game technology from the ’80s? A game about pooping hamster with sweet Game Boy tunes. The Poopster is a very wholesome retro package of graphics, gameplay, and music. It was made during Assembly Game Jam 2019, at the best Finnish jamming place to explore commercially obsolete old hardware and to show to the world how the jammers don’t let the platforms of the past to be forgotten in silence.
Human Rescue
Reversed Roles Award
FGJ19 Next Games Helsinki
- Pekka Kujansuu
- Petri Räsänen
Who is the dog’s best friend? Human! Rescuing humans from the streets is the job of a truly virtuous dog! Human Rescue a simple jam game with great gameplay and polished cartoony visuals. The attraction of the game lies in its role-reversing core: In Human Rescue you are tasked to adopt humans and use them to adopt even more humans. Who would let humans roam around the streets aimlessly and without guardians anyway?
Where The Birds Are
Birdhouse Award
FGJ19 Games Factory Helsinki
- Aleksi Pekkala
- Olli Etuaho
- Harri Dammert
- Brandon Startz
- Kirsi Ekberg
We know very well that winter in Finland can be tough – especially for the small birds! For our pleasure, the birds that do not migrate stay behind and delight our forests with their tweets, from their homes. Where The Birds Are is a very Finnish, minimalistic and calming piece of game art. In this game, you are tasked to set up birdhouses to trees and solve the puzzle while music grows as you advance and see where the birds are. Calming games are still a rarity and such pieces definitely stand out from the jam crowds!
Mochabot Organic
Barista Bot Award
Pocket Jam #4
- Henri Sarasvirta
- Christina Lassheikki
- Leo Krechmer
- Tuma Heinonen
- Virpi Väinölä
Finnish appreciate games, coffee, technology, and sustainability – so why not games about barista robots with organic beans! In Mochabot Organic players receive the orders and brew the coffee with the help of a cute, relentless barista bot. This jam game is served with a minimalistic color palette and a great art style in a package of multiple minigames that soothe your caffeine-induced brains.
Sleeping Bunny
Midwinter Dream Award
FGJ19 Games Factory Helsinki
- Arhi Makkonen
- Henri Viitanen
Winter is here… and we all need to keep warm, bunnies too. Furthermore, what would be a better winter hobby than sleeping by the warmth of a fireplace? Sleeping Bunny takes the player on a wintery journey to save a bunny from cold and sleep deprivation. This jam game offers consistent and stylized art with simple and elegant gameplay – a jam game at its best! Simple yet surprisingly challenging gameplay of Sleeping Bunny lets the player unravel the goal on their own and minimalistic, as well as atmospheric audio space, supports the immersive narrative of the game. Playing a piece like this puts smiles on our faces and goodnight dreams in our heads.
Special Awards
Julius Jämsen
Jamtivist Award
What would game jams be without music? And even more importantly, what would music be without jamming together? Julius Jämsen brought the jam-lovers together with a power of musical jamming at Jam Jam 2019. If there has ever been a sleazy song about game jamming, we are confident that it cannot beat the ooze of love that this international and multilingual eight-minute song has to offer. A true
IBM
Future Award
Game jams use technologies from present and past, but how about the future? We have been told that the future is quantum and quantum is playable! Goes without saying that anything that we can use for play, we jammers, love! In February 2019, IBM provided the first-ever live access to and developer support for the quantum computers at the Quantum Wheel game jam. We were humbled by such privilege and now very eager to see what the quantum future will bring for us jammers. We believe that combining the power of future technologies and bravery of the jammers can take us far and let us have fun while doing it!
Outstanding Support Awards
- Futureplay
- Veikkaus Game Studio
- Neogames
Finnish Game Jam organization would be nothing without the community. Every year and every jam is a joint effort of organizers, participants,
Another FGJ great event is over. We want to thank all the winners and all the event participants. It would not happen without you! Thank you!
Finnish Game Jam Awards 2019
Dear jammers and all jam-minded people! We are glad to invite you all to the Finnish Game Jam Awards 2019!
A good amount of jams have happened this season, and we’re happy that all of you jammers and volunteers, both old and new, made these events possible. Together we want to celebrate the spirit of jamming community and creativity that has no limits!
When: 13th of December, 18:00-23:00.
Where: Arcade5, Lapinlahdenkatu 16, Helsinki
Why: Because we can!
Some programme highlights include red carpet, good music, official award ceremony, fancy photoshoots and fantastic people.
Join the event by purchasing the ticket through Eventbrite link.
You can find the Facebook event here.
See you all there!
Pocket Jam #4 Report.
Pocket Jam #4 is over! This year the entire conference has been moved into the Kaapelitehdas, and where is the conference – there is a jam! The location was very cool this year in all means. Jam took place in the cellar, right under the main conference with 45 jammers in total. By this way, Pocket Jam #4 was in the middle of the conference and at the same time, it had a cool, chill and creative space with many visitors from upstairs.
This time the topic was “organic”. The topic was chosen because of its simplicity and wideness at the same time. “Organic” as a theme is relevant to mobile gaming and can be interpreted in many different ways: nature, insides of us humans, organic coffee, etc. In this way, this word turned into a creative push for our jammers for implying organic vision into the games.
This year in total 11 games have been created. All games were finished and uploaded according to the deadline and each participant was inspired by friendly competition. Despite the limited amount of development time, with a bit more than 24h, published games really can blow your mind!
Also, we had a panel of judges from Pocket Gamer were nicely colour coordinated with their fashionable outfits – all of them had flowery white and blue shirts, maybe because we were in Finland. They are professional game journalists that have already a long career with them, so they were able to ask good questions from the teams and appreciate the level of polish and creativity.
Here is top three Pocket Jam #4 games:
- 1st place Mochabot Organic
- 2nd place
Zurban - 3rd place is shared between Gate of Glory and Connecticutiez
Overall this year Pocket Jam is a great success again. The creative crowd that developed an amazing jamming vibe with conference touch. Also, we even have received feedback in case of comparison with hackathons – how nice the atmosphere was, how welcoming everybody was and also how much learning happens in the jam compared to the hackathon.
Thank you all for a great event!
Please follow the link and check out Pocket Jam #4 games.
See you at Pocket Jam #5 in 2020!
#pocketjam4 #PGCHelsinki #gamejam #gamedevelopment
Pocket Jam #4
Pocket Games Connects Conference returns to Helsinki on 1-2 October 2019, and so does Pocket Jam! The Pocket Jam is run now for the fourth time at the heart of the conference, and while the setting is ideal for making a mobile game, you can always choose your own platform and technology.
Pocket Gamer Connects is Europe’s biggest mobile games conference with developers, investors and other industry experts from all over the world, as well as fringe events like indie demo expo and pitching. Due to the event’s huge success it will move to a new venue in 2019! PGC Helsinki will take over The Cable Factory in Ruoholahti.
Tickets are now available in Eventbrite! You can find the tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pocket-jam-4-tickets-72148170119
The participants will receive full access to the conference program, expo and networking events plus all the other benefits that come with the conference ticket and a seat to jam.
In addition the participants who finish and upload their game according to the deadline will have a chance to win a ticket to the PGC London in January 2020, and a chance to present their game there. All uploading teams will be also automatically considered as candidates of the Finnish Game Jam Awards 2019.
See you there!
Pocket Jam #4
1-2 October 2019
Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki
#pocketjam4
Pocket Gamer Connects is Europe’s biggest mobile games conference. PGC Helsinki is one of the several PGC events held during 2019. All of these events provide value to a wide range of industry players, from global corporations looking to hone their strategy, down to indie developers seeking a little inspiration and new contacts.
Website: https://www.pgconnects.com/helsinki/
The Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas) is the largest cultural centre in Finland. It houses 3 museums, 10 galleries, dance theatres, art schools, artists, bands and companies. Around 900 people work at the Cable Factory on a daily basis, and each year nearly 340,000 people attend special events.
Website:https://www.kaapelitehdas.fi/en/info
ASM Game Jam ‘19 Report
The biggest weekend of summer is now behind us. On August 1-4 Messukeskus was again the stage for one of the biggest demo parties and computer festivals in the world, Assembly Summer, and within Assembly, as usual, was the ASM Game Jam ‘19.
The location was as inspiring as ever! The jammers were able to attend the entire event, and see the demo scene competitions and esports trounaments in the middle of jamming. We had over 40 participants, and 9 games were made in total, including one AR game, one card game and one Game Boy game!
The jam ran from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, and despite all the distractions the jammers managed to develop amazing games once again. This year the theme was tradeoff, and and many teams implemented a mechanic where players have to decide between equally impactful resources or actions.
Immersal provided their Augmented Reality development kit for the jammers to use, and one team took up the challenge. In Bon Appetit you fight flying croissants that appear on the phone screen. Immersal also sponsored pizzas for the hungry jammers on Saturday!
Check Immersal’s website to learn more about them and the SDK: https://immersal.com/
Just like last year, we set up the voice acting on two days to record audio for the jam games. Anyone could come and record lines requested by jammers. Assembly visitors turned out to be great voice actors, we recorded many excellent evil laughters!
If you want to play the jam games, you can find all of them here: https://itch.io/jam/asm-game-jam-2019/entries
Thank you for a great event, and see you at ASM Game Jam 2020!