Monthly Archives: January 2014

Greetings from Grand Cru

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We are very proud to have sponsored the 2014 edition of the Finnish Game Jam.

With more than 700 registered jammers spread out in 14 different locations in Finland (including a moving one) this year’s event was the biggest FGJ yet! We want to thank all 2014 Finnish jammers who participated and shared their passion for games during the weekend. Also, we hope that our space blankets kept you all warm and cosy.
GC thermal blankets Special credits to Helsinki jammers who shared this great picture

By the way we are continuously looking for talented people to join us. At the moment we are looking for programmers and artists. So if you think you would make a great addition to our grand crew do not hesitate and apply now!

Find open positions on our website: http://grandcrugames.com/ or send an open application to careers@grandcrugames.com.

The game jam is over, thank you!

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The Global Game Jam is over. The official global statistics will come later, but at the moment we can say that during last weekend people jammed games in over 480 locations in more than 70 countries.

In Finland, we had 14 locations, 644 jammers and 161 games. That is again another record from all of the three aspects. And as always, awesome games were made! You can relive the atmosphere by watching videos from the sites, checking out pictures from Facebook and, of course, by playing the games! Check out them all from the Games section and watch gameplay videos from our playlist.

Thank you everyone involved – the sponsors, the organizers, the jammers – and everyone else. Next year again!

The GGJ14 Theme Is…

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All the locations are jamming and it’s now safe to reveal the theme!

The theme committee included:

  • Annakaisa Kultima (chair)
  • Yasmine Diab
  • Olli Harjola
  • Anna Kipnis
  • Bryan Ma

Can’t wait to see what kind of games will come out of this theme!

Finnish Game Jam 2014 is almost here – bigger than ever!

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While there’s still a few hours until the kick off in Finland, some sites are already jamming. Finland will join the GGJ14 in a while, and with more locations and jammers than ever!

Just when we thought we might have reached the peak of game jamming in Finland last year, the jam people showed us wrong. There’s over 700 registered jammers in 14 different locations!

FGJ14 spreads all over Finland: from Rovaniemi to Helsinki, from Satakunta to Pohjois-Karjala. And even more awesomely, there’s one site that will tour quite a few of these locations: a game jam bus! That’s right, one moving location, where some of the stars of Finnish game industry and game jam scene will make games on the road!

Without a doubt, this will be one helluva ride!

Press Release (in English)

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Press Release – For Immediate Release

bussi

The Finnish Game Jam 2014

The Game Jam games are even being developed on a bus!

The Finnish Game Jam 2014, under the umbrella of the Global Game Jam 2014 once again gathers countless of game developers, enthusiasts and hobbyists to develop games in a 48 hour creative challenge in January 24-26 of 2014.

This year, the Finnish Game jam will gather over 600 participants in 14 locations between the polar circle to the industry hotspot Helsinki. What’s unique for FGJ14 is that one of the jamming locations is a bus. Some of the Finnish games industry’s most talented and prestigious game developers will create their Global Game Jam games in the bus, with limited power supply, limited space and minus 10 celsius outside while visiting 7 other game jam sites in Southern Finland over the course of the weekend.

The Finnish Game Jam is an event that enjoys a wide support from the industry with its participants coming from many game companies such as Grand Cru, Supercell, RedLynx, Housemarque, Frogmind, Facepalm games, Fragment Production, Remedy and Rovio. This year, the event is sponsored by Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, Grand Cru, the hot social gaming startup and Turku Game Lab, a shared co-working space by the Universities in Turku.

The game jam bus journey will be fully documented and the challenging journey can be followed through the Finnish Game Jam 2014 website http://finnishgamejam2014.com/ and hashtag #fgj14.

More details on how to follow the perilous, cold and winterly journey through Finland will be posted on the website.

The Global Game Jam 2014: http://globalgamejam.org/
The Finnish Game Jam Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FinnishGameJam
The Finnish Game Jam Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinnishGameJam

Finnish Game Jam Association
President
Annakaisa Kultima
aakoo@finnishgamejam.fi

The diversifier list has been published!

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The Global Game Jam has a list of diversifiers that the game jam teams can use and restrict their game with. Unlike the theme that is compulsory and will be revealed on Friday, the diversifiers are completely voluntary and are revealed beforehand. Their main purposes of the diversifiers are to offer more challenge and constraints to experienced jammers and to make it easier to sort and find different types of games afterwards. More information on the diversifiers and how they are used can be found on the GGJ site.

The diversifiers for GGJ14 have been published and are:

  1. Back to the 1885. The game could have been built and played in the 19th century.
  2. Can You Come And Play? The game has a local multi-player mode.
  3. Design, Create, Play. All the content in the game is procedurally created, including graphics and sound.
  4. Hackontroller. The game must use a custom controller invented by the team, or use an existing controller in unconventional manner.
  5. Homo Sapiens are Boring. The game is meant to be played by cats.
  6. Honor Aaron Swartz. The game only uses materials found in the public domain.
  7. I am who I want to be. The game has characters, but nothing in their design suggests a gender.
  8. Inclusive. The game is specifically designed to be accessible to one or more groups of gamers with disabilities – vision, motor, hearing or cognitive impairments.
  9. Rebels Learns it Better. In this educational game a hidden learning path is provided for those who oppose the given rules.
  10. Round and Round. Rotation is one of the primary mechanics in the game.
  11. The Ultimate Bechdel Test Survivor. The game survives all three conditions of the Bechdel test.
  12. You Only Live Thrice. The player only has 3 lives and each level starts over when you die.
  13. You Say it! The game utilises audio produced by the player either recording or instructing player to make sounds.

GGJ14 keynote announced

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The keynote for Global Game Jam 2014 has been announced! This year the keynote will not feature one or two, but three inspirational speakers: Jenova Chen, Kaho Abe and Richard Lemarchand. See more info about the speakers from GGJ site and tune in by checking the previous keynotes from YouTube.

Official press release (in Finnish)

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Tiedote – julkaisuvapaa: heti

Vielä ehtii ilmoittautua Finnish Game Jam -pelinkehitystapahtumaan
Suomessa tehdään pelejä jopa bussissa

Maailman laajin pelinkehitystapahtuma Global Game Jam kokoaa tammikuussa jälleen yhteen tuhansia pelinkehittäjiä harrastelijoista ammattilaisiin ympäri maailmaa. Osallistujien tavoitteena on luoda pienissä ryhmissä peli alusta loppuun 48 tunnin aikana. Tammikuun viimeisenä viikonloppuna, 24.–26.1., sadoilla paikkakunnilla rakennetaankin samanaikaisesti yhteensä jopa tuhansia pelejä. Finnish Game Jam osallistuu tapahtumaan 13 paikkakunnan voimin.

Monet pelit soveltuvat hyvin joukkoliikennevälineissä pelattaviksi, mutta onnistuuko niiden kehittäminen tien päällä? Ensimmäistä kertaa järjestettävä FGJ Bussi -kiertue haastaa valitun joukon alan huipputekijöitä kehittämään pelejä linja-autossa matkalla halki eteläisen Suomen. Huoltoasemina toimivat matkanvarrelle sattuvat jamipaikat, joissa pysähdytään lataamaan sekä tekijöiden että kannettavien tietokoneiden akkuja.

Bussin lisäksi Suomesta on mukana 13 lokaatiota: Helsinki, Jyväskylä, Kajaani, Kuopio, Kymenlaakso (Kouvola), Lappeenranta, Oulu, Pohjois-Karjala (Joensuu), Rovaniemi, Satakunta (Nakkila), Tampere, Turku ja Ylivieska. Suomen tapahtumat järjestetään osana Finnish Game Jam ry:n toimintaa.

Suomi on mukana viidettä kertaa, ja vuosi vuodelta tapahtuman suosio on kasvanut. Myös suomalainen peliteollisuus on tapahtumassa vahvasti läsnä. Paikalla on osallistujia lukuisista suomalaisista pelifirmoista, mukaan lukien esimerkiksi Grand Cru, Housemarque, Remedy, Fragment, Kuuasema ja Rovio.

Global Game Jam on tehnyt jopa kaksi perättäistä Guinnessin ennätystä maailman isoimpana pelijamina. Viime tammikuussa Global Game Jam keräsi yli 16 000 osallistujaa, joista yli 500 jammaili Suomessa.

Kaikki pelinkehityksestä kiinnostuneet ovat tervetulleita osallistumaan, ja ilmoittautuminen Finnish Game Jamiin jatkuu aina 20.1. klo 16 asti. Kaikilla lokaatioilla on rajattu osallistujamäärä, ja osa tapahtumapaikoista on jo täynnä tai täyttymässä, joten ilmoittautua kannattaa mahdollisimman pian.

Ilmoittautua voi osoitteessa http://finnishgamejam2014.com/. Tapahtuma on osallistujille ilmainen.

Tapahtumaa sponsoroivat Sitra, Grand Cru ja Turku Game Lab.

Lisätietoa: http://globalgamejam.org/ ja http://finnishgamejam2014.com/

Finnish Game Jam ry

Over 600 registered jammers!

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While there’s still a few days time to register, we have now reached over 600 registered jammers!

The registration is open until Monday, 20th of January 16:00. Some sites are full or getting full any minute, so the sooner you sign up, the better chance to get in!