Finnish Game Incubator 2020 - Tampere Game Hub

Finnish Game Incubator returns for a second batch – learn the best practices for game business from the best in class mentors and coaches!

Are you a Finland-based game team or company looking for mentoring from the best of Finland’s game industry? Together with the city of Tampere and Business Tampere, Tomi Toikka from Catland and Joni Lappalainen from Dreamloop have made a ten week business coaching plan that will feature all you need to make your game business shine. Completely free for everyone who gets picked. Spaces are limited, so act fast!

Fully remote on Discord, the 10 week coaching features best-in-business game developer mentors to hone your pitching skills, learn game business and get help from top gaming industry influencers!

Get the best in business advice in hands-on sessions with veteran games industry mentors
Weekly crash course in all topics of game development; from idea to release
Learn to pitch and sell your games on any platform
Critique and advice from top investors and talent in the industry
Culminates in a Demo Day event, where you get to pitch for both investors and mentors
Fully remote on Discord, so you can participate remotely with your team
During the coaching you will receive the needed knowledge to earn an Further vocational qualification for Entrepreneurs degree from Ahlman
At the end of the coaching the game teams will show their knowledge with a final thesis, with the central document being a game studio business plan

The Finnish Game Incubator Team

The team of Tampere Game Hub and Ahlman runs the coaching with weekly hands-on lessons and mentoring sessions.

Tomi Toikka

Director of Tampere Game Hub

Formerly CEO of Catland, experienced team leader and marketing manager with five shipped titles under his belt. Mentoring, pitching and networking busybody.

Joni Lappalainen

Vice Chairman of Tampere Game Hub

CEO of Dreamloop, networking and game production mastermind with experience across the entire game industry – from shipping games to doing B2B.

Minna Erkko

Team Coach of Entrepreneurship at Ahlman

Developer of team learning since 2006, Minna is responsible for the degree guidance and work as an assessor for the program and the Entrepreneurship degree.

Mentors

The mentors are experts in game business, marketing and working with investors and publishers.

Kalle Kaivola

Lightheart Entertainment

Kalle Kaivola is the CEO of Lightheart Entertainment. In addition to working on his own company, he has helped others build theirs as a partner in Sisu Game Ventures, an early stage game investor with a portfolio of over 40 companies.

Jyri Partanen

SuperScale, Sampo Games

Jyri Partanen has decades of industry experience. He has been part of Games Factory, Rovio and RedLynx and is ready to help lend a hand concerning the day-to-day running of your game business.

Jiri Koivuniemi

Visionist

Jiri Koivuniemi is a marketing expert working at Visionist. A renowned veteran of the games industry, he helps and mentors game startups with PR and communications.

Antti Sartanen

Founder, CEO Hipfire Games

Startup entrepreneur Antti Sartanen has been through both Nordic XR Startups and Techstars incubators. He has a lot of experience on working with VCs and running his own company!

Apply now!

The coaching runs once a week from 25.11.2020 to 10.02.2021

Further vocational qualification for Entrepreneurs degree period is 02.11.2020 – 31.05.2021

Apply period: 1.9.2020 – 23.10.2020

Finnish Game Incubator batch two begins November 2020 online on Discord. Please carefully read the selection criteria.

Selection Criteria

– This coaching is intended for game teams or companies that are already working on a game project.

– You (the applicant) are in a decision-making, founding role in the team or company

– You are ready to attend the ten weeks curriculum (once a week) in Fall 2020 online on Discord and you and your team members are participating in the included Further vocational qualification for Entrepreneurs degree (“yrittäjän ammattitutkinto”)

– Your team or company will submit a skills assessment – game business plan (“ammattitaidon näyttö – pelialan liiketoimintasuunnitelma”) at the end of the course. The skills assessment must be done in Finnish language.

– If you are submitting on the behalf of a company, the company is preferably less than 12 months old

Application Process

We look through each submission and rank them on values like potential investor interest, business potential and how the game project looks and feels like. After processing the application, we will select the best teams and/or companies to attend the program. Once your application has been processed, we will let you know whether your application was successful.

Applications are now closed, thank you!

Curriculum

02.11.2020	Starting info / degree information
03 – 06.11.2020	Team mentoring
25.11.2020 at 13:00 – 16:00	Business Opportunities in the Game Industry
2.12.2020 at 13:00 – 15:00	Game Development Pipeline (gameplay, monetization, retention)
9.12.2020 at 13:30 onwards	Pitching (Pitch Deck) with Kalle Kaivola
16.12.2020 at 10.00 – 11.30 (presentation) and 12.00 – 19.00 (1-on-1s)	Fundraising with Antti Sartanen
7.1.2021	Marketing and Social Media
13.1.2021	Communications
20.1.2021	Service sales and pricing
27.1.2021	Public funding and cash flow planning
3.2.2021	Pitch training and feedback
10.2.2021	Legal & HR
25.2.2021	Demo Day 2021

March to April we will organize team-based mentoring for participating in the Further vocational qualification for Entrepreneurs degree from Ahlman and sparring teams on submitting the game studio business plan. In May 2021 based on the team’s schedule we will grade the submissions.

Participating in the degree may entitle you to a stipend benefit to the worth of 400€.

See more info: https://www.tyollisyysrahasto.fi/aikuisopiskelijan-etuudet/ammattitutkintostipendi/

This year, every applicant that participates in the coaching also gets an Further vocational qualification for Entrepreneurs degree from Ahlman! During the course you will gain the knowledge required to get the degree.

You’ll learn everything you need during the ten week course – and the coaches and mentors will help you all the way through. The person in charge of business coaching and thesis affairs is Ahlman business coach Minna Erkko.

Open to all cities in Finland

We’re very excited to extend our previously Tampere-based course to be a truly Finnish game incubator! All teams and companies in Finland that get accepted are welcome to join.

6 out of 6 game studios recommend the incubator

In 2019 when the game incubator was in full swing all six companies and teams recommended the coaching to other game studios*!

* Based on exit survey conducted January 2020.

Fully remote course

The ten week coaching is completely online this year on Discord, the VOIP and messaging service already in use by most game companies and gamers. All coursework and communications will be online to maintain social distancing and enable remote workflows.