Tampere Game Hub

Surprise! Tampere Game Hub ry just turned one year old today on 19.6.2020. Formed by acting director Tomi Toikka and founders Joni Lappalainen and Janne Kaakinen, the organization has had a splendid year full of concrete support for the Tampere game industry.

With 37 game studios (and counting!) at the time of writing, the Tampere game industry is the second largest game industry sector in Finland.

Our first year together uniting the Tampere game industry

What a ride it has been. Starting from the humble idea of having an umbrella group to unite the key players in the local industry, we have expanded to help startups get into the scene, negotiating everything from office spaces to getting the best mentors in the Finnish game industry to coach promising game teams.

We’ve already won an award for the Community Achievement of the Year 2019, established key partnerships and laid a foundation for all current and future game teams and companies to thrive in Tampere.

Our first incubator program Tampere Game Incubator had amazing mentors from both the investor and game development side – and we capped off the year 2019 with great ideas for the next iteration.

We’re committed to keeping the pace for years to come. That’s why we are investing in technology such as the database of Tampere.games and working out the details of having remote events, new local community initiatives and cooperating with the city of Tampere.

Stay tuned for news in the near future about providing office spaces for the local game industry, which is a key goal we are working on before the end of the year.

Tampere Game Hub -sponsored events return later this year

Since starting Tampere Game Hub ry, we’ve hosted and sponsored multiple events, including a massive IGDA Helsinki Gathering and events in Tampere such as the Tampere Game Incubator Demo Day and IGDA Tampere gatherings.

While the world is still struggling from the global pandemic, slowly but surely we are reopening our community and starting to host events again. Adhering to local and international safety precautions, Tampere Game Hub -sponsored events will continue later this year. We are confident that by sponsoring local and Finland-based events we get closer to our goal of uniting the game industry of Tampere – and beyond.

We are interested in bringing in new events and organizations to the Tampere region – get in touch and we can sponsor the event for you, be it covering venue costs, refreshments or just having a few speakers over.

Tampere Game industry news highlights

The past few months have been admittedly a bit hectic, but we’ve got some news from the Tampere game industry scene:

• 10tons announced Skeletal Avenger, an exciting new rogue-lite hack’n’slash with single player and local co-op!

• Congrats Random Potion for releasing The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes on Steam!

• The local education superhouse Ahlman has a free catalogue of student games available on Steam. Check them out and support local game developers that are just getting started!

• Tampere Game Incubator alumni team Nighthouse Games released a free demo of their awesome hardcore platformer title Sockventure!

• Tampere Game Incubator alumni company Adjective Animal released a Steam Game Festival demo from their game Puck Buddies, an insane arcade hockey party game!

• Tampere Game Incubator alumni company Otus Games shared this short clip from their upcoming mobile title!

We’ll keep you posted for more news on our social media channels. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and on the local game industry Slack.

Tampere Game Incubator is now the Finnish Game Incubator

Due to ongoing concerns regarding the global pandemic, we had to postpone the Tampere Game Incubator 2020 program. Rest assured we are returning to the concept.

We are proud to announce that we are now the Finnish Game Incubator and are accepting all game teams and companies in Finland regardless of city. We are aiming to reveal the new incubator program later this year. We are cooperating with Ahlman to give all participants a free Entrepreneurship degree – and we will include mentors from both Finland and abroad.

Starting later this year, the 10 week fully remote course program will be better and more extensive, including all the information and tools you need to excel in game business. And of course, the entire incubator program is completely free for all selected teams.

Stay tuned for more news later this year, including news on how to sign up for the new incubator. This year, we are also contacting some promising teams and companies ourselves. We’ll open up the sign up form for the public this Fall 2020.

Better and healthier game industry support using data

We are carefully monitoring all feedback, and addressing common concerns. Using data with the cooperation from the City of Tampere, we can make changes and act based on valuable data.

Latest data from the jobseeker survey conducted this year by the city of Tampere showed that 56% of Tampere game industry jobseekers have considered entrepreneurship – indicating a need for more support to help people get started on their own game startups. We are adding a new Learning Hub to the website to address this, including materials made in tandem with local Company Representatives to adhere to the current best practices.

73% of responders wish for more information on local game careers. To address this, we are adding a new job listing feature to the Tampere.games website, allowing careers to be posted right to the front page. Expect it to go live later this year.

Other services and support requested include networking events (65% of responders) and additional education (40%). Tampere Game Hub will continue to sponsor local industry events and we encourage you to reach out to us if you wish to make an event of your own! Tampere Game Incubator fills in a niche space of focusing on already formed game teams – we are in dire need of things like specialist artist courses, programming courses and business development courses. Let us help you set these up.

A whopping 32% of jobseekers were working on a private game project that they were planning to publish! This is great news. If you need help getting your game out to the market, don’t hesitate to contact toikka@tampere.games and I will connect you to all the support available. When the Finnish Game Incubator signups open, we encourage you to apply.

Tampere.games keeps getting better – job listings coming this year

We’re sporting a fresh new design! Tampere.games also now includes an individual games showcase, a new events hub and vastly improved company pages. The entire website is maintained with an advanced system built on top of WordPress, enabling easy editing to all company representatives and easy access to data from the entire scene.

Future additions include:

• An extensive new Learning Suite, including (for free) all used materials in the upcoming Finnish Game Incubator and tips on how to get into the industry and best practices on building your own game startup.
• Livestream event functionality, embedding livestreams and the like to enable remote events
• Forms to apply for sponsorship for your events
• Finally Job Listings instead of just being relegated to the sidebar, highlighting new careers in the Tampere region.

We are constantly adding new companies and game teams to our database and our new (completely free) Company Representative membership helps us keep our data fresh and up to date. Get in touch at toikka@tampere.games if you would wish to modify your game studio profile on the tampere.games website, post jobs, add games and have a vote in key decisions about our operations.

Exciting times ahead

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming office spaces. We can’t wait to share more news with you regarding our promise to support local startups in addition to hosting even more amazing events – all under one roof. News about the upcoming office spaces will come sooner than you think.

Slowly but surely, we will also start inviting local game industry key players to our formal board proceedings. If you are interested in a board position in the future and wish to steer the future of Tampere Game Hub, please get in touch! Our pledge to you is openness, transparency and a chance to make a difference.

Here’s my promise to you – Tampere Game Hub is here to stay and support you in all situations you might find yourself in while working in games in Tampere.

Here’s to many more years of supporting the Tampere game scene. Have an extremely happy Midsummer and stay safe out there!