The GATE 3 results are in!

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Last Friday 26.5. Oulu Game LAB hosted the GATE 3 event at the Fingersoft auditorium, and we were honored to have some very prestigious judges, such as Christopher Hamilton (Rovio), Ilari Kuittinen (Housemarque), Jussi Autio (Free2app, Ex-Reborn), Minna Eloranta (Secret Exit), and Reko Ukko (Seriously). 

The results from the GATE 3 are as follows:

However, due to departing team members, the teams that will be continuing to the Game Path are World's End Casino and Real Adventure.

Oulu Game LAB application interviews have started!

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The interviews for the next Oulu Game LAB semester have started today on 22.5.2017

If you haven't yet submitted your application, you can still do it until the end of May, 31.5.2017
The next group of students will begin their studies in August, on 28.8.2017

The interviews are held at the Oulu Game LAB premises, at Rantakatu 3. If you have any questions regarding your interview, or the applications, you can contact our Lab Master Aki. See his contact info below:

Aki Latvamäki
aki.latvamaki@oamk.fi
+358406528304

OGL teams at the Polar Bear Pitching event

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Three Game Path teams showcased their games at the OAMK booth during the Polar Bear Pitching event on 15th of February.

The teams Ashtonia, Haste Heist, and Overtowered demoed their games at the Oulu City Theater on last Wednesday. The event visitors seemed to enjoy playing the games, and the teams got a chance to gather important information and feedback based on the playtesting.

Photos of the event can be seen on the Oulu Game LAB Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/OuluGameLab/photos/?tab=album&album_id=716276451857721

Gate 2 results are in!

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The jury members: Natasha Trygg (Snowfall Ltd. / Turku Game Hub - The Hive), Tomi Hurskainen (Playsign), Tuomas Soukka (Fingersoft), Sasu Louke (Expa Game Business Co-Operative), Juho Wallen (Meizi Games),

The jury members: Natasha Trygg (Snowfall Ltd. / Turku Game Hub - The Hive), Tomi Hurskainen (Playsign), Tuomas Soukka (Fingersoft), Sasu Louke (Expa Game Business Co-Operative), Juho Wallen (Meizi Games),

Six teams pitched their games on last Friday's Gate 2, of which four will continue their demo path until Gate 3.

The game pitches were evaluated by a jury of five game industry professionals, and their scores were combined with the scores given earlier based on the quality of the teams' Game Design Documents and Business Canvases.

The following are the final scores of Gate 2:

Land of the Midnight Sun        66
N.E.O.N.                                     58
Real Adventure                         57
World's End Casino                  52,5
Holiday Wheels                        46,5
Centrifuge Force Man              35

Which means that teams Holiday Wheels and Centrifuge Force Man drop out of the demo path, and their team members will be joining the remaining teams.

Thanks for the great presentations everyone, and congratulations for the teams that got through the Gate 2!
 

Polar Bear Pitching Pre-party

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PBP-PreParty

Oulu Game Industry Meetup will be followed by the Polar Bear Pitching Pre-party at Viihdemaailma Ilona, Torikatu 21-23. The event is hosted by IGDA Finland Oulu Hub, Fingersoft, and Lexia.

Polar Bear Pitching Pre-party is a warm spirited gathering of people who are interested in games and the game industry, as well as seasoned game industry professionals. The event is a nice way to relax before the following day’s ice-hole challenge, and a great chance to make new friends and grow your professional network. Discuss interesting topics with like-minded people over a few beverages, take a peek at promising new games at the game demo corner, and simply enjoy good company.

If you are a game developer, you can apply for a free demo booth from the event!
Contact shahriar.rhiday@gmail.com in order to apply and for more info.

The event starts at 7PM in the evening, and continues until 12AM.

Tickets for both events are available on Eventbrite. They’re free, so go ahead and register!

Oulu Game Industry Meetup
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oulu-game-industry-meetup-tickets-31706370608

Polar Bear Pitching Pre-Party
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/polar-bear-pitching-pre-party-tickets-31479601335

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/248647695558723/

Oulu Game Industry Meetup

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During the Polar Bear Pitching event on 14th of February, Oulu Game Lab and IGDA Finland Oulu Hub will host the Oulu Game Industry Meetup event at the Oulu Game Campus, located in Rantakatu 3.

Oulu Game Industry Meetup showcases the vibrant community of game developers and gamers from Oulu and all over Finland. At the event you can meet like-minded people who are interested in gaming and game development, and you will have a chance to discuss with game industry professionals from various game companies and organizations. The event will be relaxed and non-formal, with free snacks and entertainment, such as a SpeedRunners competition, but you will also be able to attend interesting presentations about different game industry related topics.

The event speakers are:

Michael Stenmark & Jeanette Nilsson                  Arctic Game Lab
Lauri Antalainen                                                     GameFounders Estonia
Jaakko Kemppainen                                              Mindfield Games
Ville Rauma                                                            Fingersoft
Pasi Jokinen                                                           Game Campus/Fingersoft

The event starts at 12PM in the afternoon, and will continue until 5PM. The keynote presentations will start at 1PM.

Tickets for the event are available on Eventbrite. They’re free, so go ahead and register!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oulu-game-industry-meetup-tickets-31706370608

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/399466733733683/

New coaches in Oulu Game LAB

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Oulu Game LAB has two new coaches, who have started this spring. 

Ari-Matti Piippo will be handling Game Design coaching. He's an OGL Survivor from years back and has been since doing game design for Namida Diamond Factory amongst other Game Design duties.

Jani Löthman will be our new graphics coach, he's a solid professional who has been working as a teacher before. In addition to teaching, he has been working also as a coder. So technical approaches should not be a problem.

We are looking forward to excellent coaching sessions and lectures from our new gurus!

OGL Game Jam Results→

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The first OGL Game Jam was organised last week. We had a great turnout of people from as far as Ylivieska and Kokkola. Although this was a pilot project with minimum effort in organising the event was a lot of fun and we made 7 games in just 36 hours. There will be more jams to game in Oulu Game LAB, stay tuned!

We've now assembled those games to a website and included screenshots, descriptions and game builds for you to test (where they were available). 

Results are here!

If your game is lacking some of the abovementioned details and you want them added, contact Aki Latvamäki (check the staff page here at OGL website for contact info)

 

OGL Game Jam

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OGL Jammers at last year's finnish game jam

OGL Jammers at last year's finnish game jam

Everyone is welcome to the OGL Game Jam 4.-5. Nov 2016

You are invited to Oulu Game LAB's new premises to jam with us. Be sure to get the limited tickets from Eventbrite! 

The event is organised in co-operation with Centria Game LAB.

Get your Free Tickets From Eventbrite
Attend the Facebook Event Here
Check the Video from last January's Oulu Game Jam, also organised by us

 

Afternoon Tea & Games (for Aspiring Game Developers)

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Wed 2 Nov 2016 2-5 p.m. at Oulu Game LAB (Rantakatu 3)

Interested in gaming? Well, this is the place to be. The Afternoon Tea & Games is served with game presentations, try-outs and biscuits. Bring your own ideas and get them mentored by the Game LAB students - or just come and hang out with other aspiring game developers. Includes also a tour into activities of the International Game Developers Association Finland, as well as how things work at Oulu Game LAB. Welcome!

Check the Facebook Event!

 

Gate 2 Results are Here!

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Gate 2 results are here!

Scoring is calculated from:
Jury votes based on the presentation 5-50 pts
Game Design Document Quality 2-20 pts
Business & Marketing Plan Document Quality 1-10 pts

Team / Jury Votes / GDD / B&M / Total
Badventure! / 138 / 7 / 28 pts
Feels Good to be Evil / 22 / 12 / 7 / 41 pts
Supreme Hero Trial / 24 / 14/ 7 / 45 pts
River Pirates / 43 / 4 / 5,5 / 52,5 pts
Bad Cat 27 / 12 / 9,5 / 48,5 pts
Desolation 17 / 10 / 7 / 34 pts
Moonatees 33 / 18 / 9,5 / 60,5 pts

So! The teams that went through are: Moonatees, River Pirates, Bad Cat, Supreme Hero Trial and Feels Good to be Evil. 

Thanks to the teams for excellent presentations!

Gate 2 results

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Yesterday we had Gate 2, where we heard presentations from all the teams that got previously through from Gate 1. We also had 6 people from different game companies to act as a jury, giving both score and feedback to each of the teams.

Here are the 5 teams that got through:
Source of Light 75
Child's Mind 68,5
The Great Deep Blue 67
Project Laika 64,5
Reciprocity 61,5

Following 3 teams were unfortunately knocked out of the game:
Valleys of Mars 58,5
Brawl Bistro 55,5
Catpirates! 45

The winning team, Source of Light, showed us some impressive visuals during their presentation.

The winning team, Source of Light, showed us some impressive visuals during their presentation.

9 Teams through from Gate 1

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Our participants have been working on their concept ideas for the last two weeks. Today we spend the day to see which are the best ones of them. Here are the results from Gate 1.

Through

Catpirates! 28pts
Reciprocity 25pts
Child’s Mind 23pts
Source of Light 23pts
Project Laika 21pts
The Great Deep Blue 21pts
Brawl Bistro 21pts
Valleys of Mars 20pts
Ride of Ascension 19pts

 

Not Through

Meowsome Catastrophy 18pts
Robot’s Journey 18pts
Evolution Escape 17pts
Reality Mars 17pts
Lifestream 17pts
Tattoos & Piercings 16pts

Xenocide has been greenlit!

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Very awesome news! Oulu Game Lab based Xenocide has been accepted to Steam through the Greenlight program. We are super excited about this and wish to congratulate the team for their endurance during the development. Let's see what the future has to offer them, in the meanwhile we will be looking forward to hear what kind of gameplay features they are going to be developing next. Cheers! Today we will hoist one for Xenocide!