The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, and innovation in video game development by CMP Media, later known as UBM Technology Group, IGF is now owned by Informa after UBM's acquisition.
Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.
Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy-improv collective founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flash animations, and he was later joined by Hecox. They began to post videos on Smosh's YouTube channel in the autumn of 2005 and quickly became one of the most popular channels on the site. As of May 2022, the Smosh channel has over 10.1 billion views and over 25.1 million subscribers, putting it just outside of the top 9,000 most subscribed channels on YouTube.
Xbox Live Indie Games are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia, due to the requirement for all games to be rated by the Australian Classification Board, and the prohibitive expenses involved. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered in October 7, 2017.
Rob Miles is a Microsoft MVP, and was also a lecturer in Programming and Software Engineering at the University of Hull.
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon.
Angry Birds is a 2009 casual puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for iOS and Maemo devices starting in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from the iOS App Store, which prompted the developer to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, most notably Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10 devices. The series has since expanded to include titles for dedicated video game consoles and PCs. A sequel, Angry Birds 2, was released in July 2015 for iOS and Android. Around April 2019, the original game was removed from the App Store. A recreation of the game's content from 2012 was released as Rovio Classics: Angry Birds on March 31, 2022.
Rovio Entertainment Oyj is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen and Kim Dikert, the company is best known for the Angry Birds franchise. The company currently operates studios in Espoo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Montreal.
Angry Birds is a Finnish action-based media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment. The game series focuses on the eponymous flock of angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game Crush the Castle, the game has been praised for its successful combination of fun gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to many spin-offs; versions of Angry Birds created for PCs and video game consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters, Angry Birds Toons, a televised animated series, and two films; The Angry Birds Movie and its sequel The Angry Birds Movie 2. By January 2014, there had been over 2 billion downloads across all platforms, including both regular and special editions.
Games Fleadh, is a 2-day mid-week convention held annually in LIT-Tipperary for computer games enthusiasts and developers to showcase their talent and programming skills. It is usually held in early March and is partially funded by LIT-Tipperary's Centre for Entertainment & Game Technology Research. Additional supporters include Microsoft, EA, and Demonware.
The Deutscher Computerspielpreis is the most important prize for the German games industry and has been awarded since 2009. The DCP is awarded by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Ministry of State for Digitalisation and the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, and game - the German Games Industry Association.
Piggy Tales is a Finnish computer-animated television series based on Bad Piggies, a spin-off of Angry Birds. Animated in a style resembling clay animation before transitioning into computer-generated imagery after the release of The Angry Birds Movie, the series focuses on the life of the minion pigs, and it has no dialogue. It was produced by Rovio Entertainment, with the French studio Cube Creative providing some of the animation.
Plunder Pirates is a freemium mobile MMO pirate-themed strategy video game, inspired by Clash of Clans, developed and published by Midoki. For iOS, it soft-launched in Canada and Finland on June 16, 2014 and the worldwide iOS release was on September 17, 2014. The game was one of the first to use Metal for advanced graphics in iOS 8. The Android version was released on April 22, 2015. It was originally published by Rovio Stars.
Ljud & Bildskolan, also called LBS, is a Swedish high school that was founded in 1993 in Varberg.
Nibblers is a Finnish mobile tile-matching puzzle video game, developed by Rovio Entertainment. It was released on September 10, 2015 for Android and iOS devices worldwide.
The International Mobile Gaming Awards ("IMGA") is an annual competition and awards ceremony that honors outstanding games made for mobile devices. It is the longest standing international competition for mobile games. Notable IMGA winners include Candy Crush Saga and Monument Valley.
Video gaming in Finland consists of video game industry of 260 active video game developer studios, roughly a dozen professional players and countless enthusiastic amateurs.
