How did Finland grow so big in a global industry

What the talk is about

Sami Vanhatalo explains how Finland, with only about 5.5 million people, became a notable player in the global games industry. He points to several factors: open cooperation between studios that don't see each other as enemies and freely share information about publishers and platforms; free education; an active IGDA community with monthly meetups of 200–400 people; the gradual arrival of venture capital and government support; the demoscene tradition and the influence of Nokia. He stresses that no company he knows had a hit with its first game. In the Q&A he advises learning math, physics and algorithms, since technologies keep changing, and describes international teams working in English. Useful for studios and community organizers looking for models for growing a local industry.