It’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital in just three days, and we are getting very, very excited about it.
Just think – a whole conference full of industry experts discussing their thoughts and knowledge, and you can enjoy it all from the comfort of your bed if you wanted! What a world we live in.
You’ve still got time to get a ticket – so, y’know, go ahead and buy a ticket right now – but we understand that you might not really know what to expect, particularly in the way of content.
The full schedule is available, but it can be pretty overwhelming to look through. So it’s time for our trusty PocketGamer.biz editor (me) to pick out the sessions they’re most excited for.
We have 15 tracks jam-packed with content this time around, so I’ll be picking one session from each track which you should definitely take a look at. Let’s go!
UA Now & Then: A Look at what’s Yet to Come – The Growth Track – Monday 14 September, 9am UK time
We’re kicking off the entire conference with a really stellar session at PGC Helsinki Digital, with N3twork’s Matthew Saunders stepping up to talk about UA and how it’s about to change.
Expect some detailed looks into how IDFA’s eventual removal will affect the way we do UA, and just some really great insights into UA overall.
Fireside Chat: From Vainglory to Catalyst Black – Learning Hard Things the Hard Way – Global Trends – Monday 14 September, 3:30pm UK time
Catalyst Black has been gathering a bit of steam already since its big reveal at Pocket Gamer’s LaunchPad event, and now Super Evil Megacorp CEO Kristian Segerstrale is going to tell us about how Vainglory’s development has informed the making of the studio’s next game.
And, well, I’ll be the one chatting to him about it. Surely that’s a plus?
New Ad Formats – The Next Generation – Monetiser – Tuesday 15 September, 11am UK time
Ads are pretty important to a lot of free-to-play mobile games, but a lot of the current formats we have are kind of annoying and intrusive. So what can we do about them?
That’s the focus of this panel, which has a number of experts from across the ad tech industry discussing the cool and interesting ideas they’re working on that might well change ads forever.
Five Years of Futureplay Games – Finland’s Finest – Tuesday 15 September, 10:30am UK time
Our Finland’s Finest track has some of the brightest names in mobile games, but we’re especially interested to hear about Futureplay Games’ first five years in the industry.
CEO Jami Laes is promising an honest view on how things have gone and where the company is going, which should be utterly fascinating.
Ultimate Launch Checklist for Launching Games in 2020 – The Developer Toolkit – Tuesday 15 September, 5:40pm UK time
Launching a game any year is hard, but in 2020? Forget about it! Until you’ve seen this talk from Medal.tv COO Aurora Klaeboe Berg on launching a game in this very year.
What’s on this checklist is anyone’s guess right now, but it’s sure to be insightful and interesting and incredibly useful for anybody looking to launch a game anytime soon.
Superstar Session: Designing Compelling Narratives for Mobile Game Audiences – Game Maker Insights – Wednesday 16 September, 9am UK time
Us writers are always interested in narratives, and if there’s one developer that knows a thing or two about making a compelling narrative, it has to be King.
Hence why we’re excited to hear more about the topic from the developer’s lead narrative designer Abigail Rindo, who’ll be digging into the challenges of making stories for a mobile audience.
Publishing an IP Hypercasual Game as seen on NERF Epic Pranks! – Hypercasual + Social Games – Wednesday 16 September, 10:30am UK time
Hypercasual is one of the biggest genres on mobile right now, and that was bound to draw in some big IP at some point. And now we get the chance to learn more about it thanks to Homa Games.
The developer’s co-founder and CRO Olivier Le Bas will be talking about the art of publishing a hypercasual game using the IP of a major brand, something we’re probably going to see a lot more of in the future.
Dealing with Investors: West vs. East – Show Me The Money – Wednesday 16 September, 2pm UK time
Dealing with investors is tricky no matter what, but it’s even tougher when navigating cultural differences – but this talk might well help out in the future.
Vectr Ventures managing director of product & development Tony Zander will be talking through the differences between investors in the east and west, which should hopefully help you avoid any pitfalls in the future.
Brazil & Latin America – The Next Super Territory for Game Development – The Art of Publishing – Wednesday 16 September, 5pm UK time
Everybody knows about the big markets – USA, China, Japan, South Korea, etc. But what about some of the lesser-known markets that are still able to provide developers with plenty of revenue?
Brazil Games executive manager Eliana Russi will be looking specifically at Brazil and Latin America as a whole, explaining why it could be the next big thing for game development.
Live Ops Strategy for Living Games – Live Ops Landscape – Thursday 17 September, 2:30pm UK time
RuneScape has been active for years and years at this point, so you’d imagine that Jagex has learned a thing or two about live ops.
With that in mind, you should absolutely check out Jagex product director Matt Casey’s talk on live ops strategies for living games. You’ll almost certainly learn something.
Fireside Chat: Managing Production Through a Crisis – Big Screen Gaming – Thursday 17 September, 5pm UK time
You’ve probably heard of Bungie – they’ve created some of the biggest games of all time, after all. And they’ll be with us at PGC Helsinki Digital to talk about managing production during a crisis.
Destiny 2 executive producer Dan McAuliffe will be chatting to PCGamesN deputy editor Richard Scott-Jones about it as part of our Big Screen Gaming track, but you’re sure to learn something about production no matter what platform you’re working on.
Please Invest in my Game… or the Puppy gets it! – Incredible Indies – Friday 18 September, 10am UK time
Look, this is just a great title, right? Not that we condone animal cruelty, of course, but it’s the kind of thing that instantly grabs your attention and you can’t help but tune in.
Stephen Hey of the appropriately-named HeyStephenHey will be telling us all about securing investment, probably through grabbing attention with great headlines. And hopefully without threatening small mammals.
The Current State & Future of Mobile Esports – Esports + Influencers – Friday 18 September, 11:50am UK time
Mobile esports has been bubbling away for a while even as big screen esports has exploded, but it’s possible that you don’t know what’s happening in the scene right now.
Luckily, Critical Force CEO and founder Veli-Pekka Piirainen will be giving an overview on where mobile esports is now and where it’s going in the future – something the Critical Ops developer definitely knows something about.
Practical Steps to Create an Inviting Culture – Industry Visions & Values – Friday 18 September, 3pm UK time
We’ve had FarBridge producer & BD Donald Harris on one of our RoundTable discussions previously and he’s a wonderful speaker with plenty of great insights.
So we’re delighted to have him back for his very own session on following practical steps to create an inviting culture, improving your company as a result.
The Art of Character Creation – Beyond Games – Friday 18 September, 4pm UK time
Beyond Games is an exciting new track for us, exploring the world beyond games and looking at how they will change the medium as games are influencing other products.
And as part of that, prolific TV and comic writer Paul Cornell will be talking about creating characters, something that applies to every medium with any kind of narrative.
Sound good? Good! Now go grab yourself a ticket to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital and we’ll see you there!
