One year ago, on December of 2021, the creator team of Ukko & Guar: Stellarbound (Alice, Fernando, Karolina, Thas and Renan) was on Finland, in the city of Helsinki, for an incredible and immersive experience in the local scene of game development and entrepreneurship. As the winning team of the Good Game Brazil Game Jam, the five creators were rewarded with a trip of five days to Helsinki in a diplomatic mission for the Brazilian Embassy. Arriving at Helsinki, on -12 C (10.4 F), on a Monday night, the team went directly to the Embassy where they were welcomed by the Ambassador of Brazil Mr. Joo Luiz de Barros Pereira Pinto and his crew. The journey of the creators of Ukko & Guar: Stellarbound had just started.
On Tuesday the team could learn more about Helsinki, but specially, visit Metacore and Supercell. We had a very good welcome for lunch and chat with Metacores CEO and heads of projects, a moment of knowledge exchange and learning. In the evening, while the shine of the first ice flakes fell on the team, we visited Supercell, where a Brazilian welcomed us to talk about the company and to show us its amazing office.
The following days, Wednesday and Thursday, the focus of the diplomatic mission was to attend Slush, a big event for startups, entrepreneurs, CEOs and founders. At the event, the team could learn more about trending topics, good practices and stories of success. Slush also has some side events in which one of them was related to the game industry. We could learn a little more about blockchain games and other topics.
As Friday had arrived, the team had to prepare for its return to Brazil. Those were amazing days of so much learning in Helsinki. As indie game developers in Brazil, we would love to see more opportunities like that happening. Hundreds of game development teams are just waiting for this little push to make their game ideas a reality. We hope more and more developers have the opportunity to learn about game development around the world.