Last month, Team Sauron, made up of Trials Evolution developers Mika Urtela and Jorma Sainio, took 2nd place in the 2012 Hello World Open, an event many consider the ‘national programming championship’ of Finland.

The Hello World Open sets teams of programmers head to head in a programing contest to construct a game-playing A.I. that will destroy all other teams in one of the most recognized games of all time: Pong.

At the end of the day, Team Sauron was felled by another Pong-playing bot, but Sauron was happy with their progress and met the goals they had set for themselves. And they are now the proud owners of a large, silver trophy.

Congrats to Jorma and Mika! Also participating from RedLynx was Antti Mannisto, whose one-man coding team placed seventh overall in the national tournament.

For more information on Finland’s “Hello World Open”, you can visit this site, although we warn you, it’s mostly in Finnish!

Inspired by this event, RedLynx is currently hosting an open programming challenge for all aspiring programmers in Finland. Please visit this link for more.

Each year, Game Developer magazine does a feature called the “Power 50” to highlight 50 individuals in the industry whose work during this year stands out:

“Making games may be largely a team effort these days, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t acknowledge the individuals who make outstanding contributions to the industry as well. That’s why Game Developer and Gamasutra are proud to bring you another yearly installment of our Power 50: a list of 50 individuals (give or take) in the game industry who have stood out for doing work in the last year that is new, different, or better in the categories of Art, Audio, Business, Design, Evangelism, and Programming. Here’s to the people that inspire us to do better. Here’s to the Power 50.”

Congratulations to RedLynx's very own Sami Saarinen for being included in this year’s list, getting recognized for his long-standing contributions to and overseeing of the Trials editor, from the PC days through XBLA and beyond.

You can view the full list of the Power 50 from Game Developer magazine, which is being run as a series of blog posts on Gamasutra.com.

Do you have what it takes as a programmer to take the RedLync Mato Challenge? If so, then keep reading, the information below just may be for you.

RedLynx is hosting a coding competition for Finnish residents. The language that you will be coding in is C++, no others are allowed. The competition begins on November 9 and runs for two weeks. Your final submission must be made by November 25.

Your challenge will be to code an effective artificial intelligence for a worm in a multiplayer game of Worms, similar to the Worm/Snake game on older Nokia phones. You only need to focus on the AI, the other parts of the program such as network messaging have already been implemented for you.

If this sounds like something you are interested in, please visit the web page here for more information, and give it a try.

Nutty Fluffies is now available on your Apple iOS powered devices! Take control of a roller coaster chock-full of plushies and unleash the most terrifying ride known to man (or plushie) in a physics based world of coaster insanity.

'Take your Plushies on a wild ride.'


Nutty Fluffies uses compelling physics and a unique, touch-based interface to create a wild roller coaster ride on your touch-screen device.

Race and perfect your skills in 26 tricky rides, from classic wooden coasters to steel speed demons!

Use rockets, Jump jets and magnets, earn hearts and coins, run huge loops, massive jumps and stomach-turning, upside-down tracks!

Key Features

Touch-based Gameplay

Control your coasters with a simple touch-based interface that controls your gas and brakes. Get ready for new power-ups like rockets, jump-jets and magnets on the most challenging tracks!


Four Types of Wild Rides

From your first rickety wooden roller coaster to the jet-fast joyrides of the Extreme Tracks, Nutty Fluffies will take you on a tour of crazy coasters.
Test your skills against Wooden Ways, Metal Mayhem, Loonie Loops, and the extreme Rapture Rides. More to come in updates!


Meet the Nutty Fluffies

When the fair shuts down for the winter, the stuffed animals come out to play! They climb out of their midway booths and take a ride on the wildest roller coasters around!


Collect hearts with five unique animals

The Mouse, Cat, Dog, Pig and Elephant will help you to gather hearts and earn coins from the wild rides. Use them to build even longer trains with more carts or unlock exciting new tracks to play!

You can head over to the iTunes App Store and pick up Nutty Fluffies right now for a dollar!