Supercell founder Ilkka Paananen named Power Player of the Year at Finnish Game Awards 2025

Supercell founder Ilkka Paananen has been named Power Player of the Year at the Finnish Game Awards 2025 for his lifetime contributions to the Finnish game industry.

The Finnish Game Awards 2025 took place yesterday, May 13th, celebrating the best Finnish games and developers across nine categories. 

IGDA Finland named Daria Bokovaya Volunteer of the Year while Christopher Hamilton received the Lifetime Achievement award.

Mainframe Industries' open-world social sandbox MMO Pax Dei won the Finnish Game of the Year award. 

Ali İrdiren was named Jampion of the Year by Finnish Game Jam, while the W Love Games Excellence award for Best Indie Game went to Finnish Cottage Simulator by Ranela Games. 

Furthermore, Team Scavenger, creator of Spaceship Scavenger, won the Bit1 Student Game Competition 2025. Hanki Games won Rookie of the Year as Tensori took home the Best Creative Achievement of the Year.

The winners in full:

• IGDA Volunteer of the Year 2024: Daria Bokovaya
• IGDA Lifetime Achievement 2025: Christopher Hamilton
• Finnish Game Jam - Jampion of the Year 2024: Ali İrdiren
• W Love Games Excellence Award 2024: Finnish Cottage Simulator (Ranela Games)
• Bit1 Game Competition 2025: Spaceship Scavenger (Team Scavenger)
• Rookie of the Year 2024: Hanki Games
• Best Creative Achievement of the Year 2024: Pools (Tensori)
• Power Player of the Year 2024: Ilkka Paananen
• Finnish Game of the Year 2024: Pax Dei (Mainframe Industries)

A 30-year history 

The Finnish Game Awards also celebrated the Finnish game industry’s 30-year history during the 2025 event, which included a ceremonial speech.

“This year’s gala was a bit unusual,” said Finnish Game Developers’ Association chairman of the board Joni Lappalainen. “Finland is globally recognised for its mobile games, but in 2024, only a handful of new mobile titles were released. 

“All the winning games this year were published for PC and/or consoles. The fierce competition in the gaming industry is also evident in the fact that Makea Games, the developer of Supermoves, which placed second for Finnish Game of the Year, was unable to continue operations despite having created a great game. 

“The gala also celebrated 30 years of the Finnish game industry. A ceremonial speech was delivered by Ilari Kuittinen, founder and CEO of Housemarque, the oldest active game studio in Finland and the event’s main sponsor.”

The Finnish Game Developers’ Association selected the nominees, runner-ups and winner of the 2024 Finnish Game of the Year through a member vote, considering over 70 commercially released Finnish games from last year.