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Even if the city of Helsinki didn't have a decent claim to being the capital of video games, it's certainly got a decent shout of being where the real capital is. Rovio's success is legendary, its setbacks in recent years washed over by the phenomenal reception to the Angry Birds movie, while the recent revelation that Supercell, off the back of Clash of Clans among other titles, helped raise Finland's revenues from capital gains tax by a fifth is a wonderful illustration of the social responsibility that's endemic in the city. Its success, though, is predominantly mobile - perhaps, in no small part, thanks to it being the city where mobile games were born. Nokia's presence once loomed large, and when Taneli Armanto, a design engineer on the breakthrough 6110, repurposed the arcade classic Blockade, he helped birth an entire industry. Some companies have resisted the move to handsets, though - Remedy Entertainment, developers of Max Payne, Alan Wake and most recently Quantum Break, remains committed to its own brand of big budget pulp, while another studio stays true to an ethos that's been with it for 21 years.
Housemarque can lay claim to being the longest-standing developer in Helsinki, its formation dating back to 1995 while its history stretches back further still: formed by Ilari Kuittinen from Terramarque and Harri Tikkanen from Bloodhouse, the first game with Housemarque's DNA entwined is quite possibly 1993's Stardust on the Amiga. What's thrilling about Housemarque is its identity hasn't wavered through the years, no matter what trials have been thrown the company's way. Pick up Alienation, its most recent outing, or Resogun, perhaps its most famous, and you'll be playing something that's resolutely Housemarque; scratch away at the surface and you'll always find remnants of the studio's roots in the infamous demoscene.
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