Finnish Gamedev

About

Finnish Gamedev refers a series of generalization memes based on the notion that many indie games that are developed in Finland are weird and/or sadistic, with notable examples including Cruelty Squad, Noita and Fear & Hunger. The memes about Finnish games and game developers first achieved virality in July 2023, spreading over the following year.

Origin

Prior to June 26th, 2023, an unknown user posted an image with the titles of five indie video games by Finnish developers, including Cruelty Squad, Noita, Baba Is You, Fear & Hunger and ULTRAKILL, with the caption, "We need to talk about what's going on in Finland to create shit like this."

Also on June 26th, Joyreactor^[1] user Gadenator made the earliest found repost of the image (shown below), with the post gaining 57 replies in one year.

Spread

On July 5th, 2023, X^[2] user @db_witch posted a Wow Cool Robot meme that jokingly described the Finnish indie games developers as "weird and sadistic." The post (shown below, left) received over 6,100 reposts and 46,000 likes in one year.

On July 6th, X^[3] user @ShitpostRock posted an expanded version of the meme with more Finnish video games in it, with the post (shown below, right) gaining over 3,000 reposts and 21,000 likes in one year and being widely circulated online in the following months.

In 2023 and 2024, more similar memes based on the notion of Finnish video games often being uniquely weird and/or cruel were shared online. For example, on October 11th, 2023, an unknown Redditor posted an I Fear No Man meme that received over 260 upvotes in /r/gaming^[4] nine months (shown below, left). In May 2024, Imgflip^[5] user .Nugget. posted a Walter White Cooking GIF caption meme based on the premise (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References