The subtleties of military service in a country nested between Sweden and Russia can sound bizarre to the uninitiated. Finnish leadership training is world-famous, yet whenever Finnish men start bonding over their service, hazing and difficult characters always come up. Speaking of which, how can they just talk about military training like that? Surely it’s controlled information and state secrets - still, everyone in Finland seems to know why the M05 uniform, patterned in the camouflage lovingly called “pickle relish”, is called “army grey”, and a fair bit more!

To be frank, the whole thing sounds a bit suspicious. Why would anyone live where winter days stay below freezing for months on end and the sun doesn’t even peek above the horizon for weeks? And why would they, of all people, relax in a room that’s hot enough to cook eggs? Why would a country of five million people need an army of 280 thousand? For that matter, how can a population of five million field a wartime army of 280 thousand?

Finnish Army Simulator asks you to suspend your disbelief enough to imagine that such a feat is possible through universal mandatory conscription of all men of able body and mind and anyone else who is willing. Those who are fittest to lead - or at least able to decline the extra six months of service - form the lowest rungs of the chain of command, which makes the entire institution less costly, and the training all the more lovable and homegrown.

After playing FAS, you, too, can remember the bliss of being woken by the sweet reveille of “Komppaniassa herätys!” (“Company arise!”) for every morning of one of the first summers of your life as a legal adult. The game shows in vivid detail how a system that seems to rely on repetition, discipline and inconsistency can take just 180 days to turn any boy into a man, or at least a private.

Experience the thrills, triumphs and frustrations of military training as a young adult who may never have handled a gun, and is now likely to handle an assault rifle on a weekly basis. Although you’re likely to lay eyes on more individual rifles than live rounds of ammo during your entire stay. Learn how to set up camp, to make your bed, to follow orders and to do things in a hurry so that you can wait for some more orders.

Cultivate your character, do your very best and follow every command, and you may just learn the greatest lesson there is to be learned in a half a year in intti - Anything can be an experience, as long as you’re willing to take it as such. That’s the most important, and likely the only free choice you have.

Though your character is more of a blank slate, your brothers and sisters in arms are fully rounded characters with flaws, personalities and stories, as are your conscript non-commisioned officers and the cadre of professional staff. 

In addition to personal backstories, FAS has multiple branching storylines that shed light on the inconsistencies of widely accepted truth and experienced reality in the army. The conclusions of these stories may not be as familiar to everyone who has had the pleasure to receive Finnish army training… but then again, how plausible does it sound that a Nordic welfare state essentially extracts forced labor out of half of its population?

Spend your on-base days going to endless lectures, learning basic discipline and marching drill.


Marching in time with your fellows has been a staple of military training since Napoleonic times. By the 2000’s, this hasn’t changed in Finnish armed service. You’ll be surprised how little else has.


Count how many precious days of service remain with an in-game morning comb. Other inseparable aspects of Finnish military service, such as tent stove duty, roundabout group punishment and "intti slang" are brought vividly to life. 
 

Training includes conscript favorites such as NBC gear leak testing with tear gas.


And fire training with napalm, as well as the ever-present cooper test. 


Many facets of training are included as minigames. Orienteering, combat training (taisteluammuntaharjoitus) and military drill (sulkeisjärjestysharjoitus) among them.


Kilometers of Finnish country roads are modeled in luscious detail.


And terrain exercises are complete with, well, terrain.


As well as defensive structures for training.


It is a well-known aspect of Finnish military service that the shortest service of 180 days includes approximately 300 nights sleeping in the woods. Or more often than not, spent in the woods guarding the empty forest.


The barracks area is free to roam during the day, but during the night, the military police do their best to make sure anyone moving about is only doing so on actual business. That may not stop you.


If you play your cards right, you may get to shoot dozens of live rounds. Dozens!
 

Hundreds of pieces of military kit and other items, from weapons, live and simulated, to protective equipment and clothes, camping implements and packs, all the way to candy and snacks, perhaps even contraband…


Kit enters the player’s inventory as it does in actual service, through regular visits to the equipment warehouse (varusvarasto). That is not to say that extra items and special equipment isn’t possible to come by.


Barracks housing is modeled after the bunks, stools and steel cupboards every Finnish conscript knows and loves. Cleaning service (siivouspalvelus), folding the soldier’s blanket (pinkka) and making the bed are all in the game.


The barracks grounds are complete with a soldier home (sotilaskoti), a distinctive Finnish breed of combined canteen and commissary. This is the closest you’re likely to get to civilization and normal life most evenings. 

The soldier home commissary offers small creature comforts such as videogames, petty gambling (slot machine, payazzo) and tasty treats.

What little remnants of the outside world exists on the barracks are modeled after actual Finnish popular culture, tongue firmly in cheek. Outside events do, however, have an effect on your service, and the game has several storylines that may take several playthroughts to fully uncover.


Even in the unlikely event that a Finn knows nothing else about military service, the two things they are likely to know are that the jam doughnuts in the canteen are delicious and cheap, and that the coffee is undrinkable. There are things that some conscripts cannot live without that cannot be bought in the soldier home. Tins of Swedish snus, for example, may be bought from platoon mates.

Nönnönnöö - Your Average Joe

In “Finnish Army Simulator”, you play as recruit Nönnönnöö, the average Joe, the standard Sam, the textbook Tom. Nönnönnöö is the someone who does everything but not necessarily as best as one can, but You are the one who has the power to affect where Nönnönnöö is headed. Will You be the best of the best who gets accepted to RUK, the Reserve Officer School, or will You throw in the towel and go home with your tail between your legs? How you survive in the Finnish Army is up to You.

Other characters

In every group of conscriptees, youngsters from all walks of life are thrown in the same boat. On their first steps to adulthood, young people are handling the turmoil of finding themselves as people and figuring out the mysteries of being an adult, but first they have to survive the Finnish Army. Among the differences and similarities conflict and camaraderie spark to life. Here you can meet some of the many characters with whom you share your once-in-a-lifetime experience in the Finnish Army.

Jortikka - The Displeased Drama Queen

The capital of capitals, the cream of the crop of cities in Finland, is Helsinki (at least according to the people living there themselves). Everything outside the outermost of highway rings around the capital area, is countryside full of brainless country bumpkins. People outside Helsinki see the locals as spoiled snobs though. When you meet Jortikka, you can’t help but think that there’s at least some truth to it.
 

“Ugh, really? Do I, like, seriously have to?”

Jortikka is the drama queen who whines and complains about literally everything with the conscription. No time to put on makeup in the morning? Total disaster. Jewelry and fab clothes are banned? So lame. No way to actually look like a decent human being? Disgusting. Despite her negative attitude, she succeeds exceptionally in athletic exercises and often ends up ranking in the top 10 in them. However the conscription is voluntary for women, why is she even here? No one can really figure that out.
 

Supela - The Merry Medic

People from the Karelian area of Finland are seen as happy-go-lucky, jolly and friendly to all. Supela certainly has taken the happy attitude of all the people from his hometown when he joined the army to complete his civic duty.

“Ye’ll live. Nae, on second thought let’s dress it a bit”

If it’s mainly how it’s supposed to, it’s just fine for Supela. He is the medic who you wouldn’t exactly trust with your broken leg or unfortunate night-time march accident wounds, but you can’t really be mad at the guy. Although he’s half-assing his duties 99% of the time, he’s too jolly for it to be a problem and always manages to make you laugh despite the situation. He’s here just because he has to and he’s doing his job. Kind of. But there will be casualties.
 

Koikkalainen - The Garrison Gossip

There’s a saying that when a Savonian speaks, responsibility falls on the listener, and Koikkalainen is living proof of it. When he puts his wordy arsenal to use, there is no end to it and the amount is definitely more important than the quality of his stream of ramblings.

“I’ve a word fer the authorities if they’ll hear me”

The mischief-maker and biggest gossip of the garrison. A pantry thief? Scandalous relationships? Crazy conspiracies? Ghosts in the infirmary? Koikkalainen most likely started it. He makes more empty promises than there’s lakes in Finland, so you can’t trust this man with anything.
 

Strandén - The Big Bad Bully

Lahti, “the Chicago of Finland”, the city with the scientifically proven highest amount of drug residue in sewage. The harsh battle royale environment Strandén has grown up in has rubbed off on his attitude, and he is most certainly not the nicest person to be around. It’s very hard to get in his good graces, and it’s not recommended to even try if you have any amount of common sense.

“Alright you little shits, let’s go, gimme your snus”

A bulky guy the size of a wardrobe and with the attitude of your classic school bully: Strandén clearly thinks that high school, indeed, never ends. His numerous (and often totally unrealistic) hookup stories get frustrating after about the 11th time you hear the same story over and over again. If someone ends up “generously” getting your group some “extra training”, it’s definitely this guy. You don’t want to get on his bad side, or you’ll end up in the same category of prime bullying targets as poor Nallukka.
 

Nallukka - The Pathetic Pantywaist

“Sir Lieutenant, sir, I think I pooped a little…”

Nallukka is one of the most, if not the most, cowardly members in this batch of conscriptees. Thanks to his soft personality, general disinterest in macho man stuff and unfortunate bowel issues, he is sadly the target of frequent ridicule and bullying, especially by Strandén. Mostly he wants to get the conscription over and done with, does the absolute bare minimum and focuses on his life after this ordeal. The few things helping Nallukka get through the conscription are donuts from the canteen and his beloved plushie, Norppis.
 

What happens in the Army, stays in the Army? Well, quite the opposite. In fact, the Army is a place of constant gossip. Rumours fly around the garrison faster than you can reassemble your trusted assault rifle. While the word of your superiors should be considered the word of God, it may be a good idea to carefully consider who you trust and who to follow.

In FAS, you’ll get to experience life in the army without the help of fact-checking sources like Wikipedia or Google. Your only source of truth is a weekly news broadcast in the break area, but be careful - some of the news may affect your time inside. There is a world outside the garrison, after all, even though conscription is the main thing in your life right now.

Life in the army is hard on your mental well-being, too. You may want to venture back into the real world whenever you get the chance. Going on weekend breaks can have a positive effect on your sanity and you may be even able to see the people you care so much about. As an added bonus, you’ll feel fresh and ready to be back wearing your uniform come Monday morning. Or, if you spent your weekend drinking with your buddies, you may find that you’ve lost some of that hard-earned discipline and the next few days things might feel a little bit harder to do. It’s all up to you to decide, how you want to spend your time inside as well as outside the garrison gates.

As well as rumours and stories told by your fellow conscripts, there is also an underlying story to follow in FAS. Whether you manage to uncover the truth behind a conspiracy theory involving several high-ranking officers and their secrets, time will only tell…
 

Right now, we are creating this game as a side project. Most of us in the team have a day job and can only give so much of our free time to build this project. Even though we are really passionate about completing this game, by doing it on our spare time, the completion of the game will take longer. 

By funding us, you would be helping us be able to spend more time on the project and give our utmost dedication to it. And you would get to enjoy the game quicker.
 

Please Be Patient Ltd.

Our team is still constantly growing!
The team consists of talented coders and artists with degrees in making games, screenwriters with experience in writing games and animation for TV, a composer who has shipped several indie games and many more! Although we come from different backgrounds, we all share the same passion - video games! 

That's why we are here, making the next hit game.

Jeri Haapavuo - Producer, Developer
Janne Nilsson - Level Designer, Developer
Andrei Misukka - Technical Animator
Frans Vikstén - Programmer
Samuel Nygård - Artist
Susanna Kauppinen - Artist
Jani Tiitinen - Artist
Eppu Nissinen - Artist
Jani Suutarinen - Writer
Niko Flang - Writer
Emilia Joutsio - Writer
Juhani Junkala - Composer