GAME – The department of Game Design at Uppsala University, campus Gotland

2018/04/06 - Fri2018/04/09 - Mon - No Comments
Blog
outreach

The Swedish Game Industry Career Fair

We were in Stockholm two days ago, braving the miserable rain together with roughly 330 other people, for the Swedish Game Industry Career Fair. As is our custom we put students and their games front and center – letting them speak for our educations.

2nd year student Marcel, answering questions while people try his game DynaMine.

The event only lasted four hours, but they were packed! It was particularly interesting meeting so many prospective students coming from less traditional backgrounds – eg. applying to university for a career change or to establish their career in Sweden. We’re really hoping to see you on the island this autumn or next!

In our booth we also gave away free tickets to Visby and the Gotland Game Conference, in a lottery for those who spoke with us. We look forward to welcoming the three winners (and their plus ones) to Visby in June 5-6th!

Marcus Wingård
Julia Noblía
Deirdre Tobin

The conference is a unique opportunity to meet our students, faculty, alumni and industry representatives, to get a sense of what our educations can offer. We recommend anyone considering our programs to get a ticket and attend. There’s even a Pay What You Want option so you can attend entirely free of charge.

Speaking of “considering our programs”: anyone who applies to a bachelors program on Campus Gotland as their first-hand choice will also be offered Campus Camp (19-20 May). It’s a free 2 day tour of our campus and island, and a great way to meet some of your future classmates and faculty too. All you need to do is put Uppsala University in your top slot for your applications. Notice will be sent out once the application process closes (ergo: after April 16th).

So once again: thanks everybody for coming out despite the rain yesterday, and we hope to see many of you again at the Gotland Game Conference and/or the Campus Camp!

2018/03/28 - Wed2018/04/18 - Wed - No Comments
Blog, Publicity

alt.ctrl.GDC 2018 coverage

As you might know, three of our student games just returned from the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. And, judging by the press, they were as well received there as they were here! We thought, let’s gather some of the love in one giant #notsohumblebrag-post. 🙂

Make: Magazine interviews 1st year student Eric Osana for Pump the Frog at 7:56.

Kotaku loved Totally Not a Game Studio’s “Grave Call“. It’s a fantastic 2-player game where one of the team has been buried alive, and the other is a police operator trying to find them. The best part? The buried player actually climbs into a coffin.

Scott Manly both tweeted and recorded video from the show floor:

Alt.ctrl.GDC ‘Grave Call’ – one player is buried in a coffin with a cellphone, the other is a police dispatcher trying to find them. pic.twitter.com/BBA3N19tVc

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) March 21, 2018

His video cover a bunch of the games, including Grave Call at 3:31 and Yo! Bartender at 4:50

Anita Sarkeesian / Feminist Frequency also tried Grave Call (at 2:55):

Other outlets that wrote about our students and their games includes Polygon, The Verge, Tom’s Guide and Newsweek!

Of course, reading about these games is not the same as playing them! If you want to try our new games out (without having to travel to the US to do so), come meet us at this years Gotland Game Conference in June. There is a Pay What You Want-option to get full access to ~50 entirely new games, plus a series of unique presentations trying to uncovering the emotional potential of games. It’s also a great opportunity to meet our students and faculty, if you’re interesting in studying game design and development.

Find out more at the Gotland Game Conference website, and get your tickets here!

2018/03/26 - Mon - No Comments
Publicity

Polygon plays Yo! Bartender

screenshot from polygon.com — Think you can actually bartend? This game simulates just how hard it is

Yo Bartender! uses Wiimotes and real bottles to simulate making drinks in a hurry

Dante Douglas over at Polygon met one of our student teams at the Game Developers Conference, and wrote a little piece about Yo! Bartender.

[…] The bottles arrayed around the play area are slightly weighted and use six Wiimotes (one inside each bottle) to register when they are turned upside down over the drink cup, adorned with lights picked up by the internal light sensors in the Wiimote. Hold a bottle upside down over the cup, and it “pours,” showing how much poured on the display. The system is simple but effective, making each “mixing” process into a game of trying to remember where you set down the rum bottle, or which button drops ice into the cup. […]

Meet us in Stockholm on the 4th of April!

The Department of Game Design at Uppsala University is attending The Swedish Game Industry Career Fair, at Nalen in Stockholm. The event is free to attend, and is an excellent opportunity to meet a ton of game studios and whole lot of game educations, to see if game development might be for you.

The 4th of April is ~10 days before the national application deadline, so we highly recommend you swing past and check the options out before applying to higher education. We will make sure to bring a couple of our students so you get to speak with them directly, and maybe try their games while you’re at it!

Gratuitous photo of students setting up our booth at Gamex, in 2013. Because why not. :) — Gratuitous photo of students setting up our booth at Gamex, in 2013. Because why not. 🙂

See you there!