This is the first of six newsletters that will be created for all staff and students active at the Department of Game Design, three issues per semester.
Faculty and staff can review the newsletters on the Staff Portal to receive more details there. Students are welcome to submit news, too! Mail your news for the next issue before Thursday, September 26, 16:00: gamedesign [at] speldesign [dot] uu [dot] se
PS. take a moment to review (and bookmark) our post on Useful student resources. Free literature, free worldwide WiFi connectivity, free lectures, software, professional networking and much more.
This is a collection of resources that will make your time studying way, way easier.
Free WiFi all over the world:
eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. After setting it up on your devices, it’ll provide free WiFi at airports, schools, university campuses, libraries and thousands of other Wi-Fi hotspots around the world!
To use eduroam you must change some settings on your device. The settings are described at https://cat.eduroam.org
To find a specific publisher or platform, go to the database list
Cheap(er) software:
Uppsala University uses OnTheHub to deliver software from many different publishers, with substantial rebates and sometimes entirely for free. Adobe Creative Cloud, GitLab, JetBrains, Microsoft Office etc. might be particularly useful to you.
CampusGotlandGAME on Facebook – more than 700 alumni, students and faculty socialize in this group. It is great for job opportunities, events, networking and the occasional announcements about guest lectures and such. It is NOT an official university group and you should not expect teachers to reply to any of your questions on facebook (use the faculty email or slack).
The group is run by former students and filled with industry professionals, so do not spam the group with course-related questions. Current students are encouraged to set up groups for their own year separately – like GAME 2014, GAME 2016, etc. Before applying to the group: please update your Facebook profile to mention that you’re studying at Uppsala University, at the Department of Game Design (otherwise the admin might not let you in).
gotlandgame.slack.com – many teachers use Slack in their courses, and to quickly reach students or organize group discussions. Join the campus-wide channels like #general, #speldesign, #programming and whatever else you find interesting, too. 🙂
We use TimeEdit to schedule our regular course lectures. That’s the best place for you to check when and where you are supposed to be! You can log on to TimeEdit to create your own custom views, but here are a couple of useful ones ready-made for you:
Copy-paste this link into your calendar app to subscribe to the schedule. (Google Calendar, iCal, whatever)
Tip: use TimeEdit to build your own schedule with only your courses in it, and subscribe to that instead.
This program overview (PDF) lets you see all courses for Autumn 2019, when they are and who runs them.
The Christmas hiatus is between December 20th (last day of teaching) and January 7th (first day of teaching). You are likely to have assignments that can be done without physical presence between these two dates.
University is hard enough at the best of time – do not struggle alone through illness, depression, anxiety or any other crisis!
The Student Health Service is the students’ own health care. Uppsala University has psychologists, counsellors and a doctor, all specialized in mental health. If you need support or counselling, they are there for you – use them!
Diagnosis like aspergers, autism, ADHD, dyslexia etc. might make you eligible for extra support in your classes. Such support can take the form of more time on tests or deadlines, more accessible literature, lecture slide handouts, special equipment, study assistance, etc. etc.
The first step for getting all the support we can offer (and that is your right!), is to visit the Student Health Service.
The Department infoscreen and newsletter:
The screens in the F-building will show you the schedule for the current week, and up-to-date news and notices from the department. The newsletter is published six times a year with information from the various department functions.
Play as two flubbermonkeys making their way deeper and deeper into an enchanted jungle. Navigate around each level with your friend and try to reach the end. Using each other, the objects and features around the level, solve the puzzles and make it across the landscape unharmed. The levels aren’t all fun and games, there are dangers lurking! Environment and jungle creatures can hurt the careless monkeys. A large part of the game is bouncing off each other and cooperating to reach the goal. The players can bounce on top of each other to reach high places, and slingshot each other in order to get across great distances.
In Love Dart you play as the love God Cupid whose on a mission to help lonely people find the love of their life. But all is not just flowers and kisses; there are minions of Despair in disguise posing as humans.
Use your Crossbow of Love to shoot and match couples as well as to eliminate the Despairs’ hate and turn then back into normal humans.
Using infrared lights (attached to a headset) in coordinance with a Wii remote the game will be able to track your head movement. This allows you to interact with the game by both moving around as well as by aiming and shooting with your Crossbow of Love (equipped with a second Wii remote working as a lightgun).
