The department of Game Design at Uppsala University, campus Gotland
Category: Blog
This is the highly informal blog of the GAME-department. We use it mostly to document the things we do outside of running one of the worlds strongest game educations. For information about our education, programs and courses, check the official site at Uppsala University.
A jam to show off the student games that were supposed to show at the (cancelled) Gotland Game Conference!
We sadly had to cancel the Gotland Game Conference 2020 due to the Corona outbreak. Even without a show floor, however, our students are all still producing A TON of new games this semester which need to be play tested, scrutinized and celebrated!
We expect to have more than 40 games available for anyone to play, for free, from the comfort of their own homes. Everyone is welcome to join in and vote on the games they play!
Game Submissions will be open between May 1st (12:00) – June 1st (12:00) (local time).
Public play testing and voting will happen on June 1st – June 4th. (12:00, Swedish time).
As with the regular GGC, student participation is entirely voluntary and is not a part of your course work. You are not graded for your performance in the event.
It was time to update our two-fold brochure, to incorporate information about the Master programme, our new Games & Society Lab, and general nips-and-tucks. Here’s how the folder looks in practice:
We also needed new t-shirts since the previous design was a giant flop (big print over the chest made it act and feel like wearing a bib). We kept it clean and simple:
We had some ideas for a more ambitious design refresh, but we need all of this stuff before March when GDC and all other things happen so we let that plan slide for now. 🙂
Posted on - Comments Off on Alumni Days 2019 talks published! CategoriesBlog, Guest Lectures
Big huge thanks to all our alumni; Marcus Ingvarsson (Zoink), Albertina Sparrhult (ex-King (future Empress!)), Sebastian Larsson (Tarsier), Esteban Soto (Image & Form), Nina Moritz (Ubisoft), Erik Starander (The Outsiders), Kim Aava (DICE), Maria Norkvist (DICE), Alex Untoro, (PlaygroundSquad), Jens Berglind (Might & Delight) and Teddy Sjöström (Pixel Ferrets) for taking the time and putting in the work to make this event happen!
Posted on - Comments Off on Alumni Days 2019 (5-6 Dec) CategoriesBlog, Guest Lectures Tagsalumni
Pitch Practice (Marcus Ingvarsson) New location: B43 You bring a pitch deck for your commercial project, I help you improve it. The aim should be to effectively communicating your game within 2 minutes. Of course we’ll have more time than 2 minutes, but the importance is to get the publishers to feel invested and wanting to know more. Read these instructions and sign-up before Friday 29th Nov.
Agile workshop – The simple art of Guesstimating (Albertina Sparrhult) New location: E30 Why estimations matter, how it can shield your team, improve communication and why estimating in time is the work of the devil. Sign up here before Tue 3rd Nov.
Portfolio Review Bring between 5-15 artworks (2D art assets, 3D art assets, models, animations, games, etc). Bring your strongest artworks, showing all your different strengths and skills. Make sure to bring finished pieces. The more your portfolio represents the best you can do, the more useful the feedback will be. Sign up here before Tue 3rd Nov.
Code Interview Practice Job interviews can be daunting, more so if you have to demonstrate coding ability at the same time. Come and improve your skills by taking part in an realistic job interview. You bring one or two code samples that demonstrates your current skill level as a programmer. You should be ready to explain, motivate, and discuss your design choices and the problems you solved in your code sample. Be prepared to talk about both your personal and your collaborative projects. Sign up here before Tue 3rd Nov.
Mentor Speed Dating (Rindi, 2nd floor, 18:30 Fri) Speed-date our alumni mentors! It’s a breezy ice breaker and quick way to strike up conversation about the stuff you care about – how to get into the industry? How to get their job? What should be your priorities through school? What do they think about your business model or even ask if they’d be available to mentor you? More info and sign up here.
GAME Mingle (Rindi, 2nd floor, 20:00 Fri) Come hang out with game faculty, alumni, local industry and your student peers. It’s the end of the week, nearly the end of the semester. Have a something to drink shoot the breeze with fellow developers. Snack food will be provided. Feel like dancing? The dance floor open downstairs after ~21:30. Sign up here.
Talks:
Please don’t die: Developing commercial games as a side project Creating the games you care about while staying afloat financially is really hard. A way around this is to make your weird game into a side project, and let work pay your bills. We will examine the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, and strategies on how to cope should you choose to do it.
The Substance of Environment Art From Architecture to Mathematics, the obvious and not so obvious subjects related to Environment Art.
Erik Starander works as an Environment artist at The Outsiders studio in Stockholm. “My passion has always been graphics and it is fair to say I am obsessed by it. Nowadays I can not go outside without analyzing nature, thinking about how I would recreate a moss shader or a sub surface scattering effect in game.”
Can I Really Do It? Being the new employee at a company can be taxing. There are a bunch of expectations, deadlines and talented people all around that can easily make you feel overwhelmed. These feelings can make some people think that they do not belong at all, that they don’t have the skillset required, that they are an impostor. If you’ve ever felt like this, you are one among many. So let us talk a bit about it, and go through some tips and tricks for managing this feeling.
My name is Alex Untoro, and I graduated from GAME in 2016. I’m currently working for Tension as a Game Design teacher at their higher vocational education: PlaygroundSquad. I also work as a Game Designer at their production company called Adit Studios. I am responsible for the Game design education at PSQ. My goals and directions are fairly clear: make sure my students have the right tool kit to get a job within a one and a half year timespan.
Designing for Empathy From the design process to the finished game, how does Might & Delight work with emotions and social connections? How do we get the player to care about an AI agent, or about other players? The talk focuses on the mechanics and systems, with a side of presentation. It’s probably the most dry talk on feelings you’ll ever hear.
It’s Going To Be Great Marcus is a man with many bows with one string or two. Right now he is working as Lead Designer on Zoink’s upcoming game “Lost in Random”. Previously he’s been an IGF judge, Assistant Producer, lecturer, freelancer and entrepreneur.
3D art at Dice Our talk will include our journeys to where we are today, what it is like to work with 3D at Dice, what your day can look like and what career options you have. We also want to share what some of us has worked on and what you can get to do if you work at Dice as well as a few tips and trick of what is good to think about when it comes to getting a job in the industry.
There and back again, a game developer’s tale We will talk about our journey from Gotland, taking us through having our own company, then re-schooling and going our separate ways to making indie games and AAA games. But more importantly, we will do our best to give you the lessons we learned along the way and how to avoid the pitfalls we encountered.
