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.

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Nordic Game Conference 18


We just came back from a week in Malmö and the Nordic Game Conference. This will just be a brief recap of some of the highlights for us.

We attended Kate Edwards‘ session “The Path to Impact: How to Advocate for Change in the Games Industry” and found ourselves the figurehead of our next Gotland Game Conference. Kate is a creator advocate with nearly three decades in the industry and related fields. She spoke about advocacy and taking control of the public narrative around games and our craft.

“The Path to Impact: How to Advocate for Change in the Games Industry” This talk was amazing – Kate Edwards is FIERCE!

Other potential GGC recruitments were Charlie Edmunds and Tabea Iseli. Edmunds is a British programmer at CD PROJEKT RED (The Witcher), whom we met in a workshop about promoting inclusive and diverse company cultures (hosted by none other than our alumni Albertina Sparrhult). We always need more coders for the jury and Charlie will be a great resource to pull from.

Tabea Iseli is an indie-developer with a bend towards local community and networking. Local, in Tabea’s case, means Zürich. Her presentation was literally on the same topic as GGC 2017 and 2018 – how to let players experience complex topics like racism, sexism or global warming without resorting to making not-games. She dealt specifically with emotional design and empathy as design principle.

ENTIRELY within our wheelhouse. We met up on the show floor to talk more after her presentation, and we might arrange for us to speak at their GamezFestival, and we’ll have her on the island to return the favor. 🙂

We also spent a bit of time with the Greek enclave of developers – ever since Adam was invited to speak in Athens we’ve been keeping an eye on the nascent games scene there. What they brought to NGC was thoroughly charming. Keep an eye out for Happyland Entertainment’s GO HEROES: Prometheus, which plays like a wonderfully executed and expanded Lara Croft GO. We spoke mostly with Vasiliki Tsiftsian, their lead artist and co-founder. She was so incredibly enthusiastic and open for feedback. We’ll try and keep an eye out for her post release to see if perhaps we want to bring her in for a Game Jam or talk at some point.

The best part of the Nordic Game Conference, though, was meeting up with all our peoples! Old alumni and recent graduates all congregated in a shared chat – Malin Lövenberg, Albertina, Nayomi, Peter Stråhle, Sebastian Larsson, Danielle Unéus, and the department gang of course – Jakob, Mariam, Mika, Camilla och Adam. We had lunches at the conf together and went out for dinners in the evenings, catching up on what everyone had seen and heard throughout the days. It was great. 🙂

Albertina lives in Malmö invited us all over to her place for snacks in her garden before we went out for food and dance!
Posted on - Comments Off on First playable prototypes
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First playable prototypes

The first year students did a public play test of their first playable prototypes recently! You can click through and follow our Instagram to keep track of the games in development! (#GGConf18 is where it’s at)

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Announcing the HEVGA European Symposium (7-8 June)

The Higher Education Video Game Alliance
The Higher Education Video Game Alliance

Are you a game educator with an interest in connecting with other educators across the globe? Are you willing to share your experience and insights to improve the field? Join us on Gotland this summer!

Last year, as part of the Gotland Game Conference, we hosted our first Game Educators Summit in conjunction with the Higher Education Videogame Alliance (HEVGA). This was an attempt to bring educators together specifically to discuss Game Educations in Europe, our unique needs within and across borders, and how to best expand HEVGA in Europe.

This year, HEVGA is continuing to grow their efforts in Europe by holding their first annual European Symposium on our beautiful island of Gotland, Sweden. Uppsala University has been chosen by HEVGA as the first school to host the symposium and will co-locate it with the Gotland Game Conference to maximize cross-pollination.

The two day symposium will take place on June 7 & 8. The first day will feature presentations across a wide variety of areas such as research, game educations, pedagogy, game design, games, institutional barriers and successes, within and across borders, and other programs or initiatives unique to Europe. Presentation slots are available in 15 – 45 minute increments.

The second day will be a working meeting designed to bring together diverse institutions and individual backgrounds to take stock of where games and game educations in Europe are at now. The working meeting will explore how to create a platform that can further establish a European games community in higher education across borders. Specific topics include: how to secure funding, creating a network that connects educations, amplifying local achievements globally, and avenues for unified advocacy.

To join us for the first European Symposium of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance hosted by Uppsala University;

Dr. Mary Kayler at the Game Educators Summmit 2017
Dr. Mary Kayler at the Game Educators Summmit 2017
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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!