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.

Posted on - Comments Off on The Jury (so far)
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The Jury (so far)

Update: the full Jury for GGC 2018 is listed here.

The jury represents the most hard-working participants at the Gotland Game Conference (save for our students, natch). Jurors travel from around the globe to hear our students’ presentations a day before the conference even starts, and to spend the better part of a week playing all of the student productions on the show floor.

Johannes Wadin (Might & Delight), leading the 2nd Year Jury at the 2011 Gotland Game Conference

Each member brings their own set of experience and expertise, and share that insight directly with the students at the GGC. We have academia and graphics solidly represented now, so the next bunch of seats are reserved primarily for programmers, HR and the nebulous “production“-people. There’s is of course always room, too, for people with investment or recruitment needs!

Feel like that’s you? Fill in the application and maybe we’ll see you in Visby in June!

So without further ado, here is the 2018 Jury list, so far:

  1. Doris Rusch, Game designer and Researcher, DePaul University
  2. Elizabeth Sampat, Game Designer, Author and Activist
  3. Malena Klaus, Game Programmer and Inventor
  4. Henrik Jonsson, Executive Producer, Goodbye Kansas Game Invest
  5. Josefin Westborg, Founder and Game designer, Lekreativ/Lajvbyrån
  6. Anton Albiin, Association of Swedish Game Developers
  7. James Newnorth, CEO, Spelkollektivet Sweden
  8. Joshua Juvrud, Developmental Psychologist, Uppsala University
  9. Mårten Jonsson, Freelance developer, JMJ Interactive
  10. Martine Pedersen, LudicIndspark
  11. James Newnorth, CEO, Spelkollektivet Sweden
  12. Nicodemus Mattison, Art Director, Virtuos
  13. Martin Greip, CEO, Eat Create Sleep
  14. Niklas Eneqvist, Art Team Manager, Fatshark
  15. Rabi Afram, Dev Manager, King
  16. Teddy Sjöström, Programmer, Pixel Ferrets
  17. Emelie Rodin, Developer, BetterBuilt Studio
  18. Fred Ström, Animator, Pixel Ferrets
  19. Jens Berglind, Lead Programmer, Might and Delight
  20. Kalle Henningsson, QA & Submission Manager, Playdead
  21. Kim Aava, 3D Artist, Fast Travel Games
  22. Vilya Svensson, 2D Artist, Pixel Ferrets

Names in bold are alumni from this education – welcome back! 😀

Thanks in advance to everyone for taking the time – and putting up the effort – to help improve our students, our education, and our medium!

Posted on - Comments Off on Regional collaboration for serious games
 CategoriesBlog, Publicity 

Regional collaboration for serious games

“Universen” is a magazine for Uppsala University employees. Issued six times a year, ~7100 copies are sent to the homes of all employees and other interested parties. In the first issue of 2018 our colleague Lina Sors Emilsson is interviewed about her course Product Development for Games, 15 credits (5SD952).

Lina Sors Emilsson at the Gotland Game Conference 2017
Lina Sors Emilsson at the Gotland Game Conference 2017.

The interview is unfortunately entirely in Swedish, but she’s talking about how we use this course to have game design students work with external “real-world” concerns, such as; crisis management, Gotland’s water shortage, job market access for the differently abled, and so on. For the first iteration we worked closely with Region Gotland and local industry to come up with realistic concerns and evaluate the student output.

If you’re gifted with the Germanic languages you can try reading the full interview below, or on Issuu.com. You can even browse the full Universen archive at uu.se.

The course is a part of our international Bachelor Programme in Game Design and Project Management. You can apply to the program via universityadmissions.se! The international application deadline is 15th of january, while Swedish applicants have until April 15th.

Universen nr1 2018, page 17

Posted on - Comments Off on Help us create a “Woke award”
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Help us create a “Woke award”

London-based artist Karen Palmer, on jury duty at the Gotland Game Conference 2015
The Gotland Game Conference is looking over its award categories this year. There will be many changes, but one of higher priority than most is the addition of a… “diversity award”, for lack of a better term.

We work hard in the education and with the conference to engage thoughtfully with issues like representation, gender, intersectionality and the perspectives and lived experiences of the non-[white hetero cis male]. We need an award to highlight and celebrate student projects that exhibit an especially conscientious or nuanced understanding of these issues.

But we need help:

  1. What should we call this award?
  2. What are reasonable evaluation criterias for such an award?
  3. Who (plural) should we look to invite for play testing and evaluation of the games? (the local RFSL and Pride chapters, for sure. But who’s an expert on, say, race in Sweden?)

Specifically: the department faculty, being very much mostly white and edumacated types, do not feel at all like a reasonable authority. I mean that both in terms of appropriation and in terms of perceived validity of the award. While the fight is ours to take, it is not on us to declare any sort of victory. And in terms of validity of the award – it risks being seen as self congratulatory.

So. I am currently looking for any sort of input, really. If you don’t want to discuss publicly, feel free to grab me over e-mail!

If you would like to be part of the Gotland Game Conference jury, read these instructions and submit an application. Leave a comment in the last field if you are particularly interested or suited for the diversity-perspective.

Thank you!

//Ulf Benjaminsson

Posted on - Comments Off on Niklas Nylund, on Finnish gaming through the centuries
 CategoriesBlog, Guest Lectures 

Niklas Nylund, on Finnish gaming through the centuries

Niklas Nylund. Photo by Saana Säilynoja / Vapriikki Photo Archives
Niklas Nylund is a museum researcher working for the Finnish Museum of Games in Tampere, Finland. He is also working on a PhD at the Game Research Lab at the University of Tampere. He’s visiting us at the end of the month, and we’re taking the opportunity to have him share his deep knowledge and passion for the native gaming scene of our Scandinavian sister country!

Room: F20
Time: Tue 27/2, 16:00
Title: Finnish gaming from the 19th to the 21th century

The Finnish game industry is responsible for international hit games such as Nokia Snake (1997), Max Payne (2001), Angry Birds (2009) and Clash of Clans (2012). These games did not spring up overnight, however. The success of Finnish game companies is grounded on a centuries long interest in games and gaming, with a vivid gaming culture already in place in the 19th century. Researcher Niklas Nylund from the Finnish Museum of Games talks about what Finnish gaming has looked like in three different centuries.

The lecture is open to all game students on a first-come-first-serve basis!

psst… if exploration of eastern European gaming history is your jam and you want to warm up, we can highly recommend the GGC 2015 talk “(Video) Games and Information Warfare” by our old friend (and colleague of Niklas), Ave Randviir-Vellamo.