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 Town Hall Spring 2022, April 19
 CategoriesBlog, Guest Lectures 

Town Hall Spring 2022, April 19

Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 7 – 9:00 PM CEST

Join us for our next Town Hall Meeting in the Transformative Play Initiative Event Series! Town Halls feature lightning talks from experts in the field to spark conversation, as well as group discussions among community members interested in the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change. We welcome you to share experiences, brainstorm ideas, and network at this game design think tank.

When: Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 7 – 9:00 PM CEST
Where: Online on Zoom
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/ypas93rt
RSVP here: https://fb.me/e/3fipf90sw

Lightning Talks:

  • Alexandra Schreiber, “Games and Play for Intercultural Learning”
  • Shirin Khosropour, Laila Taraghi, & Charlotte Gullick, “Larp in Conflict Transformation Training”
  • Joe Lasley, “RPGs as a Leadership Practice”

Moderated by: Kjell Hedgard Hugaas

Posted on - Comments Off on Welcome activities at Campus Gotland autumn 2022
 CategoriesBlog 

Welcome activities at Campus Gotland autumn 2022

15 August

Reception fully open from 15 August.

Staff from Student services and Helpdesk at hand at certain hours – to be announced week 33.

15 August

Welcome email to all new students.

22-25 August 

Online Information sessions on a number of themes. For international students. 

24-25 August 

Recommended arrival days. Shuttle service from Visby airport and Visby ferry terminal (registration required).

26 August 

Orientation Day. Welcome day for international students.

27-28 August

Gotland history lecture with Mikael Norrby.

27-28 August

Guided walking tour around medieval Visby with the university guide Mikael Norrby.

29 August 

Welcome Ceremony (more information will come later).

2 September

Train tour around Visby´s inner city during lunch hours.

Week 37

Bus trip in the countryside.

All details at www.campusgotland.uu.se/welcome/

Posted on - Comments Off on Journey into Fear: Horror as a Vehicle for Healing and Transformative Play
 CategoriesBlog, Guest Lectures 

Journey into Fear: Horror as a Vehicle for Healing and Transformative Play

Poster for our next lecture in the Transformative Play Initiative Event Series: "Journey into Fear: Horror as a Vehicle for Healing and Transformative Play” by Yeonsoo Julian Kim!

Join us for our next lecture in the Transformative Play Initiative Event Series: “Journey into Fear: Horror as a Vehicle for Healing and Transformative Play” by Yeonsoo Julian Kim!

When: March 15, 2022, 7 – 8:30 PM Central European Time (CET)
Where: Online on Zoom
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/kf3y8byr
Link will be provided to registrants on the day of the event.
Make sure to sign in with the same name you used to register.

Description:

People are often attracted to horror as a genre because of the intense emotional and physical responses it can invoke. This lecture will explore ways in which fear-based play can be utilized to create healing experiences, methods for integrating safety and calibration tools to support emotionally intense play, and how horror can look different across cultures. Finally, we will touch on how to respectfully incorporate (or avoid) supernatural elements that may have religious, spiritual, and/or cultural significance to different groups.

Presenter bio:

Yeonsoo Julian Kim is a game designer, writer, and cultural consultant who works in tabletop games, larp, and interactive fiction. They received a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University in 2015. Some of their games include the interactive horror novel The Fog Knows Your Name published by Choice of Games, and the storytelling game Women are Werewolves published by 9th Level Games. Their best known larps are But Not Tonight, The Long Drive Back from Busan, which won a Golden Cobra Award, and The Truth About Eternity, which debuted at Fastaval 2019.

Hosted by:

The Transformative Play Initiative Event Series is hosted by the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The series explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.

Learn more about Transformative Play at Uppsala and join the TPI mailing list here.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Posted on - Comments Off on Freestanding Graduate Courses and Certificate in Transformative Game Design
 CategoriesBlog 

Freestanding Graduate Courses and Certificate in Transformative Game Design

The Transformative Play Initiative at Uppsala University’s Department of Game Design is offering four (4) freestanding graduate-level courses in Autumn 2022-Spring 2023! 

These courses focus on the applied use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for personal and social change, whether facilitated in-person or in online environments. The courses are online, half-time, and freestanding. Anyone with a Bachelor’s degree can apply for the courses and take them from anywhere in the world. 

Students who complete all four (4) courses in order with passing grades are eligible for a Certificate in Transformative Game Design. The courses are:

  1. Introduction to Transformative Game Design
  2. Transformative Game Design 1 (Design Focus)
  3. Transformative Game Design 2 (Implementation Focus)
  4. Cultivating Transformational Communities

Ideally, our students plan to work or are employed in helping professions, such as educators, therapists, social workers, community leaders, coaches, camp counselors, spiritual guides, etc. We especially welcome students to apply who have some background in role-playing games as designers, facilitators, and/or participants. 

To learn more about the individual courses and the certificate track, click this link.

The application period begins March 15 and closes April 19. This year the application needs to go through the Swedish website. For more information, read about the application process here.
For more general information about Admissions from the Department, click this link.

If you have further questions after reading the information in the link, please contact our study advisor, Stephanie Noroozy at gamedesign@speldesign.uu.se.