The Alumni Days 2013


We moved the Alumni Days to much earlier in the semester, from its traditional spot close to christmas. There was two reasons for this:

First, we got a great opportunity to inform and inspire our third year students about their thesis work and internships that’s coming up in the spring semester. By inviting GAME-alumni to share their experiences and tips we hope to provide lots of insight while there’s still time for our students to act on it.

Second, it allows us to show off in front of the new first year students. Introducing them to people who’s been where they are, and made something of themselves in this industry. Hopefully that was inspirational.


Also – we get a new Jam out of it. 🙂 “Everybody is a Noob Jam” saw seasoned industry veterans, six week old freshmen, experienced students and our own staff all sit down to hack games together. Everyone was forced to use a new tool to even the playing field, and the jam last a single working day – ensuring maximum participation.

Despite having only six hours and being interrupted for lectures, all registered groups delivered playable games – some even including insane levels of polish and details:

All games were available to play and vote on during the alumni party, which also acted as the awards ceremony:

You can browse screencaps from the games here. Thanks to Kajfa, Teddy, Daniel and Jerker for taking the time and helping us out with the event!

GAME + Almedalen Library = True

Our Håkan Mattsson and the lovely ladies at the Almedalen Library has now launched the Game Area; a space in dedicated to allow public access to our students’ games.

The first selection of projects were announced at the Gotland Game Conference awards ceremony earlier this year;

[The relevant part starts at 15:11]

The Game Area opened during the Culture Night with Lunar Love – a game where you must reunite a moon with her planet by manipulating gravity fields, and Alienation – a first year game about using words to hurt people. We’ll provide these cabinets with new games every 6 months or so.

The GAME Area at Almedalen Library, during the Visbydagen

The GAME Area at Almedalen Library, during the Visbydagen

The GAME Area at Almedalen Library, during the Visbydagen

WP_20The GAME Area at Almedalen Library, during the Visbydagen131005_003

Poster for the GAME Area at Almedalen Library

GAME at the Tokyo Game Show

The Tokyo Game Show 2014, photo by Makuhari Messe
As the only western university we’ve been invited to take part in Tokyo Game Show.

“It is a great recognition of our courses and a valuable opportunity to forge new connections. In Japan they are interested in our focus on content as a complement to their strong technology development”

says Steven Bachelder, Professor at the Department of Game Design.

Tokyo Game Show is on from 19 to 22 September. A large number of exhibitors will be taking part, mainly from Japan and neighboring countries, and 250,000 visitors are expected. Sweden will have a section of its own, coordinated by the Swedish Institute. The Department of Game Design will be exhibiting research and education within converging media and game design. Among other things, three of our student projects will be on display; King of the Thrill, Little Warlock and Fly or Die.

“At the Swedish Game Awards earlier this year, games created by our students won three out of six categories. We are taking these games with us to Japan to show them at our stand in the Swedish display”

says Steven Bachelder.

One of the students who has created one of the award-winning games will be coming along to Tokyo Game Show to present the games. The group of students voted for who should go and Simon Wulf was elected, the creator of the game King of the Thrill. The students who remain at Campus Gotland will be able to communicate with the delegation via video link.

On Friday 20 September the Department and the Swedish Institute will together organize a seminar at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo titled “Sweden and Japan – Collaboration in Game Education, Convergent Media and Industry” in Tokyo Game Show.

Student project Crocodile Chow-Down at The Tokyo Game Show 2014, photo by Makuhari Messe

Student project Defunct at The Tokyo Game Show 2014, photo by Makuhari Messe