The Gotland Game Showcase 2020

The final 10 weeks of the academic year are our busiest. The campus is alive with students. In teams, they would be hard at work, creating magnificent games. Some of them would be building arcade boxes – the performative nature of the player being central to the game’s experience. Others would be building vertical slices of the games they’ve been burning to make – experiences that are greater than the sum of their parts. Even the third year students, sometimes find time to turn a game in – answering their research questions through game design. And then there are even more games – ones that were made during the year and updated and polished for our show floor.

As part of the Gotland Game Conference, students present these games to a jury of academics, alumni and industry luminaries. They also show it to their toughest audience: their peers and the public. For three days at the end of their spring semester, our students demonstrate, discuss, and present their games, taking feedback on their creations.

This takes them to the end of their academic year, and our conference: the award show where we recognize the hard work and talent that went into all the games.

This year, of course, was different. This year our show floor was at itch.io. This year the floor was open to everyone with an internet connection. 39 student teams choose to participate, and over the past 4 days they have received 524 comments with feedback and well over 1700 ratings of their games!

Big thanks to everyone who submitted games, and who took the time to play and provide feedback! Without further ado, we are proud to present the winners of the GGC 2020:

The Award Winners 2020

All 39 submissions are still available to play on the Itch.io Jam Page! You can also check out this live-stream of the games, hosted by the student union.

Finally: a big congrats to all the third year students who graduates today! We’ll see the rest of you again (on zoom) in September. Keep washing your hands, and have a great summer everybody!

Rate our student games on itch.io this week!

This year’s Gotland Game Conference was cancelled due to Covid-19. But our students have produced some amazing games for our, virtual, show floor.

The GGC Showcase opens today with more than 35 games available for everyone to play, rate and give feedback directly to the developers.

Perhaps check out these unrated gems first?

Thanks, and have fun!

Announcing the Itch.io Gotland Game Conference 2020 Showcase!

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! 

Hence: the Itch.io Gotland Game Conference 2020 Showcase

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).

All student teams should follow the usual delivery schedule to have their games properly archived and published on the department website. In addition to those deliveries, all teams are also strongly encouraged to submit their game to the public Showcase, to be play-tested and voted on in early June! 

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.

Read Student Info carefully and contact Ulf Benjaminsson if you have questions.

The Educators Summit 2019

The 2019 Educators Summit ended last week, and saw 32 participants from 14 institutions travel to Visby to share their experiences with each other.

For soon-to-be three years, the Educators Summit has created a space to discuss the work and subjects that we collectively fly under the banner of game education. We have looked at teaching, research, outreach to industry and how to form a closer bond with each other.

It has been instrumental in the forming of a European wing of the Higher Education Video Games Alliance, and the formation of a HEVGA Research Summer School.