Our students were on TV!

… and on the radio, and in the local papers. 🙂

As much as GGC is the university’s conference, it’s also the island’s. Every year we throw our doors open to the people of Gotland so they can see what we get up to. And, as part of this, we invite the local media to come and talk to our students.

We were graced with 3 reporters, and coverage of the conference and our, frankly, brilliant students.

We’re 7 days out, and are closing in on 500 attendees. Click any of the links and see how our teams are preparing and then grab yourself a ticket and come and see for yourself. It’s “pay what you want” and you can listen to some top class presentations, play some amazing games (and vote for them!), and stay for the award show and see if your favorite wins. Get your visitors pass here!

Swedish Radio: "Playful games to train both collaboration and body"
Swedish Radio: “Playful games to train both collaboration and body” (click to open link)
Swedish Television: "The students are preparing for the game exhibition"
Swedish Television: “The students are preparing for the game exhibition” (click to open link)

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)

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

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!