Posted on - Comments Off on Gotland wins Game of the Year!
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Gotland wins Game of the Year!


Pixel Ferrets’ Secrets of Grindea just won Game Of The Year at the Swedish Game Awards! These awesome news arrives just a week after them receiving the Public Choice at the Gotland Game Conference.

Dialogue_Quinton

Teddy Sjöström – solo programmer at Pixel Ferrets – is a veteran. He ran PowerOf2 Games (in collaboration with Robin Flodin) and created the 2010 game of the year Dwarfs!?.

Swedish Game Awards is the largest game development competition in Sweden. It aims is to stimulate the development of new and original games and inspire to entrepreneurship and creative thinking with entries being judged on execution, innovation and market potential.

Gotland had THREE games nominated to the finals this year! First year student project Clapper was nominated for Best Innovation. Lucid Dreams’ Post Mortem and Secrets of Grindea were both contenders of Game of The Year!

Congratulations, Vilya, Ted and Fred!

Secrets of Grindea competition profile
Secrets of Grindea web page

Posted on - 1 Comment on Speaking at Sundsvall 24
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Speaking at Sundsvall 24


Sundsvall. The capital of norrland. 100 000 inhabitants. 50 000 in the city. The stone city, after no less than four raging fires. Heavy industry; forest, paper, aluminum. 1 percent of the Swedish population, using up more than 5 percent of the electricity. Apart from industry also banking, insurance and IT.

And an alarming unemployment rate.

Adam and Ulf were invited to keynote at Sundsvall 24 – speaking about digital entrepreneurship with a focus on games.

From Gotland University GAME, subject responsible Adam Mayes and program coordinator Ulf Benjaminsson will talk about life for digital entrepreneurs.
 
Starting a business is simple, but the amount of games that make their money back is laughingly small. Adam and Ulf will give a whirlwind tour of the current market for games to show how the business is changing (rapidly!), and then provide methods for adaption. They’ll give advice for setting up your company, planning your business and managing your creative process.
 
Reality is not broken, but it is a lot less glorious than you might think.

If the audience approves, the two are also happy to talk about the GAME education at Gotland University, and give some handy tips for getting the most of your student loans. 😛

Our local game developers Zeal Game Studio and Meow Entertainment were also on the program.


Max Tiilikainen (founder of Meow) spoke about honing the drive and motivation required to be an entrepreneur. Robin Flodin (CEO of Zeal) spoke about his journey from game design student to game developer to business owner and employer.

Sundsvalls Tidning covered the event.

This was a first attempt on an event like this in Sundsvall. Mikael Bergvall and his crew did a tremendous job in generating buy-in from the city. We’re looking forward to next time, and hope to see many more of the local (Sundsvall) studios on stage!

Posted on - Comments Off on Media Coverage & Link Love
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Media Coverage & Link Love

The three best things about school are June, July, and August.

Summer has started and everyone is fading away. So let’s take a moment and review all of the awesome things that have been written and recorded and published about this years conference. Apologizes for the mixed languages here – we do not discriminate when it comes to link love. 🙂

Dealspwn: Sweden’s Hidden Gaming Powerhouse

All great games have to start somewhere, and Gotland University gives their students a truly great start. Nestled in a disarmingly picturesque Swedish island, this small yet breathtakingly innovative game design course grounds applicants in the theory, even the ethics, of how to create the next generation of games – but practically applies this knowledge from the get-go.

PowerGamer: Den ljusa framtiden

Högskolan på Gotland har sedan år 2001 utbildat och slussat ut Sveriges representanter i spelvärlden och dess forna elever hittar ni idag på DICE, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Lionhead och Massive.
[…]

Under tre, med möjlighet för fyra år så går eleverna under utbildningen GAME igenom alla de utmaningar som de efter sin examen att möta ute i den faktiska industrin och ställs inför precis samma motgångar, problem och eventuellt segrar som deras färdigutbildade kollegor tacklar varje dag.
[…]

Tillsammans så lyser lärarna och eleverna på GAME starkare än solen. Kontrasten som uppstår mellan Visbys tysta och lugna leverne och den sprudlande och levande miljön som huserar inne i Wisby Strand när GGC 2012 sparkats igång är chockerande.

SVT Östnytt

Riksutställningar visits Gotland GAME Conference

PowerGamer Video-montage

I en fet bonanza speciale har vi samlat några av de intryck som Joakim Sjöberg fick sig under sin vistelse på Gotland Game Conference 2012!

Gotland University in Finals @ Swedish Game Awards!

SGA is the nation wide student-only games competition. The jury just announced the chosen finalists and Gotland University ended up with no less than THREE games nominated! First year project Clapper is nominated for Best Innovation. Post Mortem and Secrets of Grindea are both nominated for Best Game!

GL Gotland!

Have you published anything about the Gotland Game Conference 2012? Drop a comment and share the love. 🙂

Posted on - Comments Off on GGC 2012 Photos
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GGC 2012 Photos

All great games have to start somewhere, and Gotland University gives their students a truly great start. Nestled in a disarmingly picturesque Swedish island, this small yet breathtakingly innovative game design course grounds applicants in the theory, even the ethics, of how to create the next generation of games – but practically applies this knowledge from the get-go. From the very first year, developers (for that is what they are) split into teams and design imaginative, polished games […]
 
They learn the importance of teamwork and delegation as well as raw coding or design skills… and over the last decade, have produced games that rival even the biggest AAA studios in terms of quality, scope and good old fashioned fun.
 
Indeed, Gotland’s output has consistently been a highlight of my Gamescom coverage every single year.

Jonathan Lester, dealspwn.com

PHOTOS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN!!!

Tillsammans så lyser lärarna och eleverna på GAME starkare än solen. Kontrasten som uppstår mellan Visbys tysta och lugna leverne och den sprudlande och levande miljön som huserar inne i Wisby Strand när GGC 2012 sparkats igång är chockerande. […]
 
När helgen når sitt kulmen i form av det fantastiska Gotland Game Awards, där de mest framstående spelen från mässan tilldelas pris i olika kategorier, är jag precis lika lycklig över vad jag har fått ta del av som jag är ledsen att det hela är över. Som utomstående är det självklart att skolan har haft ett fantastiskt år, vilket för mig presenteras genom de spelen som elever och lärare entusiastiskt ställer mig inför.

Joakim Sjöberg, powergamer.se


’nuff said. 😀