Posted on - 6 Comments on GamesCom 2010
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GamesCom 2010


We’re back again from the largest games trade fair in the world! One of the many ways in which we try to highlight our students and their projects from the Gotland Game Awards is to offer them floor space in our booths at various events. Largest of these by far is the annual Game Developers Conference and GamesCom. Let me throw some figures at you from this years event: 5 days and a total of 505 companies from 33 countries. More than 200 premieres. Over 4400 media representatives from 49 countries. A gross floor space of 120 000m2 and a total of 254 000 visitors. By comparison, the Tokyo Game Show draws around 185,000 visitors and the Electronic Entertainment Expo about 43,000.

Among the 18 900 trade visitors were 28 women and men from Gotland University, GAME. Our troop may have been somewhat smaller than for GamesCom 2009 but our presence was definitely not diminished. Our students got to build and man the 56m2 booth right next to Blizzard, Square Enix, Crytek, EA, Bethesda, BioWare and LucasArts, where we showed off some of our most ambitious projects to date; Abzolium, Colorless, Fumbies, Gods of Steel, Midnight, Pawns and the game of the year-winner Dwarfs, alongside several monitors looping computer generated animations.

Jonathan Lester over at dealspwn.com concluded:

it doesn’t get any more independent than Gotland University […] they’ve crafted some immensely promising experiences. Pay close attention, because these unsung games are quite unlike anything else you’ll see in the show.

Many thanks to Jonathan and all the thousands of visitors who spent time in our booth. We hope to see you all again in 2011!

For more photos, check out GamesCom 2010 official photostream.

Posted on - 5 Comments on GDC Europe 2010
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GDC Europe 2010

Game Developers Conference Europe 2010 was larger than ever with record high attendance not only from the industry and media, but from speakers and exhibitors as well. GAME – a seasoned veteran – shared the 650m2 exhibition space with more than 40 companies from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Our booth was right next to giants like Intel, Crytek, Bigpoint and Epic, and while it is called “GDC Europe” the 1,500 game professionals attending this year represented more than 45 different countries!

Speakers ranged from famed game developer Warren Spector of Disney’s Junction Point, to Hermen Hulst of Guerilla Games – the full schedule offered a selection of 170 international speakers, covering game development on PC, social networking sites, distribution, consoles and mobile platforms. 3 days chock-full of learning, networking, and inspiration – what’s not to love?

Video, audio, and presentation recordings from GDC Europe are available at the GDC Vault.
For more pictures, see the official GDC Europe photo set.
Gamasutra covered GDC Europe this year too.

Posted on - Comments Off on dealspwn.com: Unsung Indie Heroes
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dealspwn.com: Unsung Indie Heroes


Jonathan Lester from dealspwn.com met us at GamesCom and spent a significant amount of time in our booth, talking to our students and playing the games. They’ve just published a review and they’re saying some awefully nice things. 🙂

The Indie scene is one of the last true bastions of creativity left in the gaming industry after years of reprocessed sequels- and it doesn’t get any more independent than Gotland University.

It’s a Swedish game design school that holds an annual student competition, and as such, they’re free to explore new concepts and art styles without constraints from publishers and the sequel culture. The competition winners have the opportunity to show off their wares at Gamescom as well as various cash prizes… and frankly, they’ve crafted some immensely promising experiences.

Pay close attention, because these three unsung games are quite unlike anything else you’ll see in the show.

Read the rest of Jonathan’s reviews here.

Posted on - 2 Comments on Richard Bartle on Human Rights in Virtual Worlds
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Richard Bartle on Human Rights in Virtual Worlds

For those of you who missed his excellent talk at the Gotland Game Awards, Professor Richard Bartle is coming back for a new lecture the September 2nd!

This marks the first of a series of public lectures hosted by GAME this autumn in our course Human Rights and Diversity in Serious Games 2010. Like last year we’ll invite speakers from the industry, arts, academia, press, government and more, to discuss human rights and diversity in the context of modern interactive technology. All lectures are free and open to the public!

Bartle is a professor and game researcher at the University of Essex. He’s most famous for having created MUD (multi-user dungeon) – the first of what would later evolve to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games. He’s one of the regular writers over at the popular science blog Terra Nova, with a focus on the study of virtual worlds and he was the examiner for our own doctor Mirjam Eladhari’s dissertation. 🙂

He will be talking about human rights in virtual worlds and his work with the European Council to create an HR-manifest for games.

Time: Thursday, September 2nd, 16:30-18:30
Location: E31