This post is backdated, and was published 2018-02-17.
Sverox #40 (2005-02) (pdf)
Sverox was a bimonthly magazine produced by the the Swedish gaming federation, Sverok. In the 2005-02 issue they interviewed Mikkel Müller, the program coordinator for the then-newly created Bachelor degrees in Game Design. Prior to 2005 the game design- and development courses had been minors in the broader educations offered at what was then called “Institutionen för teknik, konst och nya medier” (English: the Department of technology, art and new media).
This interview is important for a few reasons. It is one of the earliest documented mentions of the philosophy behind our educations. It also documents our use of public exhibitions of student games to validate our work. In the interview Mikkel explain that most game educations (at the time) taught only digital games, whereas Gotland took a more holistic approach. “Games are dynamic systems that can manifest in different mediums. So we study everything from board games, pen-and-paper role playing games, card games, 3D computer games – any product that can contain systems.”.
The article also features photos from Revive – the article refers to it as “Theme Park 2002” – a public exhibition of student games in May 2002. Mikkel emphasized the importance of applied theory, of having students make games in order to validate their knowledge.
