Game Concept Challenge 2010

Note: this talk has been cancelled due to problems with flights!


Marlene from Game Concept Challenge 2010 is coming here to present and explain the rules for this years contest… Deadline is in October.

GCC is a prestigious competition for game concept developers. GCC has now been running for 8 years. GCC has previously been opened only for students from SOFE (School of Future Entertainment) and Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, BTH. But is now opened for students studying in all areas within game development as well as graduated students, not yet working for the industry, from all over Sweden.

The winner of GCC will receive an attractive award – 500 000 SEK to develop their game concept to full prototype stage. This goes hand in hand with a developing spot at Sweden’s first game incubator, GamePort. Thereafter, coaching and support will be given to professionally pitch the result to publishers. With publisher backing, getting to the next step, full-scale game production is possible.

Time: Thursday April 22, from 11:00 – 12:00 (cancelled due to flights)
Location: E31

Mirjam nails her dissertation!

“Spikning” (lit. nailing) is an academic ritual in connection with the submission of a dissertation. Three weeks before the dissertation thesis is published it must be made available to anyone who wants to read it and come up with criticism for the disputation. The Swedish tradition is to have the respondent ceremonially nail a copy of the dissertation to a wall, for public display.

Our soon-to-be doctor Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari has done research in story construction, characterization and identity in massively multiplayer online role-playing games. She has built an AI-system (The Mind Module) that infuse game actors with “individuality”. The system can simulate personalities, relations, feelings, mood and temper, and many other character factors. The system was tested and evaluated in a MMO prototype; the Pataphysic Institute.

Mirjam passed the Viva Voce with flying colors at Teesside University the 23rd of February, examined by Dr Alan Hind and Prof Richard Bartle (co-creator of MUD, 1978).

Video in Swedish only, sorry. 🙁

Introduction to game development (2010)

Introduction to Game Development – our annual crash course in production methodology. Students arrive in the autumn – unknowing and ill prepared. They are ordered into teams, introduced to SCRUM and given a license to Torque 2D. Then we tell them to make space shooters. It never ceases to amaze me, the growth we see in our students during these intense first weeks.

Gotlands Allehanda: “Högskolan får godkänt”

Högskoleverket (Swedish National Agency for Higher Education) is the public authority that oversees higher education institutions in Sweden. They recently performed a quality audit of Gotland University, and GAME earned a special mention! HSV acknowledged how we “work with industry contacts, business relations and former students to continually develop the education and keeping it relevant for the job market”.

We also work very hard to keep our staff educated, updated and in contact with the industry. Over the years we’ve built a strong reputation and a massive international network, enabling us to invite guest lecturers from all over the world on a regular basis. Furthermore – several of our staff are also actively working in the industry.

The report was not published in English, but hopefully the automatic translation is legible.

Gotlands Allehanda – Högskolan får godkänt (machine translation)