This year's Sweden Game Conference will be held in a slightly different format. The event has been slimmed down, and most of it will be digital. Much focus is on game development students and their opportunity to listen to, learn from and network with people in the gaming industry.
Picture from last year's Sweden Game Conference.
The ongoing pandemic has moved this year's Sweden Game Conference from Arena Skövde to being held online instead. But for the students at the University of Skövde, the conference, which this year will be held October 21-23, will also be held free of charge at ASSAR Industrial Innovation Arena.
– My opinion is always that Sweden Game Conference should offer our students opportunities for unique meetings with profiles from the gaming industry. This year it will be a little different as most of it will be online, but we will still have several interesting names from interesting companies, says Per Backlund, Professor of Informatics at the University of Skövde.
Pitch game ideas
Some activities will be arranged at ASSAR. On Wednesday 21 October, the focus will be on gaming companies. Among other things, they will get the opportunity to sell, or "pitch", their games to stakeholders and financiers.
– In addition to the event part, where invited indie companies and startups pitch their game ideas to publishers and investors, we also invite studios to participate in our match-making event with individual meetings. Of course, student groups from the University can also take part in the event if they are eager to move on with their game project, says Magnus Ling, Project Manager for Sweden Game Arena.
Speakers from Blizzard and Dice
During the last two days of the conference, greater focus will be placed on the students and they will be able to take part in a number of different talks. This year, the talks will also be live streamed on Sweden Game Conference's website, and will include topics like how to create a portfolio as a game artist, character design in Overwatch, how tools for AAA games have been developed and how to become part of the gaming industry. The speakers come from both small and large companies, including speakers from well-known game studios such as Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, Diablo) and the Swedish game developer Dice (Battlefield).
Skövde gives award for game students
During the Sweden Game Conference, the Skövde Academic Game Award (SAGA) will be awarded. SAGA is Skövde municipality's prize for game dev students, and this year the award ceremony will be livestreamed as a conclusion to the entire conference. The students from the three nominated groups will then be invited to dinner in Portalen, at the University and Science Park Skövde.
– It is just as important, if not more important, to award the prize this very special year. SAGA is awarded to highlight the students' efforts and the University's place as one of the foremost in Sweden in game development. It is very important for Skövde, says Louise Hallberg, Business Developer at Skövde municipality.
The three nominated games are called Ninvae, Super Nova’s Symphony and Die, Recompile. All were created during a ten-week course at the University of Skövde. Usually, visitors can test the nominated games during the conference in Skövde. This year, it is instead possible to play the games online.
