Sweden Game Conference 2018: Full Schedule

Welcome to the Sweden Game Conference 2018 schedule!

13:00 CEST

Conference Opening: Swedish Games Industry

Conference opening! The board of the Swedish Game Industry discuss the current state of the industry.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Pilgor

Main Theme, Panel

Topics Game development, Research, Education

13:00 CEST

Drop in HEVGA Fika

On the first and final day of SGC, the DONNA Café will host a Higher Education Video Game Alliance Fika for anyone who is interested to discuss matters relating to games and academia. DONNA is an organization founded at the University of Skövde, and its core mission is to champion causes relating to equality and inclusivity in game education, game culture, and in the games industry. HEVGA, or the Higher Education Video Game Alliance, is a non-profit organization that focus on the sharing of information and ideas for how game academia can progress. The organization has had North America as its main region of operation, but it is currently in the early stages of establishing a European network.
We hope that these Fika events can be a good platform for visitors of the Sweden Game Conference that have an interest in anything relating to game academia to meet up and make themselves known to one another. If you’re a: researcher or lecturer interested in sharing your experiences, discuss ideas, or network; if you’re a student interested in talking about career paths in game studies; or if you’re just generally interested in having coffee among friends, feel free to drop by! There is no organized schedule of topics or talks, so come as you are!
The DONNA Café will have two dedicated time slots open for the HEVGA Fika at:
· Wednesday, 13:00-14:00
· Friday, 13:00-14:00

Wednesday October 17, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Donna Café

Social, Fika

Topics Social, Research, Games

14:00 CEST

Marketing your game in the 21st century

Marketing is not what used to be. Social networks and influencers now play a big role in promoting your game. In this talk you'll learn how to approach them and what tools are available for indie developers to promote their games effectively.

Speakers

Audra McIver

Plan of Attack

Co-Founder of Plan of Attack, Audra has nearly 15 years of video game PR under her belt, covering turf from San Francisco to New York and Madrid to Amsterdam. With an extreme passion for travel, you are more likely to find Audra at a video game conference somewhere in the world than... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Catniss

Biz, Talk

Topics Business, Community, Marketing

14:00 CEST

Leveling the playfield: Funding for non-cis-male dominated projects - where to get it and what to think about when applying

Early stage funding for game projects is hard to come by, and it can be even harder if you’re not the typical team investors think they are looking for. The panel will discuss Coffee Stains initiative Leveling the Playfield, it’s impact on the industry, risks, possibilities and the future of investments in the industry.

Moderators

Johanna Nylander

Policy Affairs, Swedish Games Industry

Johanna Nylander manages Policy and Public Affairs at the Swedish Games Industry association. She studied game development in Skövde 10 years ago, and has since then also worked as Nordic marketing manager at an international mobile games company, published a book on public health... Read More →

Speakers

Jenny Brusk

Lecturer, University of Skövde

Laura Bularca

Professional Dragon, Valiant Game Studio AB

Laura has a background in games journalism and switched over to the development side in 2009. She’s worked at companies like FunLABS/Activision, Milestone and SimBin, before moving over to Sweden Game Arena and Gothia Innovation. In 2018, she moved to Stockholm and joined her friend... Read More →

Petter Henriksson

Speaker, Landfall Games

Petter Henriksson has been developing games since 2012 and has then worked on both successful and very unsuccessful projects. He is currently working on Totally Accurate Battle Simulator handling self-publishing, marketing and some code.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Pilgor

Main Theme, Panel

Topics Game development, Business, Publishing

14:00 CEST

Big Indie Pitch

THE BIG INDIE PITCH IS COMING TO SGC!The Big Indie Pitch is heading to Sweden Game Conference 2018 to focus the spotlight on some of the world’s best indie developers.
The unique speed dating format gives each developer three minutes (plus one minute of Q&A) with each panel of experts, meaning entrants will get real feedback from the event. The winner will also get editorial coverage in Pocket Gamer, AppSpy and beyond, making this a great chance to get you, your studio and your game played by the world, alongside potentially winning a Steel Media marketing package to be used across our portfolio of sites and services.
WHAT? HOW? WHO?How it’ll work couldn’t be simpler. We’re inviting indie developers of all shapes and sizes to join us at Sweden Game Arena, in order to pitch their games to our teams of tame journalists.
Approximately twenty teams will run the gauntlet, giving their all in quickfire four-minute pitches to demonstrate that their title is worth of the Big Indie Pitch crown and coverage in the mobile games media.
COME ALONGIf you fancy the chance of winning the Big Indie Pitch (or coming along to spectate and show your support), getting signed up couldn’t be easier.
Just simply, submit your details below to register your interest.
THE BASIC CRITERIA:

You can pitch games for mobile, portable (including Switch), mobile VR, and AR in the Mobile Edition& for PC, Mac & Linux in the PC Edition
You can pitch unfinished games
You can pitch your game even if you’ve pitched it at a previous BIP
We prefer to see unreleased games, though we’re happy to see games that are out too
Games must be presented by developers either on a mobile device, via video or on laptops.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 14:00 - 16:00 CEST
Expo Hall - Speed Talk stage

Pitch session

Topics Indie, Game development, Publishing

15:00 CEST

Digital nomad: Working with sound across several teams, countries and cultures

In this day and increasingly digital age, we are more and more dependent on our technology. Through it, our world grows more connected and we get closer to cultures and people we used to be far away from. I work in with sound and music for games, I use the freedom technology brings to work with people and projects in remote locations and with different cultures than my own. How does one work across borders? Cultures? Come and find out!

Speakers

Martin Kvale

Krillbite Studio

Martin lives in Norway, but travels the world working on audio for small teams. He is experienced in work and travels over the course of the last 6 years and you have probably shared a hug already at some conference! Has done sounds for Among The Sleep, GoNNER, Bad North, Teslagrad... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Pilgor

Audio / Music, Talk

Topics Sound, Global perspectives, Indie

15:00 CEST

Building Branded Games - Without Getting Burnt

When games with large IPs and brands attached are released they’re always evaluated and angled to fit expectations among existing fans or to cater to new ones. But how can you as a developer set yourself up for success when dealing with multiple stakeholders, meet expectations, while retaining creative ownership?

This talk covers how to tweak your internal development process as well as practical tips and tricks learned from years of developing branded games to some of the worlds largest IPs and brands – and focuses on how to ensure that you can make great branded games without burning yourself, the IP or the team.

Speakers

Emil Kjæhr

Product Manager, Funday Factory

Emil Kjæhr is a game developer based in Aarhus, Denmark. He’s product manager at Funday Factory and is working with branded games on work-for-hire projects, and has shipped multiple cross-IP titles. Latest release was LEGO® Star Wars: Microfighters.Before joining Funday Factory... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Catniss

Biz, Talk

Topics Game development, AAA

15:00 CEST

Are you stressed or are you bored? Using computer vision to detect player emotions in real-time

Computer vision has evolved significantly over the past years. It is now possible to use the technology to detect emotions of players in real-time. The process involves the detection of heart rate and facial expressions, all performed remotely using a camera. No sensors or touching the player. In this talk, you will see a software (and the research behind it) that can tell if a player is stressed or bored in real-time during the interaction with a game.

Speakers

Fernando Bevilacqua

Lecturer, University of Skövde

Fernando Bevilacqua is a professor of Computer Science at Federal University of Fronteira Sul (UFFS), Brazil. Fernando has a background in computer science, computer graphics and games. Before joining the academia, he was one of the co-founders of Decadium Studios, a game developer... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Ashka

Tech, Talk

Topics Tech, Research, Computer vision, Game testing, Game User Research

16:00 CEST

Working with AAA music in Japan

This will be about 40 – 50 minutes about my journey from Sweden to Japan, my background and how I ended up writing music for some of Japans biggest AAA developers. The communication chain for a foreigner wanting to work in Japan and a small glimpse into some of my biggest AAA titles.

My talk will be about my working style with the theme of using the philosophy of Bruce Lee’s “Flow-state” in all of my music work. I will also talk about how it is to get involved in the Yakuza – series and their spin-offs, how I started working for Capcom on their major Main Series Resident Evil 6 and how I currently approached my work on Street Fighter V (Season 2 and 3 Character’s and Mini-stories.) and how I feel about having better communication between programmers and the audio-implementation team and my future vision.

Speakers

Daniel Lindholm

Freelance

Daniel Lindholm is since 2008 working as a freelancing music-producer, arranger, sound-designer and as a virtual orchestrator in Japan. His work has been heard in well known game series such as Street Fighter, Yakusa and Resident Evil.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 16:00 - 17:00 CEST
Catniss

Audio / Music, Talk

Topics AAA, Music, Global perspectives

16:00 CEST

Vanity at play

Myths and fables are narratives that were traditionally used to explain certain facts and phenomena, as well as behaviour patterns. Narrative is a tool we have been using to share fantasies and realities, world views and ideals.

Visual pleasure has always been part of art and culture. Mass media productions tend to focus on spectacularity, reinforcing voyeurism and relegating the player as a mere spectator bound to what’s presented to them. Are we working too much on pompous but empty containers? Are we underestimating the average consumer? Is it a tendency in games to produce in that direction?

Speakers

Andrea Sacchi

Art Director/Co-Founder, Tahutahu

Artist and co-founder of Tahutahu Studios. Developing Idearum.

Wednesday October 17, 2018 16:00 - 17:00 CEST
Ashka

Graphics, Talk

Topics Art, Design

16:00 CEST

Ditch Toxic Systems So We Can Finally Love Video Game Romance

Ditch Toxic Systems So We Can Finally Love Video Game Romance” is a critique of the presentations of romance in video games. While many of us seek romance in games, it is largely not intersectional, does not speak to most of our lived experiences, and, sets harmful and toxic expectations, ultimately harming players. This talk identifies and critiques specific systems and will dismantle, for example, the kindness tokens model, as well as argue for replacing them with mutual and rewarding depictions of romance that embody the habits of positive, fruitful relationships.

Speakers

Elie Abraham

Elie Abraham is a composer, sound designer, voice actor, and unyielding game jammer. Elie is known for speed-making music, has worked on 100+ jam games since the start of 2017, and holds the world record for number of games soundtracked at a single game jam. In Helsinki, Outside of... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 16:00 - 17:00 CEST
Pilgor

Narrative, Talk

Topics Design, Romance

17:00 CEST

The Human Cost of Game Development: A Former Telltale Dev's Post-Mortem

Games are an incredible medium that can inspire, allow us to escape, and provide countless hours of fun. But what is the cost of their creation? Is the toll game creation can take on its creators worth it? Hear from one of the devs who was recently terminated by Telltale Games about her experience both at the company and in the immediate aftermath.

Speakers

Emily Buck

Creative Director, Buckshot Interactive

Emily Grace Buck is a narrative designer who was part of the recent studio closure at Telltale Games. Emily drew attention to the human cost of the mass layoff online by sharing statistics and stories about her coworkers, creating #TelltaleMemories, andhelping to resurrect #TelltaleJobs... Read More →

Wednesday October 17, 2018 17:00 - 18:00 CEST
Pilgor

Narrative, Talk

Topics Narrative, Design

17:00 CEST

Composing in a Flow-state workshop, day 1

For this event, my slogan will be: “Composing in a Flow-state. No templates, no plans, just feelings...”
For this workshop I might approach 3 challenges. Depending on time, I would be able to go through the writing process, how I come up with ideas and what I look for in a brief. But even more fun, the audience can participate in giving me ideas for what they want, really getting me to do everything on the spot. For example a character theme, stage or battle-scenarios.

Speakers

Daniel Lindholm

Freelance

Wednesday October 17, 2018 17:00 - 19:00 CEST
Catniss

Audio / Music, Workshop

Topics Music, Workshop

10:00 CEST

Budget 3D-scanning for games

3D-scanning, one of the latest techniques on the market for creating realistic graphics for games, started out as something only studios with larger budgets and teams could manage. However, today there’s a wide variety of several tools and softwares that everyone can access and use for the smallest indie game budget.

John Kalderon and Victor Jonsson will present how they save time and effort in the goal of creating realistic characters and environments through the use of 3D-scanning on a small indie game budget.

Speakers

Victor Jonsson

Angry Demon Studio

Victor Jonsson is the Environment Artist and technical artist at Angry Demon Studio, a horror game studio in Skövde that has produced the game Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn and is now working on Apsulov – End of Gods. His love for finding new things, to learn and develop always... Read More →

John Kalderon

Angry Demon Studio

John Kalderon is the Ceo, writer, designer and character artist on Angry Demon Studio, the studio behind Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn and the upcoming title Apsulov – End of Gods. John’s childhood passion for horror has carried over into game development and has resulted in... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 10:00 - 11:00 CEST
Catniss

Graphics, Talk

Topics Art, Tech

10:00 CEST

Kittens on Fire: Designing immersive storytelling

In this presentation, I’ll talk about storytelling (from text blocks to dialogues to environmental art) and narrative design. Drawing from games like Dark Souls, Night in the Woods, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and various isometric RPGs that I may or may not have been involved in developing,. I’ll talk about how narrative designers help shape the overall experience, and how we can improve our craft and build living worlds for our games. At the conclusion, I’ll outline tips and techniques to help fledgling designers find the right voice and the right direction for their games.

Speakers

Colin McComb

3lb Games

Colin McComb has been a professional writer/game designer since 1991. He’s co-owner of 3lb Games, which offers VR development and software services consulting (most recently working with Monomi Park to bring Slime Rancher to VR). He was Creative Lead for Torment: Tides of Numenera... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 10:00 - 11:00 CEST
Pilgor

Narrative, Talk

Topics Narrative, Design, Game development

11:00 CEST

HEVGA Roundtable

On the 18th of October, The Higher Education Video Game Alliance and the University of Skövde will be hosting a roundtable session for academics visiting the Sweden Game Conference. The roundtable is in part intended as a follow-up to the higher education symposium held at Gotland Game Conference earlier this year, and we will continue discussing a few topics that arose during that event (e.g., what would a European HEVGA network look like and what would its function be, and possibilities of jointly organized summer schools for MSc and PhD students). However, the roundtable will also serve as an opportunity to network and to strengthen the growing network of Nordic game scholars. The stage is also very much open to short presentations and idea pitches from anyone who wishes to contribute – if you have upcoming projects, events, or opportunities you would like to share with other academics, please feel free to do so!
The roundtable will be hosted from 11:00-12:00, at the top floor of the conference building.

Speakers

Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari

Södertörn University / HEVGA

Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari is a game designer, researcher, and developer who entered the video game industry as a programmer in 2000. Her PhD (2010) explored AI for characterisation and story construction. Her current interests are AI based game design, story-making games, and therapy... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Upstaris

Applied Games, Workshop

Topics Research, Games, Education

11:00 CEST

Company Culture - Epic Battle

Agnieszka Molska Jakobson works at Ghost Games in Gothenburg as associate development manager, but her biggest focus is on the team. She is closely cooperating with the Ghost leadership championing positive change and strengthening the company culture.Born in Poland, became a teacher there and after moving to Sweden decided to change professions, following her true interests like project management, company culture and continuous improvement.

Speakers

Agnieszka Jakobson

Thursday October 18, 2018 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Pilgor

Biz, Talk

Topics Business, AAA, Corporate culture, Game work

11:00 CEST

Fake It To Make It – A Game Design Case Study

Fake It To Make It (https://www.fakeittomakeitgame.com/) is a simulation-style game where players create fake news.

This game is a response to the growing amount of politically-charged misinformation being shared on social media. Players learn how and why fake news is distributed, and explore how political tribalism, fear, and anger can be amplified and exploited by third parties for their own gain.

Using the game as a concrete example, this session will explore game design for real-world impact. Participants will learn about visually mapping desired real-world outcomes, integrating those outcomes into gameplay, and using challenge to motivate players to learn.

Speakers

Amanda Warner

Game and Learning Designer, Freelance

Amanda Warner designs and develops games, learning, and other experiences that focus on real-world change. She created Fake It To Make It, a social-impact game about how fake news is created and distributed, PostFacto, a game about fact checking, and is working on a new game about... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Catniss

Design, Talk

Topics Design

12:00 CEST

Serious games and creative business models

Talk:
Serious games and creative business models

Developing serious games is a challenging business which doesn't always follow the commercial game industry logic. In this talk Kristian will discuss creative business models and explore different strategies to generate revenue streams and secure both short term and long term profits.

Speakers

Kristian Lundquist

Kristian Lundquist is an ex-teacher who later became an ex-communication consultant who then became a game designer. Since 2014, Kristian is the CEO and co-founder of Gro Play, a game studio that make games to entertain, educate and create positive social impact.

Thursday October 18, 2018 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Ashka

Applied Games, Talk

Topics Business, Gamification, Serious games

12:00 CEST

Leading Companies & Global Initiatives in the Game Industry

Jillian will discuss exactly how and why she started her own companies, discussing wins with failures while providing advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. There will be a focus on keeping your company and initiatives diverse and inclusive while helping drive towards a better, more positive industry.

Speakers

Jillian Mood

Jillian Mood & Partners

Jillian Mood jumped into the game industry after working in television. After over 10 years of running HR, PR, Marketing departments, and dozens of initiatives she built her own empire! Today, running Conferences, Game Jams, a marketing and PR firm across gaming and tech is the continuation... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Pilgor

Biz, Talk

Topics Game development, Global perspectives

12:00 CEST

Player creators as self-determined hedonists? A critical look at the reality of participatory game design

The Games industry makes heavy use of users/players as co-creators. One argument that is used in order explicitly de-prioritizes a political economy perspective states that (1) player creators enter into the relationship with the understanding that they will work for free; (2) there is a mutual benefit as a result of the collaboration of players and the production company; (3) players enjoy their co-creative activities.

This study investigates these arguments in the light of a case study. The result shows a considerable power inequality between the stakeholders which dismantles the notion of free choice of player creators.

Speakers

Patrick Prax

Uppsala University

Patrick Prax is assistent professor in Game Design and wrote his dissertation on the co-creation of digital games as alternative media. He is interested in how players can change the games they are playing to reflect an alternative perspective to a hegemonic world view.Patrick has... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Catniss

Design, Talk

Topics Design

12:00 CEST

Lunch is served 12:00-14:00

Thursday October 18, 2018 12:00 - 14:00 CEST
Lunch Area

Social, Lunch

Topics Social

13:00 CEST

Data Is your most powerful weapon: how a moddable hacking game can be a tool for digital activism

How can a moddable hacking game can be a tool for digital activism? Rich Metson explores how videogames are the perfect medium for authentically exploring a political issue *with* your audience, and how you can build tools to facilitate this dialogue. After all, players who seek out games that are ‘about something’ are fairly likely to have something important to say about the subject themselves.

Speakers

Rich Metson

Semaeopus

Rich is co-founder of Semaeopus, a small but mighty, award winning indie games studio, named one of the CE50 Top 50 creative and innovative companies in England. Rich has a diverse background, having started out welding sculpture for world renowned artists he went on to work as a... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Ashka

Biz, Talk

Topics Design, Data

13:00 CEST

How to apply personal narrative to political context

How do we design for empathy? How do we activate political consciousness through games? Can a focus on personal story bring us closer to political awareness?

Personal narrative is used as a powerful tool for communicating political need. By using live action roleplay as a platform to explore complex socio-political issues we create the conditions for a diversity of perspective through experiential learning. Using specific examples of live action roleplay games, this talk will outline how players gain an understanding and empathy to a believable other, what they can take with them from the game and what they can bring into the real world.

Speakers

Josefin Westborg

CEO, Lajvbyrån

Josefin Westborg is is one of the world’s leading designers in educational larps (live action roleplaying). She is based in Gothenburg, Sweden and has a background in game design and pedagogy and is one of the founders of Lekreativ/Lajvbyrån(the larp agency). In her daily job she... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Catniss

Main Theme, Talk

Topics Narrative, Design

13:00 CEST

The Unreal Engine in 2018 and beyond!

A look at the current state of the Unreal Engine, and what our vision is for the future. From Fortnite and its impact on the engine, through our push for high end mobile, developments within the film and automotive industries, to our focus on building a sustainable platform for indie developers. The work we are doing with rendering and raytracing, as well as a look at recent Unreal Engine releases and which improvements you can expect in the months ahead.

Speakers

Sjoerd De Jong

Evangelist, Epic Games

As Evangelist for Epic Games, Sjoerd travels through Europe to talk about and teach the Unreal Engine. With 19 years of experience in the Unreal Engine, Sjoerd is an expert at a wide range of content creation topics. Throughout his diverse career he has worked in everything ranging... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Pilgor

Tech, Talk

Topics Tech, Programming

14:00 CEST

Befriending the enemy - how to handle SJW commentary

Any non conventional game can nowadays earn the label of Social Justice Propaganda. If you make “Social Justice Propaganda” you have a good chance to be called a “Social Justice Warrior”. Is this good or bad and how can you respond to this kind of comments? This is a reflection on how to interpret, handle and react to SJW commentary from a developer with two “Social Justice Propaganda” games under her belt.

Speakers

Laura Bularca

Professional Dragon, Valiant Game Studio AB

Thursday October 18, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Pilgor

Biz, Talk

Topics Business, Community, Marketing

14:00 CEST

Growing a Niche Mobile Game From The North of Sweden

Swedish company Gold Town Games (GTG) released their first game World Hockey Manager in the fall of 2017. The studio comprised of 18 employees from Skellefteå created the world’s first mobile “hockey manager”, a mobile game in a niche genre mixed with a sharp focus on a sport popular only in North America, Scandinavia and couple of countries in Europe.

During a fireside chat, Peter Fodor from AppAgent will run a business-oriented discussion with Pär Hultgren, CEO of GTG, on how the journey started, what were the challenges in a small town in the north of Sweden and how the game scaled to its current 100K+ new players monthly.

Speakers

Peter Fodor

AppAgent

Peter started in advertising at the renowned agency Leo Burnett but switched to mobile gaming at 30. After running his own gaming studio, he founded a mobile marketing agency AppAgent which helps clients grow their user base and revenue. Clients include the leader in the cybersecurity... Read More →

Pär Hultgren

Gold Town Games

Pär is the CEO of Gold Town Games AB which was founded in June 2015. Since then, Pär has built a team of developers focusing on manager and tycoon games where the player takes on the role as a manager for a team or owner of a sports club. His daily routine in the leadership role... Read More →

Thursday October 18, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Catniss

Biz, Talk

Topics Business, Mobile

14:00 CEST

Objection! Reasons to use a video game lawyer

When and why do you need to use external lawyering help? Is it important to have a lawyer specialized in videogames or will any lawyer be OK? Is this nice to have or need to have? Why is it necessary to have proper contracts? What can happen if you don’t?

Annette and Tommy Persson, the most experienced video game lawyer in Sweden, will tell you stories from real life and explain the advantages of taking the lawyering part seriously when making games.

Speakers

Annette Stavenow Eriksson

CEO, Lawyer.se

Annette Stavenow Eriksson is the Chairman of the board and President of lawyer.se, a law firm specialized in videogame law. Annette is also the founder and President of StoneGate productions AB, a Swedish film studio. Annette has founded and been President/CEO of several companies... Read More →

Tommy Persson

Lawyer, Lawyer AB

Thursday October 18, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Ashka

Law, Talk

Topics Business, Law

15:00 CEST

4 Signs your publisher is stealing your money

I step by step go through our journey into self-publishing. I explain why we used to get publishers. How it was to work with them. What they were good/ bad at. What we were afraid it would be like and what I turned out to be. I present common split scenarios that exist, which ones I think are fair and why.

With TABS we had the opportunity to choose whatever publisher we wanted but in our internal discussions we kept coming back to the question "what do they do". Since we couldn't figure that out we didn't know the value of what they were providing.
Because of this, we decided to self-publish. We accepted that we might be worse at it than them but if we tried and failed. At least we would know what we were paying for in the future.

Self-publishing has taught us a lot about marketing and the platform process. I explain how I tackled self-publishing from 0 experience. What I found was surprisingly hard and what was surprisingly easy. I also supply tips if someone would like to try it themselves.

The talk title sounds very Anti-publishing. The talk is not anti-publishing itself and mentions a lot of positive aspects of working with publishers but the goal is to supply people with some initial tools to go into self-publishing if they feel up to it

Speakers

Petter Henriksson

Speaker, Landfall Games

Thursday October 18, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Pilgor

Biz, Talk

Topics Business, Publishing

15:00 CEST

Why dangerous games are bad for everyone

Violence, addiction or obesity?
Games are still blamed for bad things people do outside of them, but does it really matter what politicians or media thinks about games as long as people love to play?
Yes it does, and the perception of games will affect who will become a developer and what future games will look like.
This is a talk about why you should care about politics and games.

Speakers

Johanna Nylander

Policy Affairs, Swedish Games Industry

Thursday October 18, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Catniss

Biz, Talk

Topics Game development, Politics

15:00 CEST

Nordic Game Discovery Contest

NORDIC GAME DISCOVERY CONTEST SEASON IIIBuilding on fifteen years of organising successful games industry activities, including the annual Nordic Game conference and exhibition, regional funding programs, overseas networking events and other developer support initiatives, we introduced the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) in 2016 – an exciting, competitive challenge where selected game projects are showcased live in pitch competitions at partner events across Europe.
Now in our third season, we’re introducing a new and unique contest format – instead of just pitching a game the traditional way, contestants compete live onstage in an entertaining round-based battle for points.

Thursday October 18, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Ashka

Pitch session

Topics Indie, Game development, Publishing

16:00 CEST

Fast Travel

Fast Travel is a slow journey towards a single button. It’s a brand new story, a play through of a sci-fi game that doesn’t exist and a fragmented look at time and design.

Speakers

Ste Curran

Design consultant, London South Bank University & Freelance

Ste is a designer, consultant, speaker, radio presenter and Maraoke host. He solves problems, sings poorly and writes very bad bios.

Thursday October 18, 2018 16:00 - 17:00 CEST
Pilgor

Other, Talk

Topics Narrative, Design, Sci-fi

16:00 CEST

CGX Mentor Lounge

CGX Is super proud to be heading to Sweden Game Conference to run a Mentor Lounge at the Donna Café!
At the Mentor Lounge leaders, speakers & experts will be giving one on one advice in all areas of game development across leadership, tech, creative, and industry initiatives (all the things!)
Interested in giving back and helping change lives? Apply to be a mentor!
Mentors Apply: https://goo.gl/forms/JZnkLd9PUpEIR6Ng2 (or email jillian@jillianmood.com)
Interested in asking experts questions on your game, career and strategy? Apply to be a mentee!
Mentee's Apply: https://goo.gl/forms/q4aE5sBx3fJ97Rfv1
Event will take place 4-6pm October 18th at the conference!

Speakers

Jillian Mood

Jillian Mood & Partners

Thursday October 18, 2018 16:00 - 18:00 CEST
Donna Café

Social, Event

Topics Indie, Game development, Social

16:00 CEST

Composing in a Flow-state workshop, day 2

Speakers

Daniel Lindholm

Freelance

Thursday October 18, 2018 16:00 - 18:30 CEST
Catniss

Audio / Music, Workshop

Topics Music, Workshop

19:00 CEST

Award Dinner (Separate ticket)

The Official Gala Dinner. Separate ticket is needed!

Thursday October 18, 2018 19:00 - 22:00 CEST
Pilgor

Social, Dinner

Topics Social

22:00 CEST

The Epic Kansas After Party

Epic Games and Goodbye Kansas would like to welcome you to the "Epic Kansas" afterparty at Scandic Billingen. When the SGC Gala Dinner winds down, the afterparty kicks into gear. With sponsored drinks, a smooth DJ and a fantastic opportunity to mingle, this exclusive event will be the chillest way to meet everyone in the Swedish game industry.
NOTE - A Valid Sweden Game Conference Pass matching your name is required to enter. This will be strictly enforced.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/epic-games-goodbye-kansas-afterparty-october-18-tickets-50847898433

Thursday October 18, 2018 22:00 - Friday October 19, 2018 01:00 CEST
Scandic Billingen

Social, Party

10:00 CEST

Creating games in a game world

LocoRoco – The birth and development of a SIE IP and a higher sense of awareness.

Starting from a sketch on the train and with the intention “to make people smile all over the world”. Physics and flow as the driving mechanics and feel-good factor. How to develop LocoRoco characters, stages and sounds. The development of PS3 LocoRoco and PS@Home content. The realization of LocoRoco’s global reach. Life purpose and why do I make games? Can I make the world peaceful through my work? Illness in the family triggers a deeper existential investigation and journey. My next step. Message to the Swedish game dev community.

Speakers

Tsutomu Kouno

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Tsutomu Kouno is a Japanese game designer, born in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture. He graduated from College of Engineering of Nihon University and joined Sony Interactive Entertainment shortly after. He is best known as director and game designer of the video game series LocoRoco... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 10:00 - 11:00 CEST
Pilgor

Design, Talk

Topics Design, AAA, Physics, Mechanics

11:00 CEST

A very practical guide to self-publishing

A very practical guide to self-publishing for small indie teams! A hands on workshop on what to keep in mind if you intend to self publish your game. This workshop is aimed at Steam and will give you a good idea of what you need to do in order to get your Steam presence ready. It will also touch some wider topics to keep in mind when getting ready to release your game, such as the amount of time you need to prepare your game's online presence and how to take marketing into account when scheduling release dates.

Target audience: people who never released on Steam and intent to do so, as well as people who did release games on Steam but would like to optimise their presence.

Speakers

Laura Bularca

Professional Dragon, Valiant Game Studio AB

Friday October 19, 2018 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Donna Café

Biz, Workshop

Topics Publishing, Indie

11:00 CEST

Narrative Panel/AMA

Ever wanted to ask people with decades of experience questions about game writing? What it's like to work on big titles for big companies? What pitfalls to avoid when applying to a writing job? What it's like freelancing as a writer? Well, here's your chance! We have some fantastic speakers in the narrative field this year, and it would be a shame if we did not bring them all together for a session and let you ask them about their experiences.

Moderator: Daniel Ström

Speakers

Elie Abraham

Emily Buck

Creative Director, Buckshot Interactive

Colin McComb

3lb Games

Evgeni Puzankov

Freelance

Evgeni has been working in this industry for about nine years. He was a scripter, a producer, an integrator, but most of the time he was writing. For past three years he has been a freelance narrative designer and doesn’t intend to look for a better way. You can check out his work... Read More →

Daniel Ström

CEO/Narrative designer, Guru Games

Daniel is a storyteller and game designer that designed his first tabletop RPG at 13 years of age. It had dark elves living in pyramids riding panthers. From there he moved on, and in 2013 he started his own game studio, Guru Games, together with a group of friends. He functions as... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 11:00 - 12:00 CEST
Pilgor

Narrative, Panel

12:00 CEST

Game based learning in higher education - a way to change students perspective

The concept of game-based approaches to learning is getting more and more popular. Increasingly studies show that the method indeed is effective in different areas of learning. Internationally there has been an enormous demand on game-based products. But to a large extent, it is primarily people with a limited background in game design or pedagogy who use the game’s components to attract the pupil’s attention. But to tell you the truth, most of these products are at best mediocre – suffering from bad design choices and inability to produce excitement as major defective factors. Why don’t we see more skilled game developers in this area? The question is what could be achieved if a more comprehensive approach was taken to the discourse? What are the gains from using a game rather than a textbook, a documentary or a lecture?

The talk will address a blended learning game that was constructed to change the perspective of the human workforce at the factory floors for the engineer students at Chalmers University. The game is a combination of instructional media that includes interactive problem-solving activities, gaming-style virtual-learning and workplace-linked knowledge to make the students reflect around different themes that they will face when they leave the academy and enters their careers.

The lecture will highlight the following:

To what extent can game research and the game industry contribute an infusion to learning?
Falling grades and mental ill health at school – can a game paradigm assist to turn the numbers?
What are games better at than a traditional learning curriculum and what are they inferior at?

Speakers

Annika Palmquist

Insert Coin

Adam Palmquist is a process leader, professional lecturer and author of the book Det spelifierade klassrummet (Studentlitteratur), the first comprehensive book in Swedish on how to use Gamifcation for learning. He has a master in media history and history of ideas. He is a process... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Ashka

Applied Games, Talk

Topics Applied games, Gamification, Research, Education

12:00 CEST

Accidental Propaganda

Reality shapes our fantasy, our fantasy supports reality. Games are part of our culture as much as TV, movies, and books. Our predecessors did a lot of harm and a lot of good.
Now we’re trying to figure out our place. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not pretty. Let’s look back at what we’re and were doing and try to figure out what to do with it. It’s not gonna be a fun talk.

Speakers

Evgeni Puzankov

Freelance

Friday October 19, 2018 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
Pilgor

Main Theme, Talk

Topics Design, Narrative

12:00 CEST

Lunch is served 12:00-14:00

Friday October 19, 2018 12:00 - 14:00 CEST
Lunch Area

Social, Lunch

Topics Social

13:00 CEST

Saying that which is hard to say: The nuts and bolts of political game narratives

This talk will feature the nuts and bolts of making a game with politically charged content at its core – specifically focusing on the narrative design and the writing. It will propose methods for finding your question, doing research, weaving the theme into your story, etc. The attendee will leave with new insights into how, in practice, to make a game that could change the world.

Speakers

Anna Jenelius

CEO & Creative Director, Valiant Game Studio AB

Anna Jenelius is the Founder, CEO & Creative Director of Valiant Game Studio. Her previous experience includes being a solo indie developer, senior QA manager at Paradox, a game design teacher at Future Games, and a freelance game writer. When not making games, she enjoys tabletop... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Catniss

Narrative, Talk

Topics Narrative

13:00 CEST

Drop in HEVGA Fika

Friday October 19, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Donna Café

Social, Fika

Topics Social, Research, Games

13:00 CEST

Gears of Society - programming Frostpunk

Designing the behaviour of a small society in extreme conditions was not an easy task. Especially from the programming perspective. We had to translate the needs, subtle changes, reactions, habits and everyday hardships of the people into gameplay mechanisms and configurable numbers. And still make an egaging game. The talk will present design solutions used to address this problem from the programmers perspective.

Speakers

Aleksander Kauch

11 bit

Aleksander Kauch – Lead gameplay programmer in 11 bit studios. Worked on almost every 11 bit’s game including Anomaly series, This War of Mine and Frostpunk. Lectured in programming at Warsaw University of Technology and Academy of Games and Post-Production. Experienced in programming... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 13:00 - 14:00 CEST
Pilgor

Tech, Talk

Topics Tech, Programming

14:00 CEST

Players' demand of political component in mobile strategy games

Typical popular mobile strategy game nowadays has an icon with a face with a mouth open, shiny 3d graphics and “kill’em all” objective. But the mass players’ request to deeper mobile strategies exists, and our Strategilization will reflect the political relations between powers, hidden and visible leverages of influence, usage of both hard and soft power in the struggle for leadership. These features were warmly welcomed by the beta testers’ community and we’ll uncover interesting gameplay findings.

Speakers

Alexey Izvalov

Speaker, Kirovograd Flight Academy of the National Aviation University

Alexey combines PhD degree, Associate Professor position with indie game development. Making own games since 2010, in 2016 he felt to have enough experience to start his “Opus Magnus”, Strategilization. This is a mobile 4x strategy with a focus to high-level control and political... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Ashka

Main Theme, Talk

Topics Mobile, Design, Strategy

14:00 CEST

Political Game Jam Games You've Never Heard Of

I am going to be exploring the more political game jams and jam entries that have appeared on the internet in the last few years.

These games are wonderful, but as they were made for jams, you’ve probably not heard of them. Small, bite-sized meaningful experiences will be throughout this talk – as well as the importance of them.

Explore some new games and see what you think of them. You will take away a wider knowledge of smaller indie gems as well as a bunch of game suggestions for you to play at home.

Speakers

Jupiter Hadley

Journalist, AlphaBetaGamer

Jupiter Hadley is a prolific games journalist who focuses on smaller indie games. She has written for a bunch of different sites including: Big Boss Battle, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and the Metro UK. She also runs indiegamejams.com and covers thousands of indie games on her Youtube channel... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Catniss

Main Theme, Talk

Topics Indie, Game development

14:00 CEST

Worldbuilding our World

Why are you making games? Why are you making creative projects? For some people it is a way of earning an income (when you can!), for some it is to express themselves, and for some it is to imagine new worlds. There are lots of reasons why we choose to create. Many of us also make decisions about what kinds of things we create, and how we create them too. Some are also aware of how our creations affect others. This talk charges headlong into the idea that some of us are aware of what we’re doing when we bring a new world into this world. We’ll cover the different ways in which we shape our existence through our creations.

Speakers

Christy Dena

Universe Creation 101

Christy Dena is a writer-designer-director who works with games, film, digital and live performative projects. Her original projects have won multiple interactive storytelling awards, and her work has been commissioned and selected for touring with Experimenta, Babycastles, and The... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 14:00 - 15:00 CEST
Pilgor

Narrative, Talk

Topics Game development, Creativity

15:00 CEST

Bleed in, Bleed out - A design case in board game therapy

This talk describes game design challenges considered in the ongoing development of a tabletop game where players bring their real life problems into a the framed safe-space of a play session. The game, tentatively called Mind Shadows, is a game for two or three players who trust each other. The main aim of the design is to create play situations where players in cooperation better can understand situations in their everyday lives that are emotionally complex or difficult, and by this understanding find ways to cope with the situations.

Speakers

Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari

Södertörn University / HEVGA

Friday October 19, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Catniss

Design, Talk

Topics Design, board games

15:00 CEST

Level Art & Design in VR: A New Perspective on Space

As more games begin to explore Virtual Reality, it is important to consider how being immersed in a space influences the experience of a level. In this talk we will look at how to plan level pacing and build the environment in order to create the feeling and experience intended with a focus on implementation in Virtual Reality.

Speakers

Linnéa Harrison

Neat Corporation

Linnea began playing games during the ’90s, and through a passion for creating experiences she discovered that she also had a passion for making games. After shipping Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Mirror’s Edge titles, Linnea now works as Creative Director on the VR game Budget... Read More →

Friday October 19, 2018 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Pilgor

Design, Talk

Topics Art, World building, VR

16:00 CEST

Games and politics - the panel

Speakers

Design

Topics Games, Politics

19:00 CEST

SGC18 Official Party!

https://www.boulogner.se/

Friday October 19, 2018 19:00 - 23:30 CEST
Kårhuset Bolougner Boulognergränd 2, 541 37 Skövde

Social, Party

Topics Social