The Project
"In Scandinavia we have many young talents that can design and develop entertainment games. Besides, the Scandinavian pedagogical tradition is an excellent basis for designing serious games, so there is a potential for our talents in this field as well.
But talent alone is not enough for young entrepreneurs.
They need to learn how to market and distribute their games, how to attract investors, etc. Also, they need to learn how to compose a production team with all the necessary competences either to make a game or to apply for a project grant – and in this respect the size of the individual Scandinavian country might be a problem.
But if the Scandinavian countries pool their competencies, there will be enough skills for the entrepreneurs to choose from. Therefore, the entrepreneurs will have to learn how to look all over Scandinavia when composing their production teams.
The overall aim of the project is to ensure that entrepreneurs in the Scandinavian game industry can establish viable companies and survive in a highly competitive business environment by developing and testing business models, incubators with business coaches, a Scandinavian competences database, and a Scandinavian network. As it is now, there is no business model for companies in the gaming industry.
Therefore the project will develop and test business models for entertainment games and serious
games. Besides, the project will test incubators for young entrepreneurs, and already in the project
period make sure that at least 15 companies are established.
After the termination of the project, the test results will be implemented in incubators that will be run by two of the partners, and open to all potential game developers in Scandinavia.
To help the entrepreneurs compose cross‐ Scandinavian production teams, the project will create a database with Scandinavian competences within the gaming industry. When the project ends there will be at least 50 companies in the database, and 2 years later 100 companies. It will be open to all entrepreneurs in Scandinavia.
Networking in the gaming industry is crucial. Therefore, the project has established contact to important stakeholders in the industry in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and at the end of the project, there will be one strong cross‐ Scandinavian network in which all relevant stakeholders are represented.
By working systematically with the network, the project will make sure that the Scandinavian countries will be among the front runners of the industry and, as such be able to attract investors from all over the world, and at the same time develop into a global reference centre for new ideas, innovation and development within the entertainment and serious games industry."
The Partner Consortium
Three Danish and one Swedish organisation have set out to meet the overall goal of changing the game industry in Central Scandinavia. We are:
Viden Djurs:
Located in Grenaa in the most Eastern part of the Danish main land, Viden Djurs has over the last years developed 3 new game related educations that attract talent from all over Denmark: '3D College Denmark', 'GameIT College' and most recently 'AP Graduate in Computer Science with Speciality in Game Development'. Together, we call this the 'Game Academy'.
What these educations share is that appeal to the Danish youth. We have experienced a vast interest and receive applications from more students than we can admit – which is very unique for a school based far from the bigger, Danish cities. As of today, almost 300 young Danes are attending our game related educations.
We also put a lot of energy into preparing our students for a career as entrepreneurs – and the fact that more than a handful of new game companies have already been formed by students at our game incubator – 'The Ranch' – proves that the Danish youth is hungry for creating their own companies, and thus their own future as game developers in Central Scandinavia.
Link: www.gameacademy.dk
The Animation Workshop:
The Animation Workshop, based in Viborg in Central Jutland, enjoys a strong and wide reputation due to the top educations it provides for the international film industry – but it is much more than a school. The Animation Workshop is an international centre of knowledge and development for animation (and related) professions and businesses.
The Animation Workshop strives to make the best foundation for specialised educations and courses in animation, and we are also dedicated to the development of all aspects of the profession – both artistically and commercially.
The Animation Workshop is always defined by the talent of the people studying and working within its walls. Talent and craft have absolute focus. The mission is to create the best thinkable social settings, production facilities and information for development and production.
Link: www.animwork.dk
Aarhus Social and Health Care College:
The Aarhus Social and Health Care College has worked in the field of media based learning and laboratory didactics for many years, without having had the opportunity to systematically experiment with the new settings.
The College will include experts on media based didactics in the project and will play a key role in many work packages, due to the many resources and European experience of the College.
The College staff will be deeply involved in implementing the laboratory didactics, participate in the production of methodological instruments and inspiration material, and will involve its media staff in the production of multimedia based documentation and training material.
The College is strongly and openly supported in its LABlearning initiatives by the Danish Ministry of Education, as well as from the Region of Central Denmark. Recently the College has initiated the production of learning games for social care education and these resources will be invested in the LABlearning project.
From 2010 the College's media department, sosuMedia, has included computer games in its work field and collaborate with strong game developers on producing learning games for education. The College wishes to become a flagship for development and use of learning games in Denmark, and it is the mission of sosuMedia to support this vision.
Link: www.sosuaarhus-international.com/
The University of Skövde:
The University of Skövde offers well-known and internationally acclaimed game development programmes with specialisation in design, graphics, sound/music, game writing or programming. A major strength of the development of games education at the University of Skövde is our focus on collaboration between disciplines.
Students will, as part of their studies, participate in at least two game development projects, where they work with students from all four the university's game related study programmes.
The University also offers a Master's Program in serious games. The study program is about developing and analyzing serious games. There is a strong practical focus meaning that students will spend much time on developing and evaluating serious games.
Most of the courses are related to the university's research within serious games. InGaMe Lab is an interdisciplinary research group focusing on research about computer games and other interactable media.
Link: www.his.se/english/
