In the shadow of the world’s largest gaming event E3 in Los Angeles, there is another event going on in Sweden June 2nd to 3rd this year. Gotland Game Awards (GGA) is arranged every year by Gotland University where approximately 400 game students competes with the games they have developed during the year. Innovative games are presented to a jury with representatives from some of the world’s most successful game studios such as Grin, Starbreeze, Massive Entertainment and Avalanche just to name a few.

In this year’s event there are approximately 30 games participating, spanning a huge variety of genres from children’s- and arcade games, to fully fledged strategy- and action games. Some of the categories that are rewarded are Best Serious Game, Best Big Game Project and Best In Show. A special award is the one that the University hands out in co-operation with the Red Cross to a student or group of students who have worked to counter discrimination and further human rights. There’s also a category to support women entrepreneurship in the game development industry, called the Jade Award. In total, prizes to a value of over 40 000 Euro is handed out during the event where the biggest prize is a trip to the big game show GCDC in Germany this fall where they will have the opportunity to present their game to the biggest names in the industry.

One of the students competing this year is Håkan Mattsson who together with nine other game students have planned to release their game on Xbox Live this fall. –“GGA is the highlight of the year for us students. We get the opportunity to meet our future employers and at the same time receiving valuable feedback from some of the best in the business”.

At Gotland University games are produced as “live” projects where the students can start their own company with the support from the University or external incubators. –“We try to resemble reality as closely as possible during the education. The students get the possibility to produce games that can be released on any platform, for example PC, Nintendo DS and Xbox 360” says Don Geyer, program responsible for the game department at the University.

In a growing business like the game development industry, events like this are important, both for the students and the companies. Gotland University is a greenhouse of competence and June 2nd it’s time to harvest!