It’s time to introduce one of the two new members of the FutureGames Board of Education. Her name is Susanne Möller, a Swedish video game journalist and television presenter. She will be joining the other members of the Board of Education in maintaining the high standard of our education, and ensuring our students learn what they need to succeed in the highly competitive video game industry.

We caught up with Susanne and asked her a few questions about herself and her thoughts about FutureGames.

• Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Well, I’m Susanne Möller, a freelance writer with a passion for games and have been working as a game critic for almost a decade. I’ve been playing since I was a kid and I can’t seem to stop. It’s still too much fun to give up!

I think that the one thing that I place above everything else, within the game culture, is to try to work hard for it to be a place where everyone feels welcome.

• What are your thoughts about FutureGames?

I like the fact that it’s very focused on being hands on! Less talk, more rock – so to say. I think that that is an approach that pushes people to learn in a fun and engaging way. It’s awesome that the students have access to the school when they need to, because I imagine that learning how to make games is something that needs a whole lot of creativity and I know for sure that creativity is not something that comes to you at fixed hours.

• What do educations like ours mean for the video game industry?

Since FutureGames, and educations like it, have such close connections to the industry, it’s a give and take-relationship. The established companies can train and show students how it all works “for real” but at the same time, they can feed of the young, and often, limitless ideas that the students have. So it’s a good scratching of backs-relationship.

Earlier this month we had yet another pair of venerated guest speakers at Futuregames. This time around,  Ylva Sundström and Robin Flodin from Toadman Interactive visited us and held two most informative presentations.

Robin Flodin was the CEO of ZEAL Game Studio from 2011 to 2013, and founded both Gaming Corps and Power of Two Games, both of which he still runs. His experience is certain to prove educational to our students, whom he talked to about his career and his experiences running various games companies in Sweden.

Ylva Sundström is a former producer at ZEAL Game Studio and has previously taught production and game design. She is currently the Office Manager at Toadman Interactive, and talked to our students about internships and what she herself looks for in applications.

Thank you,Ylva and Robin, for a pair of very interesting talks.

We can at last show you the first games made by our newest students. These games were made in just two weeks, with only six days of prior training.

The groups, consisting of five to six people, were tasked with creating a board game for the iPad using the Unreal Development Kit. This game project was not only a great opportunity for our new students to get to know each other, it is also in line with our practical orientation. We believe that the best way to learn how to make games is by actually making them, and as such our primary focus is to teach our students using practical means.

The games were judged by the following industry professionals:

• Patrick Berglind – Producer, Paradox
• Kristoffer Lunden – Programmer, ComeOn!
• Anna Jenelius – QA, Paradox

Group 1 – Panic at the Tea Party

A cute math-game where players take turns to eat one to three cupcakes at a time, but must make sure to avoid eating the squids. The first player who eats three squids loses the game.

Panic at the Tea Party was made by:

• Buddha Babulanam
• Adrian Drott
• Dan Mihaila
• Alisa Nylun
• Daniel Sjöberg

Group 2 – Knights: A Quest for Magic

Knights: A quest for magic is a digital version of a classic board game for up to four players. With turn based mechanics the players advance forward by rolling the dice. The players can also collect spells along the path by landing on certain platforms marked with Fire, Ice or Curse. Each turn a player can then choose to cast a spell at himself or at his competitors, this to slow the other players down while running ahead to get to the goal.

Knights: A Quest for Magic was made by:

• Felix Fritzell
• Anders Karlsson
• Isabell Sarstedt
• Peter Zippert
• Vendela Carlberg Larsson
• Simon Palm

Group 3 – Canyon Balls

Canyon Balls is an 2-4 player action game of pong. Set in a cartoon western theme, the goal is to be the last survivor in an fierce battle between sheriffs, Indians, bandidos and miners. Features unlimited fun, a train, and explosions.

Canyon Balls was made by:

• Regina Cardenas
• Ivan Nestorov
• Kalle Löwenberg
• Isak Åberg
• Pär Kamfjord
• Oscar Göthberg

Group 4 – Lucky Hunter

Lucky Hunter uses a ‘Push your luck’-kind of mechanic, with a high reliance on chance. Think of it as a mash-up between Black Jack and Russian Roulette due to its competitive elements. The players take turn shooting at bushes, scoring points if they hit an animal, or losing points if they hit a cannibal.

Lucky Hunter was made by:

• Kaj Westerlund Inazawa
• Jakob Larsson
• Dragos Burlacu
• Kim Ekdahl
• Hannes Lidbeck
• Louie Bergendal

Group 5 – Battleships: Galaxy

This 2-player strategy game derived from the timeless boardgame classic; ‘Battleships’, will have you biting your nails in excitement!

Battleships: Galaxy was made by:

• Hannes Delbeke
• Mikaela Älgekrans
• Oskar Bernelind
• Peter Jemstedt
• Erik Johansson
• Tomas Ulfström

Group 6 – Hexagon Space Race

Hexagon Space Race is a two player board game where you race your opponent to get to the crystal on the other side. Moving to higher or lower platforms will cost you more movement, however you will be able to change the terrain to get there faster or to hinder your opponents progress.

Hexagon Space Race was made by:

• Julia Dahllöf-Hinder
• Samuel Schultz
• Simon Lindberg Amanou
• Karl Wrangbäck
• Jakob Have
• Joep De Valcke

Have a look at screenshots from all of the games below:

Last Thursday FutureGames was present at Mobile Future in Stockholm, a business conference on mobile development.

With speakers from companies such as King and Ericsson present, and dozens of companies from the sector in Stockholm and beyond, we had an excellent chance to present our education and what we do to the industry.

Present there we had:

• Elisabeth Tegner and Sjoerd De Jong from FutureGames.
• Our students Sandra Parling, Jacob Atonucci, Peter Cornelius, Oscar Höglund.
• Rosie Linder from Eqidz, presenting her new mobile game.
• Jesper Engström from Talawa Games, presenting Unmechanical and their new game.
• Kenneth Häggmark and Kristian Svensson from Dreamstage, presenting their Alternate Reality mobile app, using FutureGames models.

Rosie and Jesper.

Sandra, Jacob, Oscar, and Kenneth

Dreamstage’s AR app

Dreamstage’s AR app

Jesper and Jonas Rundberg, Head of Development from King

Sjoerd, Elisabeth and Rosie.

What is this? More visitors? Yes indeed – and this time, none other than Fredrik Englund and Peter Kjellberg from DICE.

Fredrik, a former Futuregames student now mission designed and scripter at DICE, spoke to our students about his career and his current employment at one of the largest development studios in the world. Peter, in addition to being a board member of Futuregames, is responsible for recruitment at DICE and EA, and held an informative talk about DICE as a company and their recruitment process.

These are exciting times for our students, particularly the class of 2012 who are now mere months away from their internships. We will of course keep you posted on their progress and continued work.