Our FutureGames students Marko and Jesper traveled to Spain in order to compete with their game “Embrace”. Embrace had been selected as a finalist in the second International Videogame Festival hóPLAY’11, Spain, in the category “best design”. Embrace was the only game from Sweden among the 26 chosen games. With support from FutureGames, Marko and Jesper went to Bilbao to attend the event – this is their story.
While not snatching any of the prizes, we gained awesome friends and contacts during our visit in Bilbao, and spread the word of Futuregames. Congratulations to all the winners!
Alhóndiga had arranged a great event, with a cool exhibition, competitions and lectures.
The plan was to save as much money as possible, so we took the flight from Skavsta to Madrid, and a bus later on to Bilbao, meaning we’re aleady incredibly sleep deprived. Arriving to Bilbao, we didn’t find any non-scary hostel until 3 hours later. After crashing for a few hours, we figured it’d be fun to check out Alhóndiga, where the presentations and awards ceremony was going to be held the next day. Once there, we met Paolo whom we’d been acquainted with a few weeks earlier at No More Sweden 2011 which was held at our school! Paolo informed us that the presentations were held this day and not the next, in just an hour in fact, so it was a good idea we decided to check the place out 😉
After the presentations, Shailesh joined our gang of non-spanish speakers. We also met the awesome Marc and Cinta who joined in on cool discussions during the party. The following day, we went to check out Guggenheim which we unfortunately had to just speed through cause we were as usual in a hurry someplace. This time to buy tickets back home, as well as getting to the awards ceremony. Interestingly enough two of the winning games were made by people we got a great connection with! Congrats to Shailesh winning with It’s just a thought, Marc and Cinta with Sr.Mistu! We celebrated/drowned our sorrows, shared some philosophies around games with Lara (who really should start writing her blog in english!), and met Eneko shortly before we had to take another painstaking walk->bus->flight->bus trip, this time back to the foggy cold north.
Without feeling particularly defeated at all, we are looking forward to what the future has in store for us, both as individuals and as a team. Hóplay 2011 in Bilbao was an awesome experience!
Embrace life 🙂
//FutureGames students Marko & Jesper
We're extending the application period for our Nordic programs until May 16.
Applications for International Students are open until May 16.
Antonio Obeid is a Lebanese student attending Futuregames Warsaw remotely, due to difficult times.
