WELCOME TO NORDIC GAME

LATEST NEWS ABOUT NORDIC GAME 2014:

Videos available from NG14

Did you miss one or more of the sessions in the Unreal Theatre at this year's conference?

No need to cry. Instead, go to our video section and find the full "Killing the Games Industry" presentation from Ste Curran, the David Braben keynote about Elite: Dangerous, Microsoft's Leay Hoyer talking about "Next-Gen Story Design: Immersive Process for Immersive Experience", plus many more.

THANK YOU!!

Nordic Game 2014 is over. As organisers, we would like to thank all of you who made it a fabolous week of celebrations: Our sponsors, partners, supporters, staff, and of course most importantly all our beloved participants, the Nordic game developer community and their peers from around the world.

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Photos, videos etc will be uploaded on this page as soon as possible, in the meantime remember to #nordicgame :-)

See you next year:

Nordic Game 2015

20-22 May !!

Nordic Indie Night program revealed

Wednesday 21 May from 18:00 – 24:00 at Slagtehuset in Malmø is the evening when we will celebrate Nordic Indie Games. The event is free to attend, there will be a summit with talks as well as an exhibition with eight nominated titles, and Unity is the proud sponsor! See you there.

Halo composer announced for NG14!

We are extremely proud to present music legend Marty O'Donnell as a keynote speaker for NG14.

Best known for writing and producing the soundtrack for the multiple award-winning Halo series, Marty will enter the main stage of the conference to give a talk entitled “Staying Creative”. One might say that making money is the prime mover in our business, but it’s also about staying creative and true to your own inner muse.

Expect to be inspired by Marty’s story - and to listen to some great music too. See you soon for NG14!

Program schedule released!

David Braben, Ryan Payton, or Mike Bithell? Live-Pitch, creators of the “Broken Age” soundtrack, or Snowdrop engine tech? Publisher panels, Nordic Fast Track, or maybe a day full of Unity? The (almost) complete program schedule for the Nordic Game 2014 Conference has been released.

Check out the full program schedule here.

Nordic Game Indie Night 2014: Nominated games revealed!

Whew! This year the Nordic Indie Sensation had almost a hundred game submissions. 8 games have been picked, and you can try them all AND vote for the best at this year's Nordic Game Indie Night on 21 May:

Among The Sleep, by Krillbite (Norway)

Chronology, by osao games (Denmark)

else { Heart.break() }, by Erik Svedäng, Niklas Åkerblad, Tobias Sjögren, Oscar Rydelius (Sweden)

Future Unfolding, by Spaces Of Play (Sweden)

Goat Simulator, by Coffee Stain Studios (Sweden)

ORBIT, by 4Bit Games (Norway)

Savant – Ascent, by D-Pad Studio (Norway)

Shiftlings,  by Rock Pocket Games (Norway)

Read more at the curators webpage: http://www.copenhagengamecollective.org/2014/04/28/ngin-2014-finalists/

Nintendo's getting ready for NG14!

Nintendo will be present at the conference in more than one way. As previous years, the company will be looking for new business deals as part of the Pitch & Match b2b match making system. Additionally, Ed Valiente, Business Development Manager, Nintendo of Europe, will host a panel in the main program entitled "How to Release Your Game on Nintendo eShop" with Nordic developers who have self-published their games on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Panelists are Dajana Dimovska, CEO, Knapnok Games, Brjann Sigurgeirsson, CEO, Image & Form International AB, and Kai Tuovinen, Marketing Manager, Frozenbyte.

Nominees revealed for Nordic Game Awards 2014

Nordic Game Awards is back for 2014, this year hosted by Nicolas Estrup, international game media guru of Pixel.tv and TV2 Zulu fame (in Denmark at least☺).

Games have now been nominated in the six categories, and the battle for honour can begin. Battlefield 4? Resogun? Forced? Device 6? The list of nominees are stronger than ever. Check out all the categories and the nominated titles right here.

Unity track announced for the Nordic Game 2014 program

We are very pleased to announce a dedicated Unity track as an integral part of the main conference program.

Mike Bithell, creator of critically acclaimed indie title “Thomas Was Alone”, and Peter Pashley, Tech Director for the just-released ustwo game “Monument Valley” are among the confirmed speakers. Full session list here!

The announcement of the Unity track rounds off Unity’s powerful presence as an Anniversary Partner of the Nordic Game 2014 Conference. Two additional Unity workshops have also been announced. “Prototyping in Unity” will demonstrate how the Unity game engine can be used for creative work across industries. The “Advanced Unity Workshop” is designed to up-skill attendees in the use of sophisticated character animations, NavMesh/AI and advanced scripting amongst many other things. There are still seats available for both workshops!

The Art of Wildstar

Matt Mocarski is Art Director at Carbine Studios/NCSOFT, working on the highly anticipated upcoming MMO Wildstar. We are proud to announce that Matt will be joining NG14 with an art session entitled "Creating and Visualizing an Online World".

His talk will be "an exposition on the influences, inspirational sources and art direction of WildStar. From the beginnings of the process, through to concept and inspiration, the trials and troubles, and to the 3D realization of the game's art style".

Get inspired. Join NG14 now. :-)

Speakers revealed for Nordic Fast Track

The Fast Track is designed as a fast and direct connection between the Nordic developers and the Nordic Game conference audience, featuring short, useful and to-the-point sessions.



This year including speakers from successful Nordic companies such as Tarsier, Simplygon, Playdead, Defrost Games, Grand Cru, Hansoft, and Image & Form, touching upon a wide range of important topics. Check out the complete program here!

Two Unity workshops announced

Unity is an Anniversary Partner of the Nordic Game 2014 Conference. As part of this, two special workshops have been announced:

In the workshop entitled "Prototyping Visual Storytelling" it will be demonstrated how you can use the Unity game engine for creative work across industries. Read more here.

The Advanced Unity Workshop is designed to up-skill attendees in the use of sophisticated character animations, NavMesh/AI and advanced scripting amongst many other things. A Unity expert will demonstrate these features and take you through optimal workflows in an easy-to-follow session. Read more here.

Murasaki Baby!

Massimo Guarini, director of the award-winning “Shadows of the Damned” with Suda51 and Shinji Mikami, is now working on the already award-winning PS VIta title "Murasaki Baby".

Massimo will join Nordic Game 2014 with a talk entitled "LOVE ME, BABY - Quest for Emotional Design", where he "takes you by the hand and guides you through a surreal journey into the realms of Emotional Game Design and Silent Storytelling, where game mechanics are used as instruments to generate emotions and make you feel human."

We can already feel it. Join NG14 and get emotional too :-)

Camouflaj founder set for Malmö!

Ryan Payton, formerly producer on Konami's Metal Gear Solid and director of Microsoft's Halo 4, has now established his own independent game studio, Camouflaj.

The company shipped République: Episode 1 on iOS to warm reception from Apple, players, and critics, and in this candid talk, Payton will share his fears for the future of narrative-driven games within the context of République’s episodic structure.

Another fantastic speaker gets ready for NG14. Remember to secure your badge today!

Session on narrative design announced

Leah Hoyer leads the Narrative Design department at Microsoft Studios, which develops story worlds, characters and scripts for games for Xbox and other Microsoft platforms.

Her current projects include Remedy's Xbox One title Quantum Break, and she will join NG14 with the session "Next-Gen Story Design: Immersive Process for Immersive Experience". Exciting stuff. We are screaming with joy :-)

Opening keynote session revealed

On 21 May at 13:00, David Polfeldt, CEO at Massive Entertainment, will enter the stage of the main auditorium at Slagthuset to deliver the opening keynote of the NG14 conference. The question “Is there a reason Nordic developers are so good?” should be the point of departure for a healthy discussion.
David’s keynote will be followed be the annual Nordic development support ceremony where 400 000 EUR is handed out to new Nordic game projects.

Current stars meet the up-and-coming = a sweet beginning of NG14.

Kickstarter is backing NG14

Cindy Au, VP of Community at Kickstarter, is coming to Malmö in May. Over the last four years, she has helped build Kickstarter's community of independent game developers and studios, and she will be giving a presentation entitled "Kickstarter and the Changing Landscape of Video Game Development" - sharing "some of the best practices for creating and launching a project of your own. Combining data-driven insights along with case studies drawn from the collective experiences of Kickstarter's games community, we'll explore different approaches to Kickstarter, the challenges of success and failure, and the value of building a community around your game development process. Another exciting addition to the NG14 program. Kick it!

"The Division" tech session announced

Tom Clancy's "The Division" is the first game developed with Massive Entertainments' Snowdrop engine. With the session entitled "Snowdrop, A Smarter Engine for The Next Generation", Rodrigo Cortes will go on stage at NG14 to talk about how it was developed to cope with the challenges inherent in creating games for the new generation of consoles.

Expect an exclusive behind the scenes look at the engines' capabilities, as well as brand new footage and features revealed. Can't wait :-)

Audio keynote announced: The Music and Sound for Broken Age

Two of the highlights of last years' Nordic Game Conference were the keynotes of Tim Schafer and the audio team behind Telltales' "The Walking Dead".

This year they fuse (kind of) in an audio keynote about the sound and music of Schafer's "Broken Age". Entitled "It's All About the Story: Creating the Music and Sound for Broken Age", Jory Prum, Sound Engineer, Camden Stoddard, Audio Lead at Double Fine Productions, and Peter McConnell, composer, will discuss how the sound and music of the game was approached and realized.

You don't want to miss this. Register for NG14 today :-)

David Braben confirmed as keynote speaker

David Braben, CEO at Frontier Developments, and the developer behind legendary "Elite" as well as many other successful games, is coming to Malmö!

Braben will do a keynote speak entitled "My Other Car's a Cobra MkIII" - a look into how Frontier is combining physics, sci-fi and real people in the technology, science and fantasy elements of "Elite: Dangerous".

Nordic Game Indie Night 2014 announced
 

We are pleased to announce the 5th annual Nordic Game Indie Night 2014 showcase and summit in collaboration with Copenhagen Game Collective.

Are you an indie developer based in the Nordic region? Are you working on a game that’s innovative, special, fun, or noteworthy in some way? Submit it! We want to see it! Read more here.

UNITY workshop confirmed!

We are proud to announce that Unity Technologies, one the huge success stories of the Nordic game community, will be back at the Nordic Game Conference with a string of exciting events. First announced is a workshop on 21 May called "Prototyping visual storytelling" - aimed at people wanting to learn how to use the Unity game engine for creative work across industries.

More info about the workshop here - and stay tuned for more Unity announcements soon!

NG14 session confirmed: Kanye Zone LIVE!

Michael Frederickson and Stephen Barlow started Otter Spice Productions in 2012 primarily to protect themselves from a litigious Kanye West.

As an afterthought, it has served as a banner under which they can release games. Meet them in Malmö where they “explain the bafflingly popular Kanye Zone game’s journey from bored Facebook status to...uh...whatever it is now”.

The Nordic Game 2014 Conference is held at Slagthuset on 21-23 May 2014. It’s the 10 Year Anniversary of the conference, and to celebrate we’re aiming at creating the best possible program with the best speakers in the world.

Some of them - Steve Gaynor, co-founder of The Fullbright Company, and writer and designer of critically acclaimed “Gone Home”, Mike Jungbluth, senior animator at Zenimax Online, and right now working on “The Elder Scrolls Online”, and Reiner Knizia, one of the world’s most successful and prolific board game designers, are already confirmed and ready to visit Slagthuset in May. Many more will be announced the coming weeks.

Beside the brand new program, we have a lot of exciting stuff to announce, not least:

The conference’s expanding!
NG14 will open on 21 May, with the official opening at 13:00. This first conference day will end at 17:00, and after a short preparation break the doors will open for the annual Nordic Game Indie Night. The following conference days, 22-23 May, are business as usual, meaning conference days from 10-17, followed by award shows, Gala Dinners, parties, and after parties :-)

Pitch & Match - the Nordic Game b2b system returns. The perfect combination of a targeted audience, an online meeting system and a personal matchmaker makes the difference.
 

Nordic Fast Track - the fastest connection between Nordic developers and the conference audience premiered in 2013, and will be back for NG14. Sessions will be short, sweet, and straight to the point. Watch out for more info very soon.

…and much, much more, including the annual Live Pitching Session, Exhibition Floor, Development Support Grant Ceremony, Lounge happenings + you of course.

Registration is open
Sign up now! You’ll get a Early Bird discount on a main Nordic Game 2014 conference pass if you register before 27 March 2014.

For partnership questions, please contact robert@nordicgame.com.
 

Nordic Game 2014 will be held on 21-23 May in the “Slagthuset” venue in Malmö, Sweden, just 21 minutes by train from Copenhagen Airport.

Welcome to Nordic Game 2014!

NG13: Goodbye, Thank You, and see you again next year!

The Nordic Game 2013 conference celebrated its tenth edition on 22-24 May in Malmö, Sweden. It was a fantastic 10th edition for the most relevant games industry conference in Europe, and we broke all previous records in terms of number of participants and amount of support from the various parts of the games industry. We send out a huge THANK YOU to all of you for making it such a pleasure to organise NG13.
Press Release here, photos are here, and video taped sessions right here.

Nordic Game 2012: Thank you for making NG12 the best conference so far!

Check out the photos right here!

Nordic Game 2012, the ninth edition of the conference, will be held on 23-25 May 2012, in Slagthuset, Malmö, Sweden.

Nordic Game 2012 at a glance:

23 May 2012

10:30-18:00 .exec 2012
Nordic executives meet and discuss relevant topics about the future of the Nordic games industry. Invite only.

18:00-01:00 Nordic Game Indie Night 2012
The 3rd annual Nordic Game Indie Night showcase, organized in collaboration with the Copenhagen Game Collective. The purpose of the showcase is to celebrate talented indie developers from around the Nordic region. Sponsored by Blackberry.

24 May 2012

08:30 Doors open at Slagthuset

09:30-17:00 Conference Day 1
Sessions will take place in the five auditoriums of Slagthuset.

16:30-18:00
Nordic-Canada Event
Meet and Mingle with Canadian Digital Media Partners. Invite Only.

17:00 Happy Hour (Expo area)
All conference visitors are invited to the Expo Area for refreshments and networking.

17:30 Industry speed dating (Registration area)
Industry speed dating is the perfect cure for making contacts without the anxiety of making
the first move. It‘s a quick and easy, totally analog way of meeting new and interesting people.
Headmaster, Annika Gustafson, Transmedia Commission, BoostHbg
Registration Area, 17:30-18:00

18:00 Gala Dinner + Nordic Game Awards 2012 (Autodesk Dining Hall)
You did sign up for the gala, right? Then please find the Autodesk Dining Hall and join us for a
night of dining, wining, and celebrations of the Nordic Game Awards, the Development Support
Grant receivers plus more.

21:00 Nordic Party!
Buses will pick us up outside the main entrance, and take you to the party venue, Debaser,
Norra Parkgatan 2. The party is sponsored by Simplygon.

25 May 2012

09:00 Doors open at Slagthuset

10:00-17:00 Conference Day 2
Sessions will take place in the five auditoriums of Slagthuset.

17:30 Doors closing, we say bye bye, see you next year for
Nordic Game 2013, 15-17 May in Malmö!

Nordic Game is a part of the Nordic Game Program dedicated to arranging the annual Nordic Game conference in April/May. Furthermore, Nordic Game is present at some of the world’s largest industry events, such as GDC in San Francisco, Tokyo Game Show, and Gamescom in Cologne.

Register right here!

This is what you get:

A conference program filled to the brim with the best speakers from the global industry as well as our local Nordic heroes, covering the areas of

Creation
Technology
Social Marketing
Business/Financing
Transmedia
Production, in collaboration with Hansoft and IGDA

Alas a chance to participate in debates on some of the most relevant topics of today. Of course it's about creating the best games and how to do that, but it's also about how to attract funding, how to reach your audience, and how to make a business out of passion.

The Nordic premiere of Pitch & Match - a b2b system designed to create the best meeting environment for Nordic as well as international companies.

...and of course all the usual stuff: Nordic Indie Night, the Gala Dinner with Nordic Game Awards, the parties, the networking, the fun.

The Nordic Game 2012 conference is all about building; the building of games of course, but also about building your market knowledge, your skills, your network, and your company.