Stugan, the non-profit games accelerator launched by some of Sweden’s most influential video game developers and entrepreneurs, has opened its third annual summer program application process.
Some 20 aspiring game developers will be selected to spend two expenses-paid months in a traditional Swedish cabin, or “stugan” in the Swedish countryside, where they will be supported and mentored while building their games.
“The first two years of Stugan have been amazing. We are constantly shocked by the growing support from the global games community, along with all of the progress we continue to see from Stugan participants on their projects,” said Stugan manager Jana Palm. “We had always intended for Stugan to become an effective community of support for talented global games developers, but we had no idea how effective a place of inspiration this would become for the mentors and sponsors who have dedicated resources and energy towards to program.”
In addition to opening their 2017 call for applications, Stugan has announced several game launches, updates and successes coming out of their 2015 and 2016 teams:
João from the Stugan 2015 team Rosvita has moved to Sweden to launch Really Interactive with members from another Stugan 2015 team, That Brain. They are working on Toran, a holographic puzzle game in VR coming to the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
GoNNER, a game made by 2015 “Stuganeer” Ditto, was released on Steam in October 2016 and is coming to Nintendo Switch soon. GoNNER is being published by Raw Fury, a mentor team Ditto met with during his stay at Stugan. GoNNER is currently nominated for audio design in the Independent Games Festival awards.
2015 participants from Data Realms launched a version of their game Planetoid Pioneers on Steam Early Access, and have already won several awards, including “Best in Show” at Quo Vadis in Berlin. They are planning additional version launches for the game in the coming months, and have also released a significant update to their earlier title, Cortex Command.
2015 participant Clint Siu launched his mobile game _PRISM, which was part of Humble Mobile Bundle 21, nominated for “Gamer’s Voice Award” at SXSW and for “Best Upcoming Game” from IMGA, as well as featured on the App Store and Google Play.
Vignettes will be the first game from Stugan 2016 when it launches on the App Store in March. The iOS game is made by the French duo Armel Gibson and Pol Clarissou.
Induction, a game from 2015 “Stuganeer” Bryan Gale, launches via Steam on 7 February.
“Stugan was such an inspiring event and important component of our team’s overall development,” said Data Realms CEO and co-founder Dan Tabar. “It had such an impact on us that we now do our own ‘mini Stugan’ twice a year internally. We highly recommend it for any game developer, whether just starting out or looking for a jolt of inspiration.”
As in previous years, the 2017 Stugan program is driven by some of Sweden’s leading games industry professionals and developers from the likes of Mojang, Paradox, King, DICE, Resolution Games, Fast Travel Games, Snowprint Studios, Goodbye Kansas and others. Top Swedish and international games industry profiles will also hold lectures and workshops in their respective focus areas at stugan this summer.
To apply for participation in the Stugan games accelerator program, you need to record a 90-second video presenting yourself and your game idea, along with a short written description about who you are, your game and the goal you want to reach. The program is open to developers on all platforms and from anywhere in the world.
The application deadline is 31 March. To apply and for further information, visit www.stugan.com.
About Stugan
Stugan (Swedish: “the cabin”) is a non-profit annual accelerator program for aspiring game developers. Stugan leverages the expertise of the established Swedish game industry and aims to provide opportunities for shepherding up-and-coming game designers and developers through development, publishing, marketing and more to ensure a successful games launch.
Stugan is supported by individuals Oskar Burman, CEO and co-founder of Fast Travel Games and Tommy Palm, CEO and co-founder of Resolution Games.
For more information visit www.stugan.com.
