Program📅

Thursday

🎤: Auditorium
🔊: Conference room

11:00 🚪 Check-in opens

11:30 - 12:30 🧊 Icebreaker session

12:00 - 13:00 🍔 Lunch

13:00 - 14:00 🎤 Prototyping with Unity Muse

14:00 - 15:00 🎤 My journey from Graphic Design to Game Art
14:00 - 15:00 🔊 Gameplay and Narrative in the Missions of HITMAN:
World of Assassination

15:00 - 16:00 🎤 Game Design for non-humans
15:00 - 16:00 🧊 Icebreaker session

16:00 - 17:00 🎤 The role of trust in AI Design
16:00 - 17:00 🔊 Rise of the Game Dev

17:00 - 18:00 🎤 Everything I’ve ever documented
17:00 - 18:00 🔊 Math for Game Programmers

18:00 - 23:30 🎉 Pre-party!

Friday

🎤: Auditorium
🔊: Conference room

10:00 🚪 Check-in opens

11:00 - 12:00 🎤 How to think like a Tech Artist
11:00 - 12:00 🔊 Neurodiversity and games

12:00 - 13:00 🍔 Lunch

13:00 - 14:00 🎤 Terrible together - Making group activity games
13:00 - 14:00 🧊 Icebreaker session

14:00 - 15:00 🎤 Passepartout’s marketing case study
14:00 - 15:00 🔊 Change the Game - using fair working conditions

15:00 - 16:00 🎤 Lessons from an impatient developer
15:00 - 16:00 😝 Group Forming 1

16:00 - 17:00 🎤 Approaching Sounds for Games
16:00 - 17:00 🔊 Designing Void Crew

17:15 - 17:45 🌟 Keynote

17:45 - 18:15 🌟 Theme announcement

18:15 - 19:00 😝 Group Forming 2

19:30 - 21:00 🥘 Dinner

Saturday

08:00 - 10:00 🥐 Breakfast

11:30 - 13:30 🍔 Lunch

14:00 - 17:00 📂 Portfolio Review

19:00 - 21:00 🥘 Dinner

Sunday

08:00 - 10:00 🥐 Breakfast

11:30 - 13:30 🍔 Lunch

- - -15:00 - - - ⏳ Deadline

15:30 - 17:30 🎮 Play Games!

17:30 - 18:00 🌟 Final words & Goodbye

✨Speakers

👉 Click on the talk titles to see descriptions 👈

MARK BROWN

Game Maker’s Toolkit
Video Game Journalist and Critic

  • Friday 17:15-17:45, Canteen

    Description
    More info to come :-)

    Biography
    Mark Brown is a video game journalist and critic. He is the creator of Game Maker’s Toolkit: an award-winning YouTube series about game design and development, with over 150 million views. Mark is also a professional design consultant, gives guest lectures around the world to universities and game development studios, and has run seven successful game jams. He has contributed to publications like EDGE Magazine, Wired, and Polygon.

DANIEL WINDFELD

Hutlihut Games
Creative Director

  • Friday 16:00-17:00, Conference Room

    Description
    An idea's journey to becoming an Early Access title begins with inspiration, possibly from events like the Nordic Game Jam, where networking fosters creativity. The concept then matures from idea into a prototype, and from prototype into an Early Access title. Launching in Early Access, the game benefits from community input and developers enhancing its development... all leading back to that ... ehm ... a Grappling Hook?


    Biography
    Daniel has 20+ years experience in the games industry in companies such as IO Interactive (Freedom Fighters, Hitman) and Eidos Montreal (Thief, Deus Ex)

KATHRIN JEDRYS

Tactile Games
Art Director

  • Thursday 14:00-15:00, Auditorium

    Description
    This talk explores how to adapt and grow as a graphic designer within the mobile game industry. Kathrin will present some of the learnings she has gathered through working with different departments at Tactile. Using examples from her former work on the 'Lily's Garden' game, she will share tips and tricks for designing good graphics and UI for games.

    Biography
    Kathrin is a Graphic Designer, UI Artist, and now Art Director at Tactile Games. With four years of experience, she has worked in both Creative Marketing and Game Production, primarily designing, creating, and implementing graphics for new features for 'Lily's Garden' game, and most recently, our newest game project. She loves the challenge of communicating, prototyping, and refining visually strong designs for mobile games with her team.

ANDREA JÖRGENSEN

Iron Gate
Tech Artist

  • Friday 11:00-12:00, Auditorium

    Description
    This bite-sized talk will teach you to stop seeing textures and models as simply images and shapes - instead, you'll learn to see them simply as data to be molded and used in whatever way you please, to lead you down the path to more interesting and useful effects. The talk is aimed mainly at students and beginners, but will be useful for anyone who wants a peek into the world of tech art.

    Biography
    3D artist with a lot of experience.

    Andrea is a tech artist and generalist with 14 years of industry experience - she's worked on titles like The Stanley Parable and What the Golf, and is currently doing VFX, programming, design, and more on Valheim

BRIAN BARTRAM

Massive Entertainment -
a Ubisoft Studio
Lead Game Designer

  • Friday 11:00-12:00, Conference Room

    Description

    This talk stems from Brian's experience as the developer of a training tool for HR and Managers to learn about the challenges that neurodiverse people experience in the workplace. It will cover how neurodiversity can be presented in narratives and game mechanics, with examples showing the progression of neurodiverse representation in games. The talk will also highlight opportunities to continue pushing for accurate and considerate representation of neurodiversity. Attendees will leave with tools, examples, and inspiration for how they can be part of a better future for neurodiverse people through the stories and experiences we create.

    Biography

    Brian is a seasoned AAA game designer with a background in volunteering in the areas where games can make an impact: previously teaching game design to at-risk youth in Los Angeles and San Francisco and now volunteering with the Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group at Ubisoft.

HELENA SOKOL

Flashbulb Games
Producer

  • Thursday 17:00-18:00, Auditorium

    Description
    Documentation is subjective, exciting, overwhelming, and sometimes, becomes irrelevant in the blink of an eye. In this talk, Helena will go through some of the documentation processes she has used as a producer, which will hopefully help others create a solid foundation for complex game productions during the Jam and in the future.


    Biography
    Currently a full-time Producer at Flashbulb with more than 10 years of experience and a passion for creative productions. With a background in art management, Helena pivoted interests during university, wrote her Master's thesis on the Danish game industry, and founded the Danish Game Producers' Network in 2023. Otherwise, just a regular 31-year-old woman with a keen interest in art, techno, weird games, stoneware ceramics, and books. 

HANNA WIRMAN

IT University of Copenhagen
Associate Professor and Head of Study Program

  • Thursday 15:00-16:00, Auditorium

    Description
     In this talk, I return to my decade-old research with Bornean orangutans that aimed at understanding non-human play alongside human play. There is a lot to learn from designing digital play for another species. Intriguingly, it exposes our hidden assumptions about the player. I believe that inclusive and even universal design needs an entirely different attitude towards the user - the player. Such an approach invites us to unlearn conventional solutions and widespread industry practices.


    Biography
    Hanna Wirman is an Associate Professor and the head of the 'MSc in Games' study programme at the Center for Digital Play at the IT University of Copenhagen. Hanna has studied and made games for more than 20 years and currently serves as the President of the international professional organisation for games researchers, DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association). Hanna started Global Game Jam in Hong Kong and lead it for 6 years before moving to Denmark in 2019. Hanna studies play and players, design and designers, and has a long-standing interest in gender and fan productivity.

CHRIS CARVELLI

Programmer and Game developer

  • Thursday 17:00-18:00, Conference Room

    Description
    In this talk we will look at a few cool tricks that will help you reach the “juice” that everyone is talking about. From numeric springs to cool camera tricks, it will provide you with all you need to implement them into your game this weekend. The talk is engine and language agnostic; and it should be accessible to anyone, no matter their math knowledge.

    Biography
    Chris is a programmer and game developer with a passion for making relaxing and meaningful games. In between coffee cups, books and treks he can be found wrestling with engines and building gamedev tools. These days he is lead programmer on a secret project, as well as a Game Programming teacher at the IT University of Copenhagen.

MIRZA CIRKINAGIC

PROSA
Union Secretary

  • Friday 14:00-15:00, Conference room

    Description
    Mirza takes us on a journey to look at what a possible future might be like for the games development industry. Let's stop waiting for existing game studios to change their ways and instead endeavor to be the change that we want to see.

    This presentation could be your inspiration for when you start your own game studio!


    Biography
    A 40-year-old lifelong gamer who is passionate about worker's rights. Since joining PROSA he has helped establish gameworkers.dk and placed the games development industry as a key area of focus at PROSA. His plan for the future is better working conditions for the games development industry.

LIZ POMEROY

Unity
Gen AI/ML Design Lead

  • Thursday 16:00-17:00, Auditorium

    Description
    Content design is an important part of any user experience, and accuracy is a keystone in building trust and establishing credibility with users. In this talk, Liz will discuss the challenges around designing an experience in which AI hallucinations prevent total control of content design, ways to keep users at the center of the focus, and why fair and representative AI matters.

    Biography
    Liz works Unity Copenhagen and leads design for Muse Chat, Unity's AI-generated natural language chatbot that helps creators solve challenging problems and generate code. Originally from Chicago, Liz's design journey has spanned nearly 15 years, serving different industries and customers. Her focus on gaining user trust has been the centerpiece to her methodology.

BENJAMIN MA

The LEGO Group
Master Play Inventor

  • Friday 15:00-16:00, Auditorium

    Description
    Want to make something fun, but you don’t want to spend a lot of time? Benjamin will be speed-running through some of his go-to methods for creating games and digital prototypes, so you can find your project’s direction and quickly get started creating a game that will delight players! It’s relevant to all, as he will be sharing tips on everything from coding, game design, sound design to project management and much more.

    Biography
    As Master Play Inventor at The LEGO Group, has created physical and digital prototypes for 9 years, but has always been a lover of game jams.

BRIAN SCHWAB

The LEGO Group
Director of Interaction Design

  • Thursday 16:00-17:00, Conference Room

    Description

    In this talk, we will discuss how the skillset and mindset for game developers has changed over the years. From the early years of engineering driven decisions to the design heavy cross platform years, to data driven mobile pay to play. Then, we will touch upon the future of game devs, as we head into the worlds of immersive experience, in our reality or others.

    It's an exciting time to be a game developer, as the very nature of how humans use computers has started to become more and more game like at a low level.

    Biography

    Brian is onto his third career involving play: 25ish years in video games, experiential researcher within XR madness, now helping LEGO find its future.

    “I believe in creativity, agency and the power of play to make us better. I also believe that iteration is our only weapon against the machines.”

KATE COMPTON

The LEGO Group
Play Invention (Digital) Lead

  • Friday 13:00-14:00, Auditorium

    Description
    We often celebrate virtuosic creativity: grand composers or great artists. But so much of human creative activity is about the process of creation, not the product. We make terrible things for fun, to learn, as therapy, but especially as a social activity. Everyone knows that karaoke isn't about sounding good - it's about sounding terrible together. The same goes for being bad at pictionary, Jackbox games, dancing or improv!

    This jam, let’s think about how silly goofy playful creativity helps us feel good and bond together, and how we can build a strange little space for our friends to be terribly creative together.


    Biography
    Dr. Kate Compton (galaxykate) is a generative artist, inventor, programmer and works at LEGO. She generated planets for Spore, made Tracery which ran 200,00 community-made bots on Twitter and invented the first phone-based AR. Her mission is to bring small playful forms of AI to poets, artists, kids and weirdos.

MARTINA JOHANNESSON

Unity
Product Leader in AI/ML

  • Thursday 13:00-14:00, Auditorium

    Description
    Join Martina Johannesson to learn more about how to prototype using Unity Muse, an expansive platform for Al-driven assistance during creation, and Unity Sentis, which allows you to embed neural networks in your builds to enable previously unimaginable real-time experiences. Whether you're just getting started or already a Unity expert, Muse, and Sentis are here to help you open up new avenues of creativity and innovation.

    Biography
    With a background in innovation, entrepreneurship, and product management, Martina is a leader in the practical application of AI. Equipped with a master’s in digital business, she possesses expertise in AI, cybersecurity, and legislation. Currently working as a senior technical product manager for AI at Unity, Martina propels cutting-edge advancements that also align with her values of fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition to her work at Unity, Martina is passionate about social impact and uses her skills and network to help address societal issues.

TOKE KRAINERT

IO Interactive
Lead Technical Level Designer

  • Thursday 14:00-15:00, Conference Room

    Description
    TBA

    Biography
    TBA

TOMOKO MIYA

Flamebait Games
Marketing/ Biz dev

  • Friday 14:00-15:00, Auditorium

    Description
    In this talk, Miya will talk about how to set marketing goals in the context of an indie game studio and with an eye to international markets, using Flamebait Games' cute drawing artist adventure game, "Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist" as the main case study.

    Biography
    With 16 years of experience in digital marketing experience, last 7 years working in the games industry. She worked on Flamebait Games' Passpartout series, which sold over 1 million units worldwide and successfully launched the second sequel. Also actively supports to bring Western games into the Asian market. She loves games and cats.

Game Audio Denmark

MARC HASSELBALCH

KATRINE AMSLER

THEA RENDLEV HUNDEBØL

  • Friday 16:00-17:00, Auditorium

    Description
    3 sound designers will each showcase one example of how they're working with sounds. It’ll be short and juicy, and you’ll get some fresh inspiration to elevate your own approach to sound design and recording for your next game project. Don’t miss this opportunity to get behind the scenes of audio professionals.

    Biography
    Thea R. Hundebøl is an audio designer at Crytek, where she shapes the auditory world of the dystopian FPS game “Hunt: Showdown”.

    Katrine Amsler is an audio designer currently working for IO Interactive on the 007 project. Since 2015 she has contributed as a sound artist for game-composer Martin Stig Andersen on games like Wolfenstein, Control and Back4Blood.

    Marc Hasselbalch is a sound artist and freelance sound designer, working towards the exploratory and expressive corners of sound design.