A Blast after a moment of silence

I know, this blog has been quite dead for some time now. The thing is that I have been very busy with both my work and dissertation (at times it seems I have two jobs, almost) and at the same time I have been having some problems that I’ve had no previous experience with (learning is very tough at personal level at this age). But, a major change is coming: From the beginning of August I will be no longer working in the Agora Game Lab. I will be also moving to Helsinki.

Partially, it is still a shock for me too, the way (and the speed) that this thing has turned out. One period of my life (living in Jyväskylä) will be over, another will start. I’d like to thank all my colleagues, partners from other organizations and students I’ve had the privilege to supervise. Unfortunately it’s time to move on.

GD Event Recap

There was a game design event at our university last weekend as I mentioned before the holidays. For me, the event was a huge success. The main function of the event was give a forum to game designers to present their games, get feedback and be able to playtest the games. This function was fulfilled very well. Many thanks to the main organizers, Arto and Antti and also to everyone who participated.

My experiences of the event was as follows:

• the size of the crowd (about 20) was pretty optimal for a first-time event where there were no routines or set ways
• the mix of role-playing game, board game and computer game people was very good and people were in the most part able to benefit from the mix of genres
• the attendees really made the event the success it was: they provided quality feedback, discussion etc.
• the games that were presented were very interesting: I can envision myself playing most of them again with pleasure

Game Design Event @ JYU

Arto Koistinen and Antti Luukkonen, in co-operation with our Agora Game Lab and majatalo.org will organize a game design event in Jyväskylä on January 12nd and 13th. You can sign up to the organizers to present your own game concept or prototype. Wonderful opportunity to get that much needed feedback on your designs. Or you can come to see what others have come up with and test the games. The event is for board games, digital games, roleplaying games etc., so pretty much anything goes. Here’s the official announcement (In Finnish only).

Vocational edugames project in Jkl, Finland

Got this from the University website. The Jyväskylä Vocational Institute in co-operation with the Institute of Educational Research of our university and Korento Oy have been developing 3D games for vocational education for over a year now. They launched their first game, SECURE, last spring and the second one, VOLTAGE, is due this fall. SECURE is about work security in construction sites and VOLTAGE is about small house electricity. There are demonstration videos of the games on the project web site. The project ends next spring.