Stugan doubles down on diversity; Attracts new sponsors including David Helgason (Unity founder), Susana Meza Graham (Paradox Interactive COO), Patric Palm (Favro CEO) and others.
Stockholm, Sweden – 23 May 2018 – Stugan, the games accelerator created by Swedish games industry veterans, has today revealed the participants for their 2018 program. This marks the fourth year the nonprofit has brought together notable games industry mentors and indie developers from across the globe to a cabin in the Swedish wilderness for two months of game making magic. 21 developers have been accepted into the expenses-paid program where they will be mentored in all core industry skills ranging from design and publishing to marketing.
Participants will be arriving from 11 countries including U.S.A., Canada, U.K., Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ghana, Australia and New Zealand. The participant’s games touch on a range of platforms, mechanics, and artistic styles and include everything from an underwater adventure game, a folklore-inspired exploration puzzler, and a creature-building neuroscience game created by a neurobiologist and self-taught game developer. To see more on this year’s participants and their game concepts follow this link. You can also see a highlights trailer with all the team’s games here.
“We are so happy that 2018 marks our most diverse set of applicants yet. We had another record-breaking year of submissions and our final participants are nearly half female and from all walks of life around the globe. This is a great sign for the widespread growth of inclusiveness coming to the industry,” said Stugan manager Jana Palm. “We’re also excited to be welcomed back to the incredible location in Falun, Sweden and to have so many local organizations and individuals helping us to continue providing this platform for up and coming game developers.”
2018 program sponsors include new and past contributors including David Helgason, Unity founder; Susana Meza Graham, COO of Paradox Interactive; Patric Palm CEO and co-founder of Favro CEO; Lars Wingefors, co-founder and group CEO of THQ Nordic; Karl Magnus Troedsson; Mattias Miksche; Chris James; Per Strömbäck; Mikael Emtinger; Matti Larsson; Magnus Björkman; Tommy Palm, Oskar Burman and others. This year’s participating sponsor companies include GameFounders, Coffee Stain Studios, Resolution Games and more.
Stugan also announced that the organization has recently been nominated for the Swedish government’s award for cultural and creative industries, which is a highly prominent accolade being awarded by Trade Minister Ann Linde for the first time this year. The winner will be announced on May 24, 2018.
Stugan’s 2018 games accelerator program will run from June 25 until August 11 and will provide support, skills development, and a sense of community to its 21 participants over those weeks and beyond. For more information and to follow the progress of this year’s program, visit stugan.com or follow Stugan on Facebook and Twitter.
About Stugan
Stugan is a non-profit organization that organizes the annual accelerator program for aspiring game developers. The word Stugan means “the cabin” in Swedish and is also a throwback to the name of the first Swedish commercial computer game made in 1978. 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 for ensuring a successful game’s launch. Stugan is made possible by individuals including Oskar Burman (CEO and co-founder of Fast Travel Games), Tommy Palm (CEO and co-founder of Resolution Games) and many more. For more information visit this page. Facebook and Twitter.