Gotland Game Conference

Gotland Game Conference (GGC), previously known as the Gotland Game Awards, is an international conference, game exhibition and -competition for students. The event is held annually and marks the end of the academic year for the students at the Department of Game Design at Campus Gotland, Uppsala University. Here they can showcase everything that they have learned during the year to a jury consisting of professionals from the game development industry, the gaming press and academia.

History
The Department of Game Design on Gotland, Visby, has hosted a public event for displaying student projects since at least 2002. The event found a stable structure and was branded "Gotland Game Awards" in 2006 and re-branded "Gotland Game Conference" in 2011,  when a presentation track was added and the event opened to public participation. In 2017 the GGC added an international summit for game educators — with the intention of annually gathering game educations from across the world to collaborate and share experiences.


 * Theme Park / Revive 2002
 * Public exhibition 2004
 * Gotland Game Convention 2006
 * Gotland Game Awards 2007
 * Gotland Game Awards 2008
 * Gotland Game Awards 2009
 * Gotland Game Awards 2010
 * Gotland Game Conference 2011
 * Gotland Game Conference 2012
 * Gotland Game Conference 2013
 * Gotland Game Conference 2014
 * Gotland Game Conference 2015
 * Gotland Game Conference 2016
 * Gotland Game Conference 2017 + Game Educators Summit
 * Gotland Game Conference 2018 + Game Educators Summit
 * Gotland Game Conference 2019 + Game Educators Summit
 * Gotland Game Conference 2020 + Game Educators Summit (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

The event
The event can be seen as consisting of four separate parts (spanning over multiple days);


 * Public presentation of student projects to an international jury of developers, designers, academics, journalists etc.
 * Followed by The Gotland Game Conference + showfloor, where all student games are made available to the jury and general audience.
 * The conference + show floor is roughly modeled after the Game Developers Conference, but features only a single track of lectures.
 * The Award Ceremony
 * The GGC Party where students, jury and faculty celebrate their work and end of the school year.

Game Awards
The Department of Game Design maintains a public database of all games and students that have been awarded at the Gotland Game Conference. It is not uncommon for students recognized at the GGC to go on and win other national- and international awards.

Game Awards (2018–)

 * Best Presentation: Take My Shift
 * Best Arcade Experience: Coal Rush
 * Student Choice: Momentum Drift
 * Alumni of the Year: Max Tiilikainen
 * The Social Game Award: Twined
 * Public Choice: Bench Warmers, Neon Nemesis (tie)
 * The Almedalen Library Award: Symbio
 * The Innovation Award: Nova Factor
 * The Woke Award: Re Leap
 * Expression in Game Design: Momentum Drift
 * Jury Spotlight: Bolt and Bobby
 * Jury Spotlight: Symbio