Student Trip Around the Cold North - Day 1

Last week everyone on my master’s (including me of course!) spent three days on a bus cruise throughout Denmark. We visited companies employing UI designers, UX folk, creative directors, game designers, project managers and others. Specifically, we heard talks from employees from each of these diverse fields. The talkees all had one thing in common: They either came from my master’s or a closely related one.

Creative commons picture not actually of Denmark. But it fit the title and story!

The companies weren’t smalltime. At first, I knew only some of the names. During the trip, I however realised, that their products and services were very well known. Monday through Thursday we went to tons of companies. Today I’ll go through Monday mostly.

On the first day my favorite talk was from Bedtime Digital Games. It is no secret that I enjoy video games and perhaps you know, that I aim to one day work as a game designer... If all goes well! I lucked out, because five of the companies were directly involved with game development - four of them exclusively.

Back to Bedtime. You may know them from Back to Bed (the pun was very much intended). The speaker, CEO Klaus Pedersen, spoke about how he worked in practice. Originally, he studied what now study. As noted, that was a common theme. From earlier talks throughout the day (there were many), I had gathered another theme. Many speakers talked on the theory of their studies, and how felt they did not really use what they had learned. Then they went on to talk about how they worked in practice, and it clearly showed that they do things pretty much either exactly how we are taught to do them or close to.

I think one reason for the speakers not realising that, is that my master is quite broad. Many of the things seem “obvious” when first we learn them. But when I think back, I quickly realise, that the things I have learned were not all obvious to me, before I learned them. Only afterwards they seem so. As an aside, that is an important lesson, I think, especially if you are teaching others.

Rant aside, Bedtime Digital Games also talked about their game Figment. The most interesting part of the talk was definitely how Bedtime Digital Games now focused on market outside of Europe and US. He talked about how China is massive when it comes to gamers. Perhaps the biggest population of gamers in the world not just in pure numbers but also in regards to percentage of the population. If I understood correctly, there are apparently many more gamers per capita that in the US for example.

He talked about the problems of localization and getting a game released in China at all. It is no small feat, as you have to rely on hiring outside help and publishers seated in the country. You are not allowed to be the publisher yourself in China, if you don’t live there - as far as I understand.

I will probably continue this story another day. Stay tuned and stay hydrated! :D