Qvarken Game Industry - project has ended

Are you ready to challenge your game development company? We are offering an exciting opportunity to make your dreams a reality with our one-year Accelerator Program during 2018 and 2019.

Benefit from unique access to games industry experts in our Masterclasses, who will share their knowledge and experience. Extend your business network through close collaboration with other participants, and attending high-profile events.

Level up together with other game companies and startups in the Westrobothnia and Ostrobothnia region. Register your interest below, and we’ll help you bring your ideas to life.

The Accelerator Program is completely free of charge – and we’ll even pay up to 50% of tickets, travel and accommodation costs. Contact us for more information.

Accelerator Process 2019

SESSION #1

You know your game has great appeal, but making money takes more than just a good idea. There are many tricky decisions to be made when planning how to get revenue from your game. Is it self-published or released through a publisher? Will your game be free-to-play, ads-based or premium? Do you want to use the games as a service approach, where earnings can come from subscriptions or purely from optional DLC? The monetization session will guide you through this process, and give you tips and tricks from experts who have successfully tested different kinds of monetization strategies for both mobile and PC/Consoles.

• 28.2 - 1.3 Kickoff in Skellefteå

  • Introduction to Monetization by Game Industry Expert Eugen Sudak

• 29.5 - 1.6 Masterclasses in Skellefteå

  • 29.5 Arctic Game Conference

  • 30.5 Full day Masterclass in Monetization with Game Industry Expert Alexandre Macmillan

  • 31.5 Full day Masterclass in Monetization with Game Industry Experts Nickole Li and Domenico La Porta

  • 1.6 Nordsken event (Nordsken is also open 30.5 and 31.5)

SESSION #2

Your game has been released, but now is not the time to sit back and relax! There is a lot of hard work to be done after a game release as well. This session will guide you through the steps to making your game a success, from pitching, marketing, store optimization and intellectual property rights, to post-release actions such as planning for bug fixing, updates/DLC and maintaining your online community. You will also travel with us to Gamescom. Here you will have the opportunity to pitch your game to real investors and publishers, and extend your network even further.

• 20.8 - 24.8 Gamescom event coordinated by Game Industry Expert Michael Stenmark together with Dan Thronström, Henrik Jonsson and Stefan Lampinen.

  • Go-to-market

  • Networking

  • Publishers / investors

SESSION #3

How can you know if your game is going to sell?

For a game title to be a success, it needs to be relevant to players. For this reason, it is crucial for game developers to identify their target customers and understand what they want. This part of the program is called “customer-centric product development”, and it will introduce you to many approaches to help you involve your customers early in the development process. There will also be the opportunity to attend masterclasses at the QvarkCon event,

• November Masterclasses in Jakobstad/Pietarsaari

  • 7th of November - Half day Masterclass in Gender equality in games with Game Industry Expert Linn-Marie Edlund

  • 7th of November - Half day Masterclass in User Experience with Game Industry Expert Jasmin Dahncke

  • 8th of November - Full day Masterclass in User Experience / Narrative with Game Industry Expert Gregory Louden

  • QvarkCon event 7-9 of November

Check our successful Accelerator Program for 2018

Session #1

Kickoff in Skellefteå, Westrobothnia, Sweden (1–2 March 2018)

• Inspirational talk by Tobias Andersson from Turborilla

• Meet all the other game companies attending the program

• Workshop with Mattias Wiking - Making a game players want

Customer-centric product development (March – April 2018)

• Testing an idea on users / play test

• Community building

• Soft launch / early access

• Mattias Wiking guided all attending companies through the process (assignments and workshops)

Nordsken (9 – 12 May 2018)

• Arctic Game Conference

• Masterclasses in User Experience with game industry experts:

  • Åsa Roos, Principal UX Designer, Bioware, Edmonton Canada

  • David Dahlström, former Senior UX Designer at Rovio

• Introduction to Monetization with game industry expert:

  • Eugen Sudak, 15+ years of experience in Metagame systems, in-game economy and full monetization cycle (Wargaming).

Session #2

Monetization (June - August 2018)

• Working with a publisher vs. self publishing

• Monetization strategies for mobile

• Monetization strategies for PC & console

• Eugen Sudak guided the companies through the process (assignments and workshops)

Event in Jakobstad/Pietarsaari, Ostrobothnia, Finland (27-29 September 2018)

• Qvarkcon event in Campus Allegro

• Masterclasses with game industry experts:

  • Eugen Sudak, 15+ years of experience in Metagame systems, in-game economy and full monetization cycle (Wargaming).

  • Tom Kinniburgh, Director at Mobile Free to Play

Session #3

Go-to-market (October - November 2018)

• Legal aspects of releasing a game

• Marketing

• Pitching your game

• Game industry veteran Stefan Lampinen - Game Advisor, guided the companies through the go-to-market process

Slush (November 2018)

• Networking & pitching

• Talk to publishers and investors

• Coordinated by game industry veteran Stefan Lampinen - Game Advisor.

Contact Us

Tobias Björkskog

Project Manager
Novia University of Applied Sciences
Jakobstad/Pietarsaari
tobias.bjorkskog (at) novia.fi
+358 44 780 5883