Projects - Finished

Qvarken Game Lab

One of the biggest challenges in establishing the gaming industry in peripheral areas lies within the startup scene, working in a regional context where there is limited experience and few financiers. By establishing the cross-border competence center Qvarken Game Lab, this gap in the Botnia-Atlantica program area is compensated for.

The project’s focus is on gathering, refining, and advancing knowledge about the gaming industry to strengthen the gaming sector both cross-border and locally. The ambition of this intensive implementation project is for the initiative to develop and establish itself during the project period and then continue to grow independently after the project’s conclusion.

The project’s activities involve coordinating actors in a cross-border competence center for game development to gather education, research, and industry resources to collectively enhance innovation in the gaming industry and its interaction with other sectors and the surrounding society. This is achieved by creating meeting places for creative workshops, working on market-oriented gaming innovations with a focus on concrete results, strategically addressing gender equality issues in the gaming industry, and promoting collaboration between the gaming sector and other industries.

The overall goal and purpose of the project is to stimulate the establishment of a sustainable environment for game development and related activities through collaboration and interaction among project partners within the Botnia-Atlantica region’s innovation system. This is accomplished through various processes:


Establish Qvarken Game Lab

The goal of the competence center Qvarken Game Labs is to foster growth among gaming companies in the regions within the Botnia-Atlantica program area where the industry is currently lacking. This is achieved by networking, enhancing innovation and competitiveness through mentorship and expert knowledge, organizing creative spaces like game jams and hackathons, and working with venture capital to facilitate potential investments.

Research & Education

Qvarken Game Lab aims to strengthen and tailor the education available in the program area to better align with the gaming industry’s needs. This is accomplished through discussions between educational providers and the industry in coordinating the competence center. Relevant research and education are enhanced through collaboration with the competence center to elevate innovation and competitiveness.

This is facilitated through access to the User Experience Laboratory (Experience Lab), where gaming entities gain access to UX design expertise, research-based design methods, as well as equipment and techniques for testing the usability and user experience of their products. This occurs at various stages of development concerning the target audience.

Gender Equality & Inclusion

Qvarken Game Lab advocates for increased gender equality within the gaming industry. Since women are significantly underrepresented in gaming companies, the competence center strategically engages in initiatives to change attitudes and practices related to gender equality within the gaming sector. The focus is on leveraging the innovators, experts, and inspirers present in the regions.

Upon the conclusion of the project in June 2022, the competence center has developed or initiated the following processes:

  • Conducted a pilot initiative connecting a network of actors within the gaming industry, identifying effective methods and processes to enhance the gaming industry’s innovation capacity in the Botnia-Atlantica program area.
  • Strengthened the readiness of innovation system actors to contribute research and expertise to the competence center and to evolve collaboratively.
  • Ensured that gender equality, diversity, and accessibility permeate all parts of the project, contributing to a stronger competence center.

Experience Lab contributes by bringing expertise in user-centered design and research-based knowledge and methods in game development. Moreover, it connects to the growing research in gaming at the university and the networks associated with it.

games and learning Projects - Finished

Games and Learning – a research based network

While digital games have gained some research interest, there remains untapped potential in terms of learning and education. We see a need to explore research on games to support teacher education in terms of learning in and for the future. The constant development of digital games results in a rapidly shifting environment where all actors are needed to facilitate a research-based understanding of games and learning. 

Through this project, we endeavour to create possibilities for networking and collaboration between relevant actors on a regional, national and international level. 

We aim to strengthen the field of games and learning at the Faculty of Education and Welfare studies at ÅAU through collaboration. We identify research gaps and the needs from those working in the field, strengthen networks as well as design the pilot phase of this research project.  

We also aim to create ecosystems with relevant actors – researchers, teachers/schools/organisations and game developers. Through this project we combine the competence on games and learning as well as other relevant areas at the Faculty of Education and Welfare studies; Experience Lab, Matilda Ståhl’s research as well as other game-oriented research endeavours (e.g., Tandem på spel and Redit).  

The project has two phases: 1) the networking and piloting phase and 2) the implementation phase. Likewise, the project has two main areas – research as well as networking and collaboration, which in turn creates a supportive and engaging environment for developing new ideas.  Through creating a network based is Ostrobothnia with national and international collaborations and networks, we strengthen the research environment and the teacher education at the faculty. Further, as part of the project, we have together with Dr Mariana Rocha (Dublin Technological University) established “Games and Learning – an International Junior Researchers Network”, see more information below. 

Our short-term goal is to create a platform for research on games and learning. In terms of long-term goals, we aim to support the creation of international research projects where the results are employed in teacher education and the educational field at large.  

Research coordinator: Matilda Ståhl, matilda.stahl@abo.fi 

Project manager: Yvonne Backholm-Nyberg, yvonne.backholm@abo.fi  

Project team: Matilda Ståhl, Yvonne Backholm-Nyberg och Joachim Majors
 

Games and Learning – an International Junior Researchers Network 

The network currently consists of around ten members from six different countries, including fresh PhD-students to post-doctoral researchers. We have monthly online seminars where we present current projects and so far, we have looked at drafts for papers, posters as well as games in progress.  

If this sounds like an interesting network you would like to be part of, we are happy to announce that we are accepting new members! However, to be able to maintain a level of trust and constructive criticism during these seminars, we wish to keep the network on the smaller side with active members. Therefore, we ask anyone interested in joining our network to contact either Matilda Ståhl or Mariana Rocha by email (see information below), give a short presentation of yourself and why you would like to be included in the network! 

Matilda Ståhl, Åbo Akademi University 
matilda.stahl@abo.fi 

Mariana Rocha, Dublin Technological University
Mariana.Rocha@TUDublin.ie