The Nordic Game Industry

In the 1980s, game fans in the far north met in basements, garages and dancehalls to demo their digital handicrafts for one another. Members of the Nordic "demo scene" used their programming and artistic skills to wring every bit of expressive power from the computing hardware of the time, and to push nascent game and animation forms to the limit. Their only reward was fame.

The demo scene spawned a number of entrepreneurs and successful Nordic game companies that compete in the global market, such as Dice and Massive Entertainment in Sweden, IO and Deadline in Denmark, Remedy in Finland, Funcom in Norway and CCP in Iceland, as well as thriving and innovative smaller companies.

Twenty years on, the heirs of the demo scene are our students. They embody the same dedication to craft, sensitivity to design, reliability and tight social networks as their parents, and their excellent English skills and high educational level allow them to move fluidly in the global world of game development.

The Nordic Game Education Network represents the educational resources and student talents of a growing number of post-secondary programming and design programs. It is our privilege to introduce our students and their work to you.

Written by Simon Niedenthal, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Communication, Malmoe University