Game Industry research at the Royal danish academy

This is the project page for Game Industry research at the Royal Danish Academy.

The first phase of the project was the Interreg Project with Game Hub 2.0 from 2020-2022, focusing on the Danish Game Industry.

In the second phase from 2023-2025, the Royal Danish Academy is a partner of the BSG-GO! project, Scaling-up Baltic Sea Game Support for a Resilient Game Industry. This initiative aims to foster a vibrant community of young game developers and entrepreneurs, equipping them with essential communication skills and driving sustainable growth within the game industry. BSG-GO! is part of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region program, co-funded by the European Union, reflecting a shared commitment to cross-border collaboration and regional development. To learn more about the project and its impact, visit the official website: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/bsg-go/.

Our contribution focuses on developing models for predicting the success of startup game companies, and on collaboration in virtual spaces.

News

August 2023: The plan to establish a Danish Games Institute is publicly announced as part of the government’s Finance Act that grants 34 million DKK over 4 years for the first games-focused institute.
June 2023: The first project report is now available for download. "Paths to Success: Data and Lessons from Danish Game Companies. Findings & Recommendations for the Danish Games Industry" by Emil Lundedal Hammar, Michael S. Debus, Jesper Juul, Alessandro Canossa. 2023.

Project timeline

Fall 2020 – Pitch to Game Hub 2.0 partners for doing follow-up research on their Interreg project Game Hub 2.0. Promised delivery of follow-up evaluation report, early prototyping of company evaluation tool, and first-ever research on the Danish games industry with emphasis on success factors.
Spring and Summer 2021 – Data collection begins with interviewing game companies in Denmark, regardless of their size. Both quantitative and qualitative data is gathered about each company, their parameters for success, as well as their own opinions and experiences on making games in Denmark and what could be improved.
Fall 2021 – A detailed and comprehensive analysis of the games that the interviewed companies have released over the years. Existing interview data is transcribed, analyzed, and segmented into a larger database more easily analyzed through probabilistic modelling. Company evaluation tool prototype finished and presented in Aalborg.
Spring 2022 – Evaluation report of Game Hub 2.0’s activities and insights is written, delivered, and presented to Game Hub 2.0 consortium in Viborg. Ongoing interviews with game companies to expand and build on the existing database. Expert interviews to assess the success criteria.
October 2022. First research publication titled ‘Predicting Success Factors of Video Game Titles and Companies’ at the ICEC 2022.
Pfau, Johannes, Michael Debus, Jesper Juul, Emil Lundedal Hammar, Alessandro Canossa, and Magy Seif El-Nasr. 2022. “Predicting Success Factors of Video Game Titles and Companies.” In Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2022, edited by Barbara Göbl, Erik van der Spek, Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge, and Rod McCall, 269–82. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_22.
Fall 2022 – The data collection from 2021 and 2022 is gathered and summarized into key insights at both qualitative and quantitative levels, as well as recommendations.
Spring 2023 – Iterations and finalization of the report on the Danish games industry, "Paths to Success: Data and Lessons from Danish Game Companies. Findings & Recommendations for the Danish Games Industry" by Emil Lundedal Hammar, Michael S. Debus, Jesper Juul, Alessandro Canossa.
June 2023 – Public release of the report on the Danish games industry. Presentation of our research findings at the Danish Ministry of Culture. Media interviews in Ingeniøren, Hardwire, and DR’s P1 radio station.
July 2023 – Second research publication titled ‘From Teams to Games: Connecting Game Development Teams and Game Experiences’ presented at HCI 2023
August 2023 – The plan to establish a Danish Games Institute is publicly announced as part of the government’s Finance Act that grants 34 million DKK over 4 years for the first games-focused institute. Media interviews in radio and newspapers using our expert assessment on this initiative.

Media coverage (Danish).

June 20, 2023: "Ny stor rapport kortlægger den danske spilindustris udfordringer: Der er brug for et spilinstitut". Hardwire.dk.
June 20, 2023: "Forsker efterlyser dansk spilinstitut: “Vi går glip af store økonomiske og kulturelle gevinster”. Hardwire.dk.
June 21, 2023: "Forskere savner et dansk spilinstitut og en vampyrmassegrav", DR Radio.
August 29, 2023: "Millioner skal sætte Danmark på spillekortet: Der er et kæmpe potentiale, siger ekspert". TV2 News.
August 29, 2023. "Regeringen vil oprette nyt spilinstitut". DR Radio.

Current Project Staff

Alessandro Canossa, Associate Professor, Royal Danish Academy. acan@kglakademi.dk
Jesper Juul, Associate Professor, Royal Danish Academy. j@jesperjuul.net
Emil Lundedal Hammar, Postdoc., Royal Danish Academy. eham@kglakademi.dk

Collaborators

Magy Seif El-Nasr, Professor, University of Santa Cruz.
Johannes Pfau, Postdoc, University of Santa Cruz.

Past staff

Michael S. Debus, research assistant.