Borderless Game Academy
A project financed by Interreg Aurora
Visual Magic Education AB is now, together with Novia University of Applied Science, a proud part of the two-year Interreg Aurora project Borderless Game Academy. This cross-border cooperation project will help us form a tighter bound between the Finnish and Swedish education systems and provide better courses and an extended work network for our students.
The game development industry is blossoming at an exhilarating pace, particularly in the Interreg Aurora programme area, offering opportunities for job-seekers. Recognizing the rising demand for top-notch game related education to sustain this progress, Novia UAS and Visual Magic Education are pioneering a transformative venture. This collaboration aims to bridge the educational gap by introducing an innovative cross-border higher education curriculum, synergizing Swedish and Finnish expertise in both game development and creative industry entrepreneurship.
Our vision is to champion an inspiring educational environment within the programme area, eliminating the need for students to seek higher education elsewhere. This initiative is geared not only towards refining the skills of the students but also towards enriching the local community by retaining talent and avoiding brain drain in the northern parts of Finland and Sweden.
The project unfolds through four pivotal phases:
- Designing a cohesive transnational curriculum.
- Fostering robust cross-border alliances among educational entities.
- Encouraging collaborative efforts between game dev students across borders.
- Instilling a sustainable mindset within both game dev education organisations and the student body.
The outcomes are envisioned to be a harmonised cross-border games education template, a thriving network for students and educators across borders, and a blueprint for subsequent cross-border educational endeavours.
By facilitating these connections and sharing knowledge, our ultimate ambition is to amplify the number of individuals with higher education within the area and be a catalyst for the sustainable ascendancy of the game development sector.
PROJECT UPDATES AND RESULTS
Project Shroud: Game project with Khaeer Khan
Project event: Crossborder education game project
Date: May 5th to August 29th 2025.
Sites: Skellefteå (Sweden), Jakobstad and Vasa (Finland)
Part of a project course for Visual Magic for the students with a game interest collaborated with phd student Khaeer Khan who managed the Finnish side of Volunteer game developer students.
The Visual Magic students worked for 4 weeks on the projects while working alongside the Finnish volunteers. Novia was in charge of UI, programming and sound.
Final seminar at Creative Connect
Project event: Crossborder education gameproject
Date: 28 May 2025. 09.00-09.30
Sites: Skellefteå (Sweden), Sara kulturhus or through web.
We are approaching the conclusion of the Interreg Aurora project Borderless Game Academy, where Visual Magic Education AB and Novia University of Applied Sciences have collaborated to develop a cross-border higher education program in game development and entrepreneurship. We hosted a final seminar, where we presented the project’s highlights and the path forward.
During Creative Connect, teachers and students had the chance to meet the industry and learn from industry experts. An open house was organized on campus with the purpose to let students meet the industry and show their productions.
Greatest Mistake – Novia Music video
Project event: Crossborder education gameproject
Date: 25 Feb 2025 to 14th of March 2025.
Sites: Skellefteå (Sweden), Jakobstad (Finland)
Part of a project course for Visual Magic for the students with a movie interest collaborated with singer and songwriter Rami Klemts and his band Night After, who is music student at Novia UAS. The song and additional ideation and moodboard was created at Novia for further production at Visual Magic.
The Visual Magic students worked for 3 weeks on the projects while working alongside the Finnish lead singer in order to create a music video for their latest song.
Project event: GLOBAL GAME JAM 2025
Date: 24-26 January 2025
Sites: Jörn (Sweden), Jakobstad and Vasa (Finland)
Three days of building games with old and new friends from the games industry.
We hosted the Global Game Jam at three sites. Before and during the event we had communication through our discord channel and during continuously during the event we also hosted meetings to discuss, progress, development and interviews with participants to get a feeling that it all was the same event
Jam sites with links to games:
https://globalgamejam.org/jam-sites/2025/arctic-global-game-jam-jorn
Cross-border Bachelor of Culture and Arts
A new Game Artist education has been developed as a part of the Borderless Game Academy. It will begin autumn 2026 and makes it possible for students to combine studies in Sweden and Finland to receive a Bacherlors Degree within thef Culture and Arts programme at Novia UAS in Jakobstad, Finland
It prepares students to develop, design, and produce games by mastering essential technologies and tools in the gaming industry. Students explore game development from foundational graphics to advanced game engines and project-based production, combining both creative and technical skills to bring game concepts to life.
Throughout their studies, students learn to apply principles of design, mechanics, and storytelling to create interactive experiences. The curriculum integrates theory with hands-on practice, encouraging individual and collaborative projects.
Sustainability is key in the program, emphasizing responsible production and inclusive, sustainable game development. Students develop awareness of the need for system changes and learn how to drive positive impact in their communities and in the industry.
The new Game Artist education was presented at Nordic Game in Malmö by the project.
More information at: https://www.novia.fi/en/study/study/arts-and-humanities/game-arts/
Project event: Umeå Filmfestival och branschdagar
Date: 27-29 November 2024
Sites: Umeå (Sweden)
Students and teachers from Visual Magic and Novia UAS visited Umeå filmfestival and its Industry Days.. The purpose was to meet the industry which was done both during the conference as well as side events and company office visits. The project also held a presentation of the work that was done for the project: The Death of an Explorer.
Project event: Sustainability in the games and the creative industries
Date: October 21st, November 4th, November 18th, December 2nd.
Sites: Skellefteå(Sweden), Jakobstad (Finland) and online.
We arranged four workshops with different perspectives on sustainability for students and teachers in both countries.
The first workshop introduced the topic of sustainability on a wider scope and lifted a number of problems and why they need to be addressed. This workshop was done by project members and especially Emma Westerlund, sustainability designer from Novia UAS.
The second workshop was done together with Elina Sievänen from the finnish organisation We in Games. She presented their new report Gender in Play and we had a discussion about their findings.
For the third workshop we had Therese Lundgren from Urkraft in Sweden. She had a interesting presentation about sustainability from a financial perspective and also different perspectives on entrepreneurship.
The fourth workshop was done together with Important Looking Pirates, one of Swedens most prominent visual effects and digital animation companies who have won droves of international awards. They had a talk about how they as a company work with sustainability on different levels all they way from how they recruit to how they operate as a company. It all ended with a long and interesting discussion where all took part.
Project event: Death of an explorer
Date: 21 October 2024 to 15 November 2024.
Sites: Skellefteå(Sweden), Jakobstad (Finland)
Visual Magic students spent four weeks of creating environments in unreal engine and implementing footage on top of an unreal scene.
The final output was shown at Umeå film festival.
Project event: GLOBAL GAME JAM
Date: 26 January 2024 (17:00) to 28 January.
Sites: Jörn (Sweden), Jakobstad and Vasa (Finland)
Three days of building games with old and new friends from the games industry.
In preparation for the game jam, we arranged online crash courses for three popular game engines. These courses are now now open to everybody, so feel free to watch any or all of these using the links below. The courses are around 2 hours each.
Godot Game Engine Introduction (recorded) with Benjamin Vehling / United Soft Media
Unavailable at present, stay tuned – new link to the video will be posted soon
Unity Crash Course (recorded) with Petteri Koivumäki / Blacklighthouse
Click HERE to access the video.
Unreal Crash Course (recorded) with Erik Okfors / Visual Magic
Click HERE to watch the course.
Project event: CROSSBORDER FX
Date: 24 April 2024 (9:00-15.30).
Site: Schaumansalen, Campus Allegro, Jakobstad
Borderless Game Academy presents a crossborder showcase in the Schaumansalen.
Background: As part of the Borderless Game Academy project, performing arts and music students from Novia have collaborated with students from the Swedish VFX school Visual Magic and the game company Ballistic Pork in the production of a game trailer. The trailer has been soundtracked (two versions) by the music student and performing arts students have, with the help of motion-capture, acted as actors. The trailer, its cast and working methods are presented.
In connection with this premiere, we are also giving space to other actors in Campus Allegro. Ida-Britta Petrelius from Novia FUI (research, development and innovation) holds a workshop on speculative futures. Music students from the Vocational Academy perform with self-written songs and music students and DJ Styrox contribute with a retro game-focused VJ/DJ set.
Apply via https://forms.office.com/e/QZmAGBv4yF
Project Timeline:
Kick-off: 2023-09-01
Completion: 2025-08-31
Key Focus Areas:
- Education, Culture, and Sustainable Tourism
- Promoting a more cohesive and inclusive Europe in alignment with the European Pillar of Social Rights
- Prioritising Education and Lifelong Learning
- Enhancing labour market compatibility and fluidity.
Sustainable Development Goals:
Contact info:
Tobias Björkskog, tobias.bjorkskog@novia.fi
Johan Linder, johan.linder@creativecrowd.se
