GameCraft festival 2025
A day filled with creative making and game culture
On a sunny spring day in April, a group of curious participants gathered at Gamla Kraftstationen in Deje for a festival that brought together game culture and hands-on creativity. Here's a look back at a day filled with imagination, joyful encounters, and what we call spelslöjd – the fusion of crafts and game creation.
Participants took part in workshops that explored and combined two worlds: game culture and practical creation. The program included three workshops: Creating characters in clay, Boardgame mechanics design, and Tin casting.
All workshops were led by experienced instructors with links to the games industry, which gave participants inspiration and new perspectives on what creative work can be – and the career paths available in the field of games.
Throughout the day, we saw imaginative characters take shape in clay, molten tin harden in sand molds, and brand-new board game ideas come to life through playtesting. The festival also welcomed spontaneous drop-in visitors, with activities like needlefelting small fantasy creatures that invited people to stay, create, and be part of the festival atmosphere.
Creating Characters in Clay
This workshop was led by Frida Sköld, a game art student currently doing her internship at Moonhood Studios – a game studio that works with clay as a visual medium in their games. The workshop focused on visual character design, where participants sculpted their own characters in clay. It provided hands-on insight into how techniques like shape and expression can be used to build believable and expressive game characters that carry emotion and story.
Design of boardgame mechanics
The workshop on board game mechanics was led by Felix Falk, a board game designer with experience in developing and publishing games through crowdfunding. In this workshop, participants explored game ideas and core mechanics. They tested different components, built simple prototypes, and discussed how rules shape the game experience. The focus was on understanding the fundamentals of game system design.
Tin casting
Joel Landberg, a professional game artist with years of experience from several game studios, led the pewter casting workshop. Participants worked with design and shaping by creating their own sand molds and casting small objects in tin. The process introduced them to a traditional craft that often forms the basis for props and items in board games and role-playing games.
What participants said:
" Meeting skilled people and others with similar interests "
“Incredibly beautiful surroundings that sparked creativity – and such kind and inspiring people.”
“The technical parts – and the social aspect of meeting other people with the same interests.”
" To meet other people and use new materials I never worked with before "
Thank you!
The aim of the project Gamecraft festival Värmland is to highlight game culture as a creative and expressive form.
We’re truly grateful to everyone who came, created, and shared their ideas. It turned into a rewarding day of inspiring encounters between participants and workshop leaders – in a space where it’s okay to explore and try new things.
We want to extend a big thank you to Region Värmland and our partners Medborgarskolan, Karlstad Innovation Park, and Gamla Kraftstationen. And of course, to all the workshop leaders and participants – thank you for making this day what it was.
At The Great Journey, we want to continue creating spaces where more people can explore the creative side of games, using both hands, minds and hearts. We hope this is only the beginning of more creative encounters between game culture and craft.
Moa Johansson
Project Manager, Gamecraft Festival
The Great Journey
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Media coverage
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