On March 26, 2014, a video game trailer appeared on YouTube. It opens with a close-up of a goat lying on the ground, tongue out, eyes open. Behind it, a man is on fire, running backwards in slow motion toward a house. These scenes are mixed with shots of the goat being run over by a car again and again. In the main sequence, the goat—now also moving backwards—flies up into a first-floor window, repairing the broken glass from its earlier fall. It then crashes through another window and back to an exploding petrol station, where its chaotic journey seems to have begun.
This wordless, oddly poignant video was a clever parody of the trailer for the zombie survival game Dead Island. It advertised a quirky title called Goat Simulator, which, unsurprisingly, was the first game to let players step into the hooves of a goat tasked with causing as much havoc as possible. It also marked the first major hit to emerge from a small Swedish city named Skövde.
Chances are you’ve never heard of Skövde—and you likely don’t know how to pronounce it (“hwevde”). Historically, this city nestled between Sweden’s two largest lakes, Vänern and Vättern, relied heavily on Volvo for jobs. But over the past 25 years, a shift has taken place. Skövde has produced some of the world’s biggest and most talked-about video games—not just Goat Simulator, but titles like V Rising, Valheim, and RV There Yet?.
In a city of 58,000 people, nearly 1,000 are studying or working in video games. By comparison, the entire gaming sector in the UK employs around 28,500. How does Skövde manage to punch so far above its weight?
I’m sitting in a university office where a quiet revolution began. Around the turn of the century, Skövde introduced something that set it apart from other cities in a country already gaining an early lead in gaming. In the late 1990s, Ulf Wilhelmsson wanted to pursue a PhD in video games in Sweden. Several universities, he recalls, told him, “You can’t study computer games—that’s just silly.” Instead, he went to the University of Copenhagen, with his work funded by the University of Skövde, where he was employed at the time.
In 2001, noticing a lack of students enrolling in the university’s IT programs, Wilhelmsson proposed a qualification in video game development. One concern among senior staff was that there were no game companies in Skövde. “I’m quite stubborn,” Wilhelmsson tells me at the university, “and I said, ‘If we build it, they will come.’”
It was challenging at the start when the degree launched in 2002. “Since we were among the first educational programs to do this,” says Sanny Syberfeldt, director of the design program, “we had no guide or model, so we had to make it up as we went along.” The degree is now highly popular, with multiple applicants for every seat. “Our aim has never been to help students meet the short-term needs of the games industry,” Wilhelmsson explains. “It has always been to change the industry, to create something that hasn’t been done before.”
His colleague Lissa Holloway-Attaway, who wears a colorful pink jumper with tigers on it, explores gaming’s broader context, encouraging students to reflect on how games intersect with themes like gender, identity, and grief. One project involves creating a prototype for a game centered on a historical environment or object.
When you’re in a town this small with so many game developers, it’s easier to build a tight-knit community. Science Park Skövde, another key player in the city’s ongoing support for game developers, is right at the heart of this ecosystem.Next door to the university’s gaming department, there’s an outwardly unremarkable white building. Inside, it feels light and airy, with colorful chairs and jigsaw pieces decorating the walls. The team at the Science Park runs a three-year program called Sweden Game Start-Up, which incubates teams looking to turn gaming into a viable career by helping them secure funding for their works-in-progress. One colleague describes their role as “loaning out self-confidence.” Jennifer Granath, who works in communications at the Science Park, says, “The goal is for them to exit with a sustainable company that will hopefully live on after they leave the program.”
Over fika—the Swedish term for a coffee-and-cake break, featuring cinnamon buns—I meet around 30 developers from the incubation program. They range in age from 22 to 45 and are incredibly warm and articulate. With great pride, they show me their games in a large open room. There’s Home Sweet Gnome, where you play a gnome running a bed and breakfast for folklore creatures; the horror golf game Club House on Haunted Hill; and Muri: Wild Woods, where you play a mouse on a cleaning adventure. Some of these games have already been funded and released, while others are still in development.
The developers, 99% of whom studied at the university, say being here is invaluable. One notes that in Stockholm, game companies often overlook graduates because there are so many, but in Skövde—a city with one-twentieth the population—everyone knows each other and supports one another. Louise Perrson, head of the university’s game-writing program, says, “The size of this city is really to the community’s advantage. If you come here with the thought of getting into the industry, you also come here knowing—or at least finding out—that you’ll be part of one big community.”
It’s significant that the three game studios that helped put Skövde on the map—Iron Gate, Coffee Stain, and Stunlock—have all stayed in the city. Josefin Bertsson, a community manager at Iron Gate, says, “Without the incubator, the company most likely would not have existed.” Iron Gate’s office has a sleek, lavish feel, with dark wood, plum-colored sofas, and a huge antler-shaped lighting fixture. Swords are displayed around the space, and a large model of Sauron’s eye sits atop a black Lego tower.
The studio is best known for Valheim, a Viking survival game where players are placed in a kind of purgatory and must prove themselves to Odin to ascend to Valhalla. Its preview version sold about 5 million copies in its first five weeks, making it possibly Skövde’s most successful game. Bertsson adds, “I think when you’re in a town this small but with so many game developers, it’s easier to form a tight-knit community than in, say, Stockholm. It’s easier to congratulate your friends on something because they’re right next door.”
Coffee Stain, the studio behind Goat Simulator, works out of an extraordinary space that was once a bank—studio manager Robert Lazic calls it a “bank palace.” Spread over several floors, it features a gym, a massage room, a board game room, and a huge wood-paneled meeting room filled with fake trees. Lazic was part of the university’s first cohort of students, what he calls “the fumbling beginnings.” The studio is now focused on Satisfactory, its latest game, which tasks players with building factories and complex infrastructure on an alien planet. In Skövde, success breeds success.He says it’s a success. Satisfactory has sold 5.5 million copies.
At Stunlock, I meet the company’s CEO, Ulf Rickard Frisegård, and its PR and event manager, Tau Petersson. Like many Swedish workplaces, it’s shoes off at the door. The space has velvet teal curtains and cabinets filled with board games. Stunlock created V Rising, a game where you play as an awakened vampire building a castle, defeating bosses, and avoiding garlic. V Rising sold over a million copies in its first week. Frisegård and Petersson were also students at the university and are certain about the city’s unique prestige. When pitching to people, Frisegård says, “you jump through a lot of hoops telling them you’re from Skövde.” Industry leaders make a point of visiting. Frisegård recalls a very powerful, unnamed games industry figure who visited their offices to see V Rising: “He had a cab parked outside here all day—one person sitting and waiting for him—and then driving him, what is it, one kilometer to the train station.”
Nationally, Sweden is a major force in video games. It’s home to multi-billion-pound giants like Minecraft and Candy Crush. In 2023, Swedish game companies generated over £2.5 billion in revenue. The country was quick to adopt high-speed internet and provided subsidized computers to its population—ideal conditions for game design. I arrived thinking Sweden’s gaming status meant strong national government support for the industry. Marcus Toftedahl, a business coach in game development at the Science Park, says, “Weeelll… that is not true.” It’s a sore point. While the municipality of Skövde has been proud and supportive, the national government has not: “Sweden is lacking a national strategy and a national support system for the games industry, even though we’re super-famous for our games all around the world.” This summer, the Science Park’s annual funding from the national government dropped from around £240,000 to £80,000. Toftedahl says there’s a lack of understanding about game development, and the government has shifted focus toward more research-heavy areas like AI.
Despite these concerns, Skövde continues to celebrate its gaming successes. However, a priority for people in the industry is to make sure locals are aware of them. “It’s well known outside Skövde—maybe not as known in Skövde—that we have this huge international industry that is really successful,” says Theres Sahlström, chair of the Skövde Municipal Executive Committee. “So we’re trying to bring attention to it.” She’s speaking with me as we stand by the Walk of Game on the city’s cobbled high street—a newly created series of plaques highlighting Skövde’s achievements in gaming.
When people ask Toftedahl if Skövde’s success can be replicated elsewhere, he says the short answer is yes, but the long answer is less encouraging. “The smallness helps,” he says. But even other small Swedish cities haven’t been able to match Skövde. On the island of Gotland, for example, there have been university courses on gaming since 2002. But for Gotland, which has almost the same population as Skövde, tourism is the main industry, so the region hasn’t directed as much support toward gaming. You could follow Skövde’s lead—ensure your town taught video game development at its university; host events where developers could showcase projects; organize networking events where people felt safe exchanging ideas.You could build something truly unique by combining knowledge, but sometimes that special spark just doesn’t happen again.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs If we build it they will come Skvde Swedens Video Game Boom
Beginner General Questions
1 What is this If we build it they will come story about
Its about how the small Swedish town of Skvde intentionally built a worldclass education and research hub for video games which then attracted major companies talent and investment creating a thriving local industry
2 Where is Skvde and why is it significant for gaming
Skvde is a town of about 55000 people in westcentral Sweden Its significant because its home to the University of Skvde which has one of Europes top game development education programs acting as the engine for the entire local game ecosystem
3 What does building it refer to in Skvdes case
Building it refers to a decadeslong strategic investment in creating specialized university programs research centers and a supportive local network for students and startups
4 So who actually came
Major international game companies like Ubisoft EA and Stillfront Group established studios there Hundreds of game development graduates stayed to found their own successful studios creating a dense cluster of talent and businesses
Benefits Impact
5 What are the main benefits of this model for Skvde
It created a hightech futureproof industry provided excellent local jobs reversed brain drain boosted the local economy and put Skvde on the global map as a specialist hub
6 How does the university support the local game industry
Beyond education it provides research partnerships business incubation spaces testing labs and hosts networking events Its a constant pipeline of skilled graduates and a center for innovation that companies want to be near
7 Has this only helped big companies
No a key success is the vibrant indie scene The environment nurtures small startups with graduates often founding studios right after university supported by the local ecosystem of peers mentors and investors familiar with the games sector
Common Challenges Problems
