As we transition from the second to EPIC-WE’s third and final year, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the past year’s achievements and to consider prospects. EPIC-WE’s second year has been a remarkable one, and we would like to take this opportunity to share our accomplishments with you. Similarly, we have great expectations for this third year of the project, and we want to make you aware of the opportunities that will unfold.
EPIC-WE’s second year: A Year of Milestones
On its second year, EPIC-WE made significant strides in its mission to offer youth the chance to shape their future by leveraging the power of game-making as a new form of culture-making, as well as strengthening European values. Here are just a few highlights:
Stronger Together through Cultural Game Jams:
2024 saw the implementation of EPIC-WE’s cultural game jams in the three cultural hubs of Aarhus, Óbidos and Hilversum. These events provided youth with a participatory space to exchange ideas, explore diverse perspectives, and collectively develop games through and for culture that amplify youth empowered participation. By the end of 2024, each of the three cultural hubs concluded two cultural game jams. The cultural game jams were received with great interest and were highly successful, and the feedback of the first round of games through and for culture could already be implemented in the second round of cultural game jams. This progress was encouraging, and served as motivation for the development of the cultural game jam kit and the third round of cultural game jams in the three hubs (which will conclude on the 7th of March).
Consolidating Academic Presence:
EPIC-WE’s second year saw a constant flow of EPIC research publications and high-level presentations. These publications are now available on the project’s website:
• The article “Meeting in the middle: Cultural co-creation, transformative partnerships, and ecosystems for public good”, co-authored by Rikke Toft Nørgård and Kim Holflod, was published in the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.
• The article “Creative toying with cultural heritage in game jams”, co-authored by Eva Eriksson, Kim Holflod, and Rikke Toft Nørgård, was published in the In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events.
• The article “Jamming with Culture – Piloting Cultural Game Jam with Youth”, co-authored by Eva Eriksson, Kim Holflod and Rikke Toft Nørgård, was published in the Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference.
• The article “What is “Learning” in Serious Game Jams? A Systematic Literature Review”, co-authored by Maria Gonçalves, Inês Nunes, Pedro Fernandes, and Conceição Costa, was published in the Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning.
• The article “Cultural Game Jam Model: A Quadruple Helix Intervention”, co-authored by Filipe Luz, Wilson Almeida, Pedro Fernandes, & Micaela Fonseca, was published in the Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning.
• The article “Community, Socialisation, and Empowerment in Cultural Game Jams with Youth Citizens”, co-authored by Kim Holflod, Rikke Toft Nørgård and Eva Eriksson, was published in the Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning.
• Last but not least, the article “Creative Toying with Cultural Heritage in Game Jams”, co-authored by Eva Eriksson, Kim Holflod, and Rikke Toft Nørgård, was published in the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events.
The beginning of October 2024 saw a strong representation of EPIC-WE at the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL). The conference, that took place on the 3rd and 4th of October, was an opportunity for scholars to exchange ideas on how game-based learning has transformed the world of education over the past few years. EPIC-WE presented a total of three academic papers and one keynote panel presentation by the Óbidos and Aarhus hubs.
Providing Access to our Knowledge:
Throughout November 2024 and February 2025, EPIC-WE’s in-house experts, including Rikke Toft Nørgård (Project Coordinator), Conceição Costa (Óbidos Hub Lead), Susannah Montgomery (Hilversum Hub Lead), Kim Holflod (Aarhus Hub Lead), and Marina Rossi (EPIC-WE Resource Website Coordinator), joined forces with external invitees and esteemed members of the EPIC-WE Advisory Board, including Mary Flanagan, Gaetano Dimita, Dimitri Schuurman, and Annakaisa Kultima. The group conducted Capacity Building webinars and workshops, in which the experts engaged in a comprehensive discussion encompassing several pivotal themes. The discussions included an examination of the current state of game jams and game development, the potential of games as a conduit for cultural heritage and values, the notion of cultural hubs and living labs, and the manner in which game creation can catalyse engagement with EPIC-WE’s vision. The EPIC-WE Capacity Building Webinar and Workshop Series successfully enhanced knowledge sharing and enabled ongoing capacity building and upskilling for creatives industries (CIs), cultural heritage institutions (CHIs), and higher education institutions (HEIs) to give rise to cooperation between CHI, CI, HEI and youth to create games as culture, games through culture, and games for culture.
We are pleased to have launched our EPIC-WE Resource Website in 2024, an open platform designed to bring visibility to the innovative games and resources produced through the EPIC-WE project. This new resource website is dedicated to highlighting the diverse outputs from the interactions between all four helixes of the project – cultural heritage institutions, creative industries, higher education institutions, and youth citizens – at both a global and local level across EPIC-WE’s three cultural hubs. The EPIC-WE Resource Website represents the project’s commitment to fostering cultural dialogue and creative exploration through the medium of game-making as culture-making. The website features the games produced during the cultural game jams, and in addition, it stores the recordings of webinars and workshops from the capacity building series. Each game through and for culture featured on the website is the product of collaborative, interdisciplinary work, often drawing on personal experiences and perspectives to explore themes of cultural heritage, modern art, identity, and social or cultural issues. EPIC-WE’s Cultural Game Jams provide a platform for youth participants to express their creativity through game creation. Visitors to the Resource Website will find detailed information about the games created, including descriptions of game mechanics, narrative inspirations, and thematic foci. Alongside the games, visitors to the Resource Website will also be guided in the EPIC-WE journey through the capacity building activities. This is particularly important in fulfilling EPIC-WE’s aim to provide continuous access to the knowledge produced during the project.
During the third year, we will work to ensure the sustainability of the project by adding still more EPIC-WE outcomes and results. Making our resources accessible to the public, in a stable and sustainable way, is crucial for achieving that. This ensures that our capacity building materials can be used in the future, but also guarantees access to those who perhaps do not have a stable internet connection and thus cannot participate in the webinars and workshops.
Creating a Long-Lasting Network:
In 2024, the EPIC-WE project proudly announced the establishment of its Advisory Board, a group of esteemed experts whose guidance will help shape the project’s ideas, research, and innovative activities. This initiative aspires to establish a dynamic synergy between the Consortium’s investigations and the world-class expertise of Advisory Board members, ensuring that EPIC-WE not only meets its goals but also exceeds expectations in contributing to sustainable and impactful change. The members of the Advisory Board will contribute to EPIC-WE with their expertise, providing feedback on the initiative’s activities and participating in project events, research dissemination, and other collaborative opportunities.
EPIC-WE’s Advisory Board members are Dr. Elias G. Carayannis, Dr. Gaetano Dimita, Dr. Mary Flanagan, Dr. Annakaisa Kultima, Dr. Dimitri Schuurman, Chris Solarski, Anneke van Woerden, Stig Børsen Hansen, Ash Hooijmans, Inês Nunes, and Leonard Hjuler Baungaard.
As part of EPIC-WE’s lived commitment to foster youth engagement, the end of the second year has seen the implementation of Youth members as full members of the Advisory Board. This inclusion effort will be cemented during the third year of EPIC-WE. EPIC-WE has established a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) comprised of Youth members of each of the three EPIC-WE Hubs.
The members of the YAB have created games in the Cultural Game Jams and given presentations in the Capacity Building Series. In addition, one YAB member of each Hub has become a sitting member of the Advisory Board, together with the other experts. It is noteworthy to mention that YAB members are becoming more active members within EPIC-WE, and that they are beginning to establish independent networks to support their work.
The representatives of the YAB in EPIC-WE’s Advisory Board are Ash Hooijmans (Hilversum Hub), Inês Nunes (Óbidos Hub), and Leonard Hjuler Baungaard (Aarhus Hub).
What’s Ahead for EPIC-WE’s third year
EPIC-WE’s third year has kicked-off with the third round of game jams. At the moment of writing this press release, Aarhus’ hub is conducting their third Cultural Game Jam, which began on March 3rd and will last until March 7th. This event is being held in collaboration with Aarhus University’s bachelor programme, “Digital Design.” During the course of the cultural game jam, students have the opportunity to explore the cultural heritage of ARoS and engage with European values through the medium of game design. In addition, the Hilversum Hub held a successful Game Jam between February 17 and February 28, in collaboration with the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS), with an attendance of around 30 third-year students specialising in the Digital Media & Creative Industries minor Creative Research. This minor, which places emphasis on the significance of creative research methodologies in the examination of both substantial and modest societal concerns, finds an ideal congruence with EPIC-WE, a programme that involves the students in a hands-on manner in a form of creative research through the medium of game-making. The Cultural Game Jam was held at the Utility Lab of AUAS. The event also included a visit to the Media Museum of Sound & Vision in Hilversum, where participants drew inspiration from the cultural heritage media collections and materials available. After conducting our last cultural game jams, EPIC-WE’s final year will be concerned with the publication of our deliverables foreseen for the third year, as well as ensuring the sustainability of the project beyond its current lifetime.
We look forward to the publication of D2.3. Synthesis of EPIC-WE Outcomes, D4.1. Report on game-making interventions with youth in cultural heritage institutions, D4.2. Report on quadruple helix operationalisation, D5.1. EPIC-WE ecosystems, design kits, D5.2. EPIC-WE games collections, D6.3. Third policy briefs, D6.4. Report on impact of game jams, D6.5. Publication on impact, D7.7. Report on policy advocacy, D7.8. Report on final conference and D7.9 Report on local and external sites concluding events.
We also look forward to promoting EPIC-WE and its important achievements at different international conferences, youth events and online. Particularly, we are happy to announce that EPIC-WE has been selected to host an interactive panel “Empowering Youth: Shaping Europe’s Culture Through Games” at this year’s European Youth Event (EYE2025) in Strasbourg. Finally, we look forward to inviting stakeholders to join the EPIC-WE cultural innovation ecosystem and use its resources, to foster extended cooperation and collaboration between CHI, CI, HEI and youth across Europe.
