The EPIC-WE Legacies Event was not designed as a typical academic conference. It was structured as a lived demonstration of the project’s central idea: that young people are not just participants in culture, but co-creators, and that games can be powerful cultural artefacts in their own right.
Across two days, we moved between museum spaces, university lecture halls and creative industry studios. We played games. We debated policy. We tested toolkits. And most importantly, we listened to young people reflect on what it means to shape culture through game-making.
Here’s how it unfolded.
Day One: Knowledge, Innovation and Cultural Worlds
The event opened at ARoS Art Museum, an intentional choice. Rather than beginning with slides and formal remarks, participants were invited into the museum space for an art walk and game expo. The artworks that had inspired several cultural game jams were presented not as static heritage objects, but as living material that young people had transformed into playable systems.
Over the course of the project, more than 100 game prototypes were developed across twelve cultural game jams. A curated selection was available to play, and conversations quickly moved beyond “How was this coded?” to “What cultural story does this game tell?” and “Whose perspective does it centre?”
From there, the group moved to AIAS at Aarhus University for the formal conference programme.
The morning sessions unpacked the architecture behind the games. Presentations revisited the Quadruple Helix Cultural Innovation Ecosystem, the framework connecting youth, cultural heritage institutions, creative industries and higher education. Speakers walked through how the model was developed, tested and refined across the three cultural hubs in Aarhus, Óbidos and Hilversum.
What became clear is that the cultural game jam is not simply an event format. It is a structured intervention. It brings together different institutional logics and asks them to meet in the middle. It scaffolds collaboration. It embeds values into design decisions. And it treats young participants as knowledge contributors.
The afternoon shifted into research and policy territory. A state-of-the-art review and cross-hub analysis demonstrated how EPIC-WE contributes to discussions on youth participation, game studies and cultural heritage activation. The impact session moved beyond counting outputs and focused on what changed: confidence, agency, cross-sector trust and institutional openness.
The partner panel offered something different: candid reflections. Cultural institutions spoke about learning to relinquish some control. Game developers described how working with heritage material reshaped their creative processes. Youth Advisory Board members discussed what it felt like to move from “participant” to “partner.”
The day closed where it began: with games. At ARoS and later at Filmby Aarhus, participants once again engaged directly with prototypes and featured games developed in collaboration with professional studios. The informal setting reinforced one of the project’s strongest messages: cultural innovation happens through doing, not just discussing.
Day Two: Impact, Policy and What Comes Next
If Day One focused on how EPIC-WE works, Day Two focused on what it means.
The morning opened with a comprehensive look at impact across the three hubs and twelve game jams. Drawing on structured indicators, surveys and qualitative reflections, the session highlighted multi-level change: youth reporting increased agency, cultural institutions experimenting with new participatory formats, creative industries integrating cultural depth into design processes.
Importantly, impact was framed as relational. The project did not simply produce games; it produced new ways of working together.
The policy session translated these insights into practical recommendations. What does it mean to embed youth co-creation into institutional structures? How can cultural policy frameworks recognise games as cultural media? What governance mechanisms support long-term cross-sector collaboration?
Participants contributed directly through interactive exercises, reinforcing that policy is not abstract, it emerges from lived practice.
One of the most powerful moments of the conference was the youth empowerment panel. Youth Advisory Board representatives spoke about their experiences shaping the project, challenging assumptions and presenting their work publicly. They did not speak as symbolic representatives of “young voices.” They spoke as collaborators with authority.
The afternoon shifted into hands-on application. The “Create the Legacy” workshop invited participants to work directly with the cultural game jam toolkit. In mixed groups, cultural professionals, educators and industry representatives explored how the model could be adapted within their own contexts. Youth participants and game developers co-facilitated discussions, reversing traditional hierarchies.
The event concluded with a final expo and networking session at Filmby Aarhus. Games were played again. Contacts were exchanged. Ideas for replication were discussed. The atmosphere felt less like a closing ceremony and more like a transition point.
A Project Concludes, An Ecosystem Continues
The EPIC-WE Legacies Event marked the formal conclusion of a three-year Horizon Europe project. But it did not feel like an ending.
Across two days, one thing became clear: the strength of EPIC-WE lies not only in its toolkit or its prototypes, but in its ecosystem logic. When young people are structurally included, not consulted at the margins, cultural norms can shift. When heritage is treated as playable and open to reinterpretation, new narratives emerge. When creative industries, educators and cultural actors collaborate intentionally, innovation becomes collective rather than siloed.
The project’s outputs now live on through the resource website, toolkits and strengthened cross-sector networks. The cultural game jam model has proven transferable. The Quadruple Helix framework has been tested in multiple environments. And the young people involved leave not only with games, but with authorship.
If there was a single takeaway from Aarhus, it is this: culture is strongest when it is co-created.
Photos by Alexander Håkansson
