In 2021, Jonathan Rozmarin left the United States for a new life in Sweden. He relocated together with his wife, two children, two dogs and two cats. Together, they headed to Malmö, where a job at Massive Entertainment as a Senior Project Coordinator was waiting for him.  

But what is it like for a family to leave their old life behind? How do you adapt to a completely new culture, language, and work-life balance, and how did the family experience their first months in Sweden? And why do you decide to pack up all your belongings and move to the other side of the globe?

To find out, we visited Jonathan and his family in their home, located in a small, idyllic village about an hour by train from Malmö.

Why MOVE TO Sweden?

“First and foremost, I was interested in Massive as a company,” Jonathan says about the decision to move all the way to Sweden. “But the thought of an opportunity to work overseas was enticing.”

“It really felt like Sweden would be able to provide our family with the lifestyle changes and needs we were looking for,” he says, and explains further what Sweden offered them:

“We fell in love with what the country and the studio offered regarding work-life balance, cultural exposure and the general ease of life that California was not providing.”

relocating FROM THE UNITED STATES TO SWEDEN – RELOCATION ALLOWANCE, CORPORATE HOUSING AND CHECKLISTS

Once the contract with Massive was signed, the family had six weeks to complete the move from USA to Sweden. It was a tight schedule, but the move was made possible thanks to Massive’s relocation allowance.

“Massive was very generous with their relocation allowance,” Jonathan says. “We just put our belongings on a boat, which six months later arrived in Sweden.”

That said, the family still had a lot of bags to carry with them on their journey across the globe. Luckily, while they buckled under the weight, their first meeting in Sweden turned out to be both nice and helpful, as Jonathan and Lisa tells us.

Meanwhile, the lengthy transport time had the family reconsider their need for certain items they had held on to for a long time.

“If we can live without it for six months, do we really need it?” Lisa asks.

“That really made us think, so we cleansed out, brought some of the children’s toys due to their sentimental value, but all in all, it was like starting over,” Jonathan adds.  

If we can live without it for six months, do we really need it?’

Once they arrived in Sweden, the relocation team at Massive had prepared a corporate apartment in Malmö for the family to stay in during their first months in Sweden. They also received a “checklist” of things to follow up on immediately, so they could easily adapt and enjoy their new life as Swedish residents with as little confusion as possible.

“First of all, it was very helpful not having to find an apartment in Sweden,” Jonathan says. “The relocation team was very supportive in arranging where to stay and told us what we had to do upon our arrival. Go to the migration office, arrange for a digital Bank ID, etcetera. We didn’t have to think of anything other than just completing the checklist.”

making NEW SWEDISH friends – DIFFICULT?

With the practicalities in order, it was time for the family to get to know their new city, it’s culture and of course, the Swedish people. Are the Swedes as cold as they are told to be? Lisa would say “no”:

Jonathan had a warm and genuine first encounter with his neighbors and new colleagues at work.  

“Everyone was very open and welcoming,” he says. “During my first day at work, everyone came right over to introduce themselves. We have fikas regularly and our kids are friends today. I have not experienced any coldness from the Swedish people. In general, I find them very welcoming and friendly.”

It feels like once you become their friend, you are friends for life”

Jonathan says he thinks the stigma comes from the idea that Swedes generally don’t care for small talk. Something which he personally dismisses as incorrect.

“Everyone I have engaged with has reciprocated small talk, so I haven’t felt that at all,” he says.

FINDING A JOB IN SWEDEN

Before the family decided to move to Sweden, Lisa was the owner of her own hair salon in California. When the opportunity to move came up, she decided to sell the studio without hesitation.   

“I have been a hairdresser for 25 years and I had worked hard to start my own studio, and I loved being my own boss!” she says. “But I was excited to move to Sweden and was willing to give it all up to try something new, so I did.”

Once in her new country, she realized the process of getting a job in Sweden was quite different compared to back home. Acquiring a similar job in the states could be as easy as just walking into a salon asking if they needed a stylist or scrolling through Craigslist to find a job nearby.  

“That did not work at all here, so I started looking online for eco-friendly salons and eventually found one in central Malmö,” she says. “I shared my resumé with them, they e-mailed me right back, and the next day I found myself at an interview there and got the job!”

I feel less stressed here at work.”

Her work-life balance has improved significantly since she arrived in Sweden.

“In the states, hairdressers do not enjoy a lot of benefits, but risk to burnout in order to make their ends meet. No paid vacation or paid days off. Here, in Sweden on the other hand, there is a healthy work-life balance.”

Working full time in the salon grants Lisa 28 paid days off, every year. 

“Back home, owning my own place was the only way for me to balance my time, which I don’t feel to be the case at all in Sweden. Generally, I feel a lot less stressed about work here,” she says.

WORK LIFE BALANCE IN SWEDEN

Jonathan agrees. “The motto all my team members gave me when I arrived was ‘family first’. To me, this was really refreshing. Working outside of your normal workday seems like a huge ask of someone in Sweden, while in America it’s almost expected of you,” he says.

The motto all my team members gave me when I arrived was ‘family first‘”

“I’d say Jon almost never had dinner with us back in the States, he was usually working,” Lisa says.

Jonathan mentions the healthy work life balance as an important component to feeling less stressed about work in Sweden. The concern that you would be let go at any moment in the States for prioritizing your family or not working late is not something he experiences in Sweden.

“I can tell my colleagues that I need to see the doctor or visit the bank and get a ‘great, see you when you are back’ instead of a ‘can you find a way of not doing that and keep working’ sort of answer, which I would get back in the states.” 

Of course, the kids’ wellbeing was of the highest priority for Jonathan and Lisa. Luckily, they have adapted quickly to life in Sweden, and the school they are attending is making sure that they are enjoying themselves and help them learn Swedish.

Malmö – a big little city

After a few months living in central Malmö, the family decided to move out of the city, to a house in the countryside, where they could nurture their dream of becoming self-sufficient. 

With 28 minutes on train to Malmö, the nature around the corner and a great school for the children to attend, they had found a home providing them with everything they had been looking for.

“Out here, we can be a lot more self-sufficient and live more sustainable, while having a normal working life in the city, which feels close thanks to the extremely robust public transportation system in Sweden, and the green surroundings we enjoy now,” Lisa says. “With all the people and traffic in California, this is something we could never have dreamt of there.”

“Malmö is an amazing big little city with endless opportunities.”

Jonathan’s and lisa’s 5 tips for people who are about to make the journey of relocating to Sweden

1. Documentation
   “Have all your passports and all these things in order. Do you have animals, kids?
   
   Make sure all your papers are up to date. Once the offer came through, we had 6 weeks to pull off the move and we didn’t almost pull it off. When Jonathan / I had the first interview we immediately started making sure that the dogs and the cats had what they need. Don’t procrastinate on finding out exactly what you need to do, because there are a lot of time specific events that need to happen before you can actually get on that plane.”
   
   
2. Don’t stress about stuff
   “We kind of brought things that we didn’t need to bring and now that we are here, and I look back I’m like ‘Why did I bring this thing?’. If I can live without this for 6 months, why am I bringing it? And definitely don’t bring any electronic, ditch your electronics. Because I brought a bunch. ‘I couldn’t live without my kitchen aid mixer’, I said. And then I plugged it in with a converter and it blew up. Bring very personal things but everything else you can get here. Don’t bring more than you think you need, purge as much as possible.”
   
   
3. Have the mindset of “if it doesn’t work out, home is always there to return to”
   “Its as simple as having a mindset that allowed a trusting approach to leaping into an international position. It gave me the comfort that if the move/position/situation was not in everyone’s best interest in the family, then we can always move back.”
   
   
4. Do research!
   “Research the public transportation system, to get a better idea of what you are getting yourself into in sense of transportation. We also watched a lot of tourist videos of Malmö on YouTube to get an idea of how the city was. We did a lot of reading about the different neighborhoods, go online and look up like ‘different neighborhoods in Malmö’ to read more about the different neighborhoods and what its vibe is. I was like ‘I really want to visit that neighborhood, or I really want to check that one out’!
   
   
5. Reach out to potential colleagues on LinkedIn
   “To actually get some insight from someone that works at the company. I worked with a guy back in California and he moved here before we did and I was able to reach out to him and kind of ask him questions. If you don’t know anyone in the country or at the company, connect with some of the potential colleagues on LinkedIn or something of that nature and ask those questions on a personal level. If that’s something they are willing to do. That gives it a bit more real aspect to it, having someone that has that experience already.”
   

Final words

“It’s gonna be a stressful trip, it’s gonna be a stressful move but the result on the other end is worth that stress. As much as it’s gonna be scary and a big change. All the fears I had, like worrying about where I was gonna be, what the job was gonna be like, am I gonna make friends, are we gonna like it? All those things just completely disappeared within a month or two.

And if it doesn’t work, home is always there. You can always go back.”

Come work for us

Interested in a career at Massive and Sweden? Check out our career page for our open positions!

In this first episode we meet Lead Data Scientist David Renaudie, who will tell us more about how data science can help us understand players and games better, and what it means for the future of game development.

You can find the podcast on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. You can also find us on Soundcloud or punch the RSS feed into your favorite podcast app! Your choice!

ABOUT BEHIND MASSIVE SCREENS

Since early 2020, we’ve been doing a video interview series called the Fika Sessions, where we sat down with developers at Massive to discuss their roles and work in detail, in order to educate and inspire people that are interested in working in games – while also having “fika”, the Swedish tradition of drinking coffee and eating tasty pastries together.

But now it’s time for the Fika Sessions to evolve into something new: the podcast Behind Massive Screens. The concept remains the same – you will get in-depth insights into how games are made, from a myriad of different perspectives – but the format has changed from primarily a video project to a dedicated podcast. You will find new episodes every month.

We hope you join us on our new podcast adventure and that you enjoy the show!

”For the past couple of years, I’ve had a strong interest and curiosity when it comes to fashion and games. This thinking has become clearer for me during my time at Massive, especially how it practically and theoretically fits in the context of concept art. But I’ve also learned how to stretch my design thinking for it to make sense in a gaming context,” says Marie Isacsson.

One of her goals during her time here at Massive was to grow into the role of a concept artist, and with the help of her managers and leads, together with her sense of curiosity, she’s has taken both to the role and to the industry.

“If I would describe my first impressions of the game industry, I would say it with one word: ‘exciting'”. I have only touched the surface and I want more. The industry is dynamic and extremely ambitious.”

If I would describe my first impressions of the game industry, I would say it with one word: ‘exciting’.

Coming from a more traditional design industry has meant that the scholarship constantly opened new areas to explore as a concept artist, but also in the games industry.

“One of the greatest insights I’ve gotten here is the knowledge of how games are made”, Marie says.

Over the course of the scholarship, she has had the opportunity to interview her fellow colleagues to learn as much as possible about how the production pipeline of making a game – and vanity items for player characters – work. She has spoken with art directors, tech animators, marketers and more, and all those conversations have helped her understand how everything is connected.

“There’s an even bigger picture that I haven’t yet explored, but it’s something I absolutely want to dig even deeper into, since I think it’s key to understand what keeps the wheel spinning.”

It’s a very generous scholarship that provides you with new contexts, new knowledge, new skills.

When Marie came to Massive, one of the first questions she got was “what challenges do you think you will face?” For Marie, it was to translate her skills and experience with physical clothes and design to the digital realm.
“I believe mastering digital tools are the future within design to make the process not only sustainable but also efficient and communicative,” she says. A statement she still believes in after her six months at the studio.
So why should young designers apply for the Ung Svensk Form Scholarship Program?

“It’s a very generous scholarship that provides you with new contexts, new knowledge, new skills, and the ability to transfer your design knowledge to virtual worlds”, Marie says. “It’s an amazing opportunity for designers in different industries, such as fashion, to try out new exciting industries!”

Want to learn more about the scholarship and how to apply? You can read all about it on Ung Svensk Form’s website.

Useful links

• Learn more about Marie and her approach to fashion in games.
• How we at Massive approach the Concept Artist internship.

Thomas Andrén has been appointed as Massive Entertainment’s new MD

Thomas will join Massive Entertainment from Red Bee Media, where he is currently Chief Operating Officer, prior to which he held leadership positions in their online streaming and broadcast departments. His past experiences include leading Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services’ Nordics operations, in addition to managing the company’s live service delivery and media content. 

“I am thrilled to join Massive Entertainment – a Ubisoft Studio,” said Thomas Andrén. “The studio has delivered groundbreaking games for players and has continuously been at the forefront of the entertainment industry. I am proud to join the teams behind these powerful gaming experiences and excited about what we will achieve together.” 

Virginie Haas, Ubisoft’s Chief studios Operating Officer said: “Thomas is a very accomplished leader and his extensive experience guiding operations, shaping strategic business and product development, and managing teams within the online services and media sectors will aid him greatly in guiding Massive’s talented teams.” 

Massive Entertainment – a Ubisoft Studio is currently leading the development of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, based off James Cameron’s Avatar  film franchise, in collaboration with Lightstorm Entertainment and Disney. The studio is also collaborating with Disney and Lucasfilm Games on a new video game set in the beloved Star Wars galaxy. In addition to these exciting projects, the studio spearheads Snowdrop®, the cutting-edge game engine that powered The Division ® franchise among others, and acts as a home base for Ubisoft Connect, the company’s digital ecosystem and distribution platform.   

David Polfeldt joined Massive Entertainment in 2005, and has been the acclaimed studio’s MD since 2009, following its aquisition by Ubisoft. Today, David shared that he will be stepping down from the MD role on July 1 and will take a six-month sabbatical. Following this leave, he will return to Ubisoft in a new strategic role.  

“Seventeen years ago I joined a small Malmö-based indie-studio in a role that the founder defined as ‘Mister FixIt’. Little did I know what a roller-coaster adventure it would become!” says David Polfeldt.  

“When we signed Star Wars, and finally completed our beautiful building Eden in 2020, I felt an overwhelming sense of completion, as if I had achieved everything I once dreamt of.  

Standing on the solid foundation of The Division, Avatar, Snowdrop, and Ubisoft Connect, the studio is in fantastic shape, and I am exceptionally grateful for what we have accomplished together. Before I embark on a new adventure in Ubisoft, I will try something else which is new and exciting to me: a long break! Wish me luck, and see you in 2022.” 

Everyone in the studio extends our sincerest thanks to David for his leadership, wishes him all the best during his well-earned break, and looks forward to welcoming him back to Ubisoft next year!  

Throughout the development of Count on Me!, Akribian have become regular visitors of Massive’s Games Lab, where the reactions of groups of children trying different versions of the app have been examined. The findings allowed Akribian to determine what experiences encouraged children to keep playing and solve the game’s mathematical challenges.

Those insights, in combination with the latest research in learning psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and significant research conducted by Akribian’ s co-founder and CEO Martin Hassler Hallstedt, has resulted in Count on Me!. Amongst other things, Martin’s research shows that children between the ages of 6-9 who plays the game for at least 15 minutes each day increase their mathematical skills by up to 60%.

Our collaboration with Massive means a lot to us. It gives us a chance to study reactions and experiences the children have of the game.

In Count on Me!, the players progress through the game by mastering important mathematical skills, eventually becoming the hero of the game, and bringing back the lost math-magic to the land of Numberia.

For us at Massive, we are proud to contribute to creating a better mathematical understanding for future mathematicians, engineers and video game developers. Our collaboration with Akribian is part of our long-term strategy to support diversity and inclusion in the industry.
​​​​​
Count on Me! is available through App Store and Google Play in Sweden. For more information, visit Akribian’s website.

Useful links

• Massive partners with Akribian to help children learn math.

Ung Svensk Form is a platform for young designers with the goal to share knowledge and raise awareness about new, innovative Swedish design. It is open to young designers working in Sweden and Swedish designers residing and working outside of Sweden, and acts as a bridge between the student life and work life.

Massive’s Concept Artist Scholarship is a part of Ung Svensk Form, and is a six-month paid internship with a focus on fashion, items and skins in our game productions. With craftsmanship as one of our core values, working with Ung Svensk Form to create the scholarship came naturally to us.

Fashion helps tell the story of the characters and their world.

“It used to be enough to just be a 3D artist in the industry creating the look of the characters in the game”, says Palle Hoffstein, Art Producer at Massive Entertainment. “But with increased realism and detail, there is now more focus on accuracy and believability. Fashion helps tell the story of the characters and their world. It’s the gaming industry’s next step to use fashion designers in the same way as film and television do.”

Marie Isacsson, who received the scholarship in 2021 and is currently at Massive as a Junior Concept Artist, believes that fashion is about change and constantly looking ahead in order to offer people – and players – what they did not even know that they wanted.

“I believe that fashion can expand the horizons of apparel in games and help create more diverse identities in the customization,” she says. “Showing individuality in virtual game worlds is sought-after by players, which makes total sense since many players spend a lot of time within game-worlds. For some players, it may be even more important to have a certain style or image for their avatar than for themselves in the real world.

Your work will matter to artists and game designers, brand managers and community managers, producers and business executives and most importantly to players.

If you are a fashion designer and want to work in the gaming industry, what is important to know before you embark on that journey?

“One is the interconnectedness of everything,” Palle explains. “Your work will matter to artists and game designers, brand managers and community managers, producers and business executives and most importantly to players. And so, design comes with a lot of discussion and sometimes high expectations, starting with your colleagues and all the way to the players.”

During her first couple of weeks here, Marie has already gained many insights into the industry.

“It’s really exciting to learn and to work within the gaming industry!” Marie says. “I love to work alongside inspiring and passionate people, to challenge myself with new skills and knowledge, which Massive offers.”

Useful links

• Interested in the scholarship? Read more and apply here.
• Games, Identity, and Fashion: Massive’s Concept Artist Scholarship Revealed
• Announcing the Concept Artist Scholarship in partnership with Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design).

It’s been a year since we moved to our office Eden, and we’ve written about the great initiatives we’ve taken to make our office as sustainable as possible. But the building itself is only one part of the puzzle – every day our teams at Massive are working to reduce our carbon footprint through different solutions and sustainable ideas.

For the Procurement team at Massive, commitment to social and environmental responsibility is the backbone of their daily work. Before new suppliers are signed, they undergo a thorough CSR-analysis to ensure they contribute to social or environmental welfare, but also ensuring that their business is ethical and legitimate in every way.

BEING PART OF THE SOLUTION

“It is important for us to do business with trust and integrity, which means we take an active role in addressing social and environmental issues to be part of the solution to global challenges,” says Josefin Enertz, Procurement Coordinator. “Everyone has their own way of giving back, and we try our best to inspire our partners to take responsibility!”

For example, our electricity supplier is chosen to provide us with 100% renewable energy. Thanks to a program conducted by our coffee supplier, we give back to the coffee growers in Rwanda every time we have a cup of coffee, and our cleaning company are carefully coordinating their schedule to reduce unnecessary transportation, while only using environmentally certified products in their work.

Another vital milestone contributing to reduced emissions, while enabling a more efficient workflow, is the digitalization of paperwork. Since February, the Finance team at Massive is using a robotic solution, which replaces all our physical invoices with PDFs and archives them digitally. This process saves not only time and space, but most importantly between 8.000 to 10.000 paper sheets every year, which in turn contributes to decreased deforestation.

SUSTAINABILITY AT EDEN

Last but not least, our Office team is always looking to implement new sustainable solutions at Eden. Besides a substantial recycling program, comprising all our waste and most of our IT equipment, we work to minimize our daily electricity consumption. For example, the office is illuminated thanks to motion sensor LED lights, and a timer ensures that the ventilation system is only active during our core work hours. Furthermore, most windows in Eden are dressed in UV reflective sun film, which helps keep the office cold during warm summer days, consequently enabling a lessened usage of the AC system.

Our rooftop garden is not only a green oasis, but also helps purifying the air while regulating our indoor temperature and encouraging biodiversity in the city center.

These are some examples of what is done today, and many more projects and initiatives are in the pipeline. Keep an eye open to learn more about what green activities the future holds at Massive!

Hiking, cycling, and cooking: this year’s edition of the Massive Wellness Month included a variety of different activities to promote wellness and inspire our colleagues. Usually, the Wellness Month is a physical event, but due to the current situation, the concept had to be revamped this year with social distancing in mind.

“The overall goal of the Wellness Month 2021 was to inspire people to participate in any way possible, and to experience some team spirit despite us not being physically together to do the activities,” says Magdalena Schultze, HR Director at Massive.

So, instead of physical meetups and hands-on activities, the Wellness Month went digital with the introduction of a challenge app where colleagues could divide into teams and compete against each other.

Every little bit counts

“The fun part about the app is that it doesn’t matter what type of activity you do – whether it’s running, going to the gym, playing football, or walking the dog – every little bit counts,” explains Karolina Lundin, CSR and Communications Specialist and one of the people involved in the Wellness Month.

“I think it’s important – especially now – to show that wellness is not just hardcore workouts. It’s also all the little things that we do in our everyday life that contributes to our health and general well-being.”

Ebba Dalqvist, User Researcher at Massive, was one of the people who took part in the Wellness Month. She’s an avid climber, but she says that the challenge and different activities inspired her to try to be active every day and take more walks than usual.

I think it’s important – especially now – to show that wellness is not just hardcore workouts. It’s also all the little things that we do in our everyday life that contributes to our health and general well-being.

“I’m quite a competitive person so a friendly challenge like this was super fun for me! I enjoyed trying to get the most points in my team, and though I never reached the most points at Massive in total, I found it very inspiring to see the people in the top three,” she explains.

“To me, physical and mental health is really important, so I think Wellness Month is a great way to inspire people to be more active and to try new activities.”

A very special cook-along

Each week of February also had a theme, with different colleagues sharing tips and tricks in our open Teams channel on the different subjects like hiking and cycling.

During the food-themed week, Massive brought in a very special guest: famous Swedish chef Tareq Taylor, for an inspirational (and exclusive) live streamed cook-along.

“We were so happy to have Tareq join us! Together, we made zucchini pancakes and Panzanella salad from scratch, and it was really nice to spend some time together apart,” says Karolina.

Wellness Month in numbers

• Racked up 115 778 minutes of exercise
• Did 2471 different workouts
• Covered a distance of 7463 kilometers

“I’m super happy about receiving Massive’s and Ung Svensk Form’s Concept Artist Scholarship! I’ve always been interested in the games industry, but never really known how I could get into it,” explains Marie Isacsson as we call her up to congratulate her.

“Since I’m from the Malmö region, I knew about Massive beforehand, and when I saw the scholarship announcement and David Polfeldt’s vision regarding design, I immediately thought ‘wow, we share the same ideas’.”

Ung Svensk Form is a platform for young designers with the goal of sharing knowledge and raise awareness about new, innovative Swedish design. For a long time, Massive have explored the limitations and opportunities of interactive media, and our partnership with Ung Svensk Form gives us the possibility to take this ambition to a whole new level.

“Marie’s talented work on “Fantasy Land” and her passion for the correlation between physical and digital design sparked our curiosity,” explains Pierre Escaich, Development Director at Massive and one of the people involved in the new scholarship.

“But it was also her craftsmanship and exploration of the identity of gamers that caught our interest, as it explores the boundaries of virtual and digital – between the physical world and the game. This coupled with her strong interest in fashion and how it can relate to the representation of identity in games, we feel honored to offer Marie the Concept Artist Scholarship, and can’t wait to see her pushing boundaries in her future work.”

Marie has a big interest in the role clothes and skins play in games from a fashion perspective, and the connection that fashion has in the relationship between the person who plays the game and their digital persona or avatar. She was intrigued by the bond between the physical identity and the digital, and the role customization plays in building these identities.

Marie’s talented work on “Fantasy Land” and her passion for the correlation between physical and digital design sparked our curiosity.

“For my Master’s project called Fantasy Land – which I used to apply for the scholarship – I explored identities and looked at the impact customization has on players’ presence in games, with focus on MMOs. The reason why I chose to focus on MMOs is that they are different in the way that you actually meet other players, which creates a social relationship with the digital identity.”

During her internship at Massive, Marie will mostly focus on “thinking outside of the box”, but also connect with the cosplay community to better understand their thoughts and feeling regarding fashion, and what it really means to take a character out of a game, from the virtual world, into the physical world and then back into the virtual.

“I’m really excited to get to know the cosplay community better, their engagement is incredible, and I really want to learn more about that side of fashion,” says Marie.

One of the things that also interests Marie, that is outside of the traditional aspects of fashion design, is 3D modelling – as seen in her Master thesis Fantasy Land. Her work with 3D stemmed from a desire to get more control over her own work, and she tells us that she now believes that it’s the future of the fashion industry.

“In many ways, it sometimes feels like the fashion industry is stuck in its old ways, and I believe that with 3D modelling, many of those traditions can be broken. For example, negative hierarchies in the industry, and the broadening of the designer role and building collaborations with other industries – like the one Massive is now starting. I also believe it’s strongly connected to sustainability. With 3D modelling, the design process can be streamlined and the need for physical samples and prototypes can be reduced heavily. There’s just so much potential.”

I’m really excited to get to know the cosplay community better, their engagement is incredible, and I really want to learn more about that side of fashion.

So, the fashion industry could learn some things from industries working with digital art – like the games industry. But what can the games industry learn from the fashion industry?

Marie points out that games often reflect the physical world and includes fashion that somehow already exists, while the fashion industry always has been very good at looking forward and trying to give people what they don’t even know they want.

“It would be interesting to take fashion in games one step further – adapted to the game’s context of course. Expanding the horizons of fashion in games can help create more diverse identities in the customization, for example,” she explains.

Marie’s internship at Massive will start in April, and until then she’s sinking her teeth into Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 to get a better understanding of the game.

“I’m very excited to explore that world, and see everything that the Snowdrop engine can do – the details are just amazing. I can’t wait to come to Massive and learn the ins and outs of the game industry, from people in the industry,” she concludes.

– Ung Svensk Form 2021 is a co-production between Svensk Form and IKEA Museum, in association with Kulturhuset Stadsteatern and the City of Malmö. Read more about Ung Svensk Form here.

Useful links

• Announcing the Concept Artist Scholarship in partnership with Ung Svensk Form (Young Swedish Design).
• Advice from our recruiter Helen Jönsson on How to Get Into the Games Industry.