Our Design, Culture, and Training Specialists
As leaders in the fields of transformative education, game design, and cultural bridge building, we can work with you on your latest project, run a workshop at your conference, create a program for your clients, or meet your organizational needs.
Kjell Hedgard Hugaas
Transformative Game Designer
Location Sweden
Biography
Kjell Hedgard Hugaas is a Northern Norwegian game designer, organizer, writer, theorist, and trained actor. The last few years he has explored the transformative potential of games, and has worked on developing specific intentional game design practices that facilitate transformative effects.
Who Kjell Helps:
- Institutions of Higher Learning: Helping universities and colleges incorporate role-playing based tools into their curriculums, and create curriculum and textbooks.
- Businesses and Organizations: Using role-play based methods to develop management skills, and soft communication and collaboration skills.
- NGOs: Developing, as well as teaching staff how to incorporate games into their work and outreach intiatives.
- Cultural Organizations: Consulting on specific art projects, such as for instance stage productions, analog and digital games, and all manners of text.
How Kjell Helps:
Drawing on his years of experience as an analyst, Kjell starts with identifying the client’s current and future needs. He then creates a theoretical foundation that invites the client to collaboratively co-create the solutions to their own challenges. Based on the created work, Kjell facilitates a process where the lessons learned are integrated into the workplace culture of the client.
Engagement Tools:
- Transformative Game Design: Using analog role-playing tools developed over the last 30 years to facilitate transformation in individuals, groups, organizations, subcultures, and societies.
- Psychology of Play: Connecting play experiences and game design to the fields of psychology and social psychology.
- Quantitative Tools: Leveraging statistical instruments to identify needs, and track developments on group levels.
- Integration:
- Safety Tools: Creating and maintaining psychological safety within groups, in order to maximize the potential for transformation.
Key Clients:
- Uppsala University
- The Smithsonian
- CIRCUS
- Region Uppsala
- Teater Sörmland
- University of Groningen
- University of Göttingen
Notable Achievements:
Kjell is a founding member of the Transformative Play Initiative, and has theorized how ideas impact players through the processes of memetic bleed, procedural bleed, and identity bleed. He is a very experienced public speaker, and has presented his work at, among others, DiGRA, CEEGS, Knutepunkt, GENeration Analog, PCA, and Playful by Design. As well as being a frequently published academic and writer, he is also the co-founder and CEO of the game studio and research company Evocative Games AB.
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Notes
- Education: Master’s Degree in Game and Interactive Media Design at Uppsala University, Bachelor’s in Nature Science at University of Bergen
- Certifications: Diploma in Public Administration, Economy, and Management, and a certificate in Transformative Game Design
- Languages: Norwegian (Native), English (Native), Swedish (Professional), Danish (Advanced), German (Basic), Spanish (Novice)
Academic and Professional Publications:
Multiple chapters in Role-playing Games for Interdisciplinary Research Cooperation: Theory and Practice. CIRCUS Interdisciplinary Insights, Uppsala University. In press.
Multiple chapters in Transformative Role-playing Game Design, edited by Sarah Lynne Bowman, Elektra Diakolambrianou, and Simon Brind, eds. Transformative Play Research Series. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala University Press. In review.
“Bleed and Identity: A Conceptual Model of Bleed and How Bleed-Out from Role-Playing Games Can Affect a Player’s Sense of Self.” International Journal of Role-Playing 15 (June): 9-35
“Playing Dead: How Role-Play Game Experiences Can Affect Players’ Death Attitude Profiles (DAP-R).” Master’s thesis, Uppsala University, 2023.
“Practicing Dying: How Role-playing Games Can Help Us Accept Death and Boost Our Quality of Life.” In Fictional Practices of Spirituality I: Interactive Media, edited by Felix Schniz and Leonardo Marcato, 23-52. Transcript, 2023.
“Gotland och Studenterna.” Analysis of Student Retention for Region Gotland. 2023.
“Gotland and the Game Industry.” For Region Gotland and GUBIS, 2023.
“Bleed and Identity: A Conceptual Model of Bleed and How Bleed-out from Role-playing Games Can Affect a Player’s Sense of Self.” Master’s thesis, Uppsala University, 2022.
“Liminal Intimacy: Role-playing Games as Catalysts for Interpersonal Growth and Relating.” In The Magic of Games, edited by Nikolaus Koenig, Natalie Denk, Alexander Pfeiffer, and Thomas Wernbacher, 169-171. Edition Donau-Universität Krems. With Josephine Baird and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, 2022.
“Magic is Real: How Role-playing Can Transform Our Identities, Our Communities, and Our Lives.” In Book of Magic: Vibrant Fragments of Larp Practices, edited by Kari Kvittingen Djukastein, Marcus Irgens, Nadja Lipsyc, and Lars Kristian Løveng Sunde, 52-74. Oslo, Norway: Knutepunkt. With Sarah Lynne Bowman, 2021.
“Speechcraft.” In What Do We Do When We Play?, edited by edited by Eleanor Saitta, Johanna Koljonen, Jukka Särkijärvi, Anne Serup Grove, Pauliina Männistö, and Mia Makkonen. Helsinki: Solmukohta.
“Transformative Role-play: Design, Implementation, and Integration.” Nordiclarp.org, December 10. With Sarah Lynne Bowman.
“Investigating Types of Bleed in Larp: Emotional, Procedural, and Memetic.” Nordiclarp.org, January 25, 2019.
Recently Completed Projects (2020-present):
- 97 Poets of Revachol (2024, Rolling Larp Association). Conceptual Design, Safety Lead. 100 player blockbuster larp based on Disco Elysium. Run in Czech Republic.
- Meet Me Halfway (2024, EDGE Erasmus+ Consortium). Project Manager, Game Designer. 12 player experimental larp about soul mates communicating throughout time through various technologies. Run in Finland connected to Solmukohta/Knutepunkt. In press for 2025.
- Take The Star Out of the Window (2023, Games & Society Lab, UU). Lead Game Designer. 3-4 player nano-larp about dynamics within a military family in times of war. Part of Norwegian Prine Trilogy.
- The Last Song (2022, Avalon). Narrative/Character Writer, Safety Consultant. Blockbuster historical larp based on the Christianization of Viking culture. Run in Denmark.
- The Forbidden History (2018, 2021, 2023, Atropos/LarpVenture Studios): Narrative/Character Writer, Safety Consultant. 100 player blockbuster larp. Run in Poland.
- If I Could See Your Face Again (2021). Lead Game Designer. 4-8 player chamber larp about coal mining accident, political themes. Run in Sweden.
- Sahara Expedition (2020, 2024, Chaos League): Narrative/Character Writer. 80 player blockbuster larp based on the Cthulhu Mythos by H.P. Lovecraft. Run in Tunisia.
- Hello in There (2019, 2023): Lead Game Designer. 6-10 player chamber larp about a couple meeting, getting married, aging, and dying. Part of the Norwegian Prine Trilogy. Run in Norway, Sweden, and the UK.
Serious Game Design Projects:
- Erasmus+ ROCKET project (2024-present, Universities of Göttingen, Uppsala, Groningen): Series of edu-larps and workshops training skills in conflict transformation. Run online. In development for 2026 publication.
- “Unnamed Project” (2024-present, The Smithsonian) Designer, Developer. Board game training skills in design. To be used in educational context.
- Common Ground (2021-present, TPI and CIRCUS, UU). Designer, Facilitator. Edu-larp training skills in creating a shared research agenda in interdisciplinary research collaborations. Run in Sweden. In press for 2024.
- The Pitch Session (2022, TPI and CIRCUS, UU). Designer, Facilitator. Edu-larp training skills in synthesizing and presenting interdisciplinary research. Run in Sweden. In press for 2024.
- The Deadline (2022-2023), TPI and CIRCUS, UU). Designer, Facilitator. Edu-larp training skills in conflict transformation in interdisciplinary research teams. Run in Sweden. In press for 2024.
- Agents of Empowerment (2021, Transformative Play Initiative, UU): Designer, Facilitator. 3-4 player larp about accessing inner resources and supporting colleagues for sustainability in academia. Run online.
- Conflict Transformation Academy Level 2 (2020-23, Austin Community College): Series of edu-larps and workshops training skills in conflict transformation. Run online.
Projects in Progress:
- Sulis: Once We Were Brothers (2025-27, Evocative Games): Game Designer. Hybrid 3D survival game, 2D resource management, and adventure game about a Norwegian village during Nazi Occupation in WWII.
- Eskandar (2024-25, Evocative Games): Project Manager, Game Designer. Board game about political factions influencing the military conquests of Alexander the Great (Eskandar in Persian).
- Paradise (2025, Evocative Games): Lead Writer. Film about trans activists aiding unionization efforts in the rural Southern United States. Treatment funded by Film Gotland (2024).
- A Highly Irregular Tale (2024-25, Evocative Games). Game Designer. Interactive fiction Choose Your Own Adventure game series based on Sherlock Holmes stories.
- The Diner at the End Of The Galaxy (2023). Lead Game Designer. Video game concept sketch based on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
- The Mountain (2025): Lead Game Designer. 3-day larp version of If I Could See Your Face Again.
- 0.[Zero]K (2024): Narrative Design. Video game about cryogenics, death, and life.
- Norwegian Prine Trilogy (2018-2022): Lead Game Designer. Compilation of games inspired and integrating the music of John Prine, including Hello in There (2019), Take the Star Out of the Window (2023), and Summer’s End (in progress).
- Ellis Unit One (2025): Lead Game Designer. 2-day larp about capital punishment.
- The In-Between (2025): Lead Game Designer. Transformative larp about death, deconstruction, and reconstruction of identity.
- 500 Miles From Birmingham (2026): Lead Game Designer. 3-day larp about the coming together of hippies and outlaw country musicians at a festival run by Willie Nelson in the 1970s.
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