While Japanese and American game developers such as Nintendo and Electronic Arts have largely dominated the video game industry for most of its short history, there are some interesting things happening in Europe now.

There are highly profitable studios like Clash of Heroes creator Supercell, as well as critically acclaimed studios with cult followings such as Polish developer CD Projekt RED (The Witcher) and Icelandic developer CCP Games (Eve Online).

And of course, Minecraft, one of the most successful games in recent history, was created by Swedish studio Mojang AB, which was recently bought by Microsoft Corp for a cool $2 billion.

A new trend has seen the creation of several start-up accelerators in parts of Europe dedicated explicitly to getting fledgling game companies of the ground. For example, the tiny Baltic nation of Estonia has a three week accelerator program called GameFounders that draws game makers from all over the world.

Now, Sweden is building a similar project, and it is bringing in some big name game creators to serve as advisors for the accelerator.

The gaming cabin

Stugan (meaning “cabin”) is a two month summer camp for video game startups that takes place in an idyllic cabin located “hundreds km from cities” in the municipality of Dalarna. A cabin in the woods may not sound like the kind of high tech office one might associate with bleeding edge game creation, and in fact, Stugan tells game creators they will have to bring their own computers.

But while Stugan does not plan on adding any mocap studios or sprawling render farms, it recently announced that it would be working with several well respected advisors with extensive experience in the video game industry, both as developers and as industry business leaders.

Their new advisors include:

• Jens Bergensten (Jeb_), lead developer of Minecraft at Mojang.
• Tommy Palm, co-founder and CEO of Resolution Games and long-time Swedish games industry veteran.
• Oskar Burman, general manager of Rovio Stockholm and one of Sweden’s most well-known figures within the games industry.
• Christofer Sundberg, founder and creative director of Avalanche Studios.
  Paul Bragiel, Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and managing partner and co-founder of I/O Ventures.
• Alexander Ekvall, director of product at King Digital Entertainment overseeing production for Candy Crush Saga and other hit games.

While Stugan warns applicants that the camp is “not a paid holiday” and teams are expected to reach their project goals, the accelerator does promise “for teams who like a late night swim, there’s also access to a lake.”

Image credit: Stugan (c)