Llama Lane reveals the secret sauce for the very successful Swedish gaming industry

When it comes to popular culture, Sweden is perhaps best known for its music scene, home to countless of the world's biggest bands and artists, as well as producers who have helped to create and elevate global stars. But the fact is that today Sweden is at least as good at games, with lots of world-famous developers selling massive amounts of games.

So, what is the secret behind all this? During DevGAMM, we took the opportunity to ask Lars Håhus, head of Llama Lane, about his views on the topic:

"I'm very proud to be part of the Swedish ecosystem and the Swedish game dev scene. We have stood out for quite a few years. The talent density in Sweden is really... There's so many talented developers.

"And from Malmö to the top north, there's so many people that make awesome games. I think what we've seen in Sweden that's benefited us has been that people that have been successful in making games that have made money and they've actually got some money out of that and become relatively wealthy, that they're investing back into the industry because they want to. Because they care about the industry."

The love for the gaming world makes developers and publishers reinvest in the industry, he says, and says that this leads to a positive spiral where success leads to success:

"Again, loving games and so on, but they care about the ecosystem. They care about the Swedish game climate. And then we see that more studios are founded.

"More games are being made. The seniority of the people is basically rising. We have more and more really talented developers. And that really creates this engine of a lot of really great games being produced in Sweden."

Another thing he highlights is the fact that there is no government funding for games in Sweden, which Håhus says means that developers really have to create the games people actually want to play and buy:

"What we've seen in Sweden is this sink or swim thing. You have to have a commercial mindset when you create your games so that you can get to a point where you're actually creating revenue and then can give back to the community."

Check out the very interesting interview in full below.