Gamescom 2025 as a showcase and a litmus test

Colourful, creative and original: Gamescom’s Indie Area is regarded as a hotspot for independent game development and, with its numerous indie titles, offers great potential for real hidden gems. This year, from 20 to 24 August, around 50 teams comprising some 160 students will be presenting their games at a 63-square-metre stand there. This marks the first time that student projects have been given their own dedicated stage right in the heart of the Indie Area in Hall 10.2.

“For the past eight years, students from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences have been showcasing their games and projects at Gamescom. At their own stand, with partners such as Samsung, and now alongside other universities,” says Professor Alexander Marbach. He teaches in the Creative Content Design department as part of the Media Informatics and Interactive Entertainment degree programme and supervises, amongst other things, the students’ final-year projects. This is what makes studying in Mittweida so special: every year, fifth-semester students work together to develop a fully-fledged computer game.

At the event in Cologne, HSMW showcased games such as Bot/Bot (Traveller's Box), Wummsen Village (JoyJab Games), Code 9 (Riding Turtles) and Spooky Bodies (Hero Saplings) – spin-off games from four Mittweida-based development studios run by former students who have set up their own studios. “The Indie Area at Gamescom is the ultimate reality check, a continuous pitch directly to the very people who are meant to play the game,” says Marbach. “Anyone who receives consistently positive feedback from hundreds of players every day is well on the way to launching their first successful game.”

The 63-square-metre “Raw Talent” stand (stand numbers: D042g – D044g) is organised by eleven state universities from Germany and Austria. Alongside Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, the following institutions are also taking part: the University of Bayreuth, HTW Berlin, Chemnitz University of Technology, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Furtwangen University, Graz University of Technology, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, the Technical University of Munich, Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences and the University of Siegen.

Following its debut at Gamescom 2024, the ‘Raw Talent’ format is now entering its second round. At that time, 19 student teams presented their projects in a space measuring just four square metres at the ‘Home of Indies’ (HOI) – organised by UoAS Hamburg, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences and Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

Every year, around 90 students choose to enrol on the ‘Games’ degree programme at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences. The underlying teaching concept is entitled ‘Digital Skills and Products’ and has received numerous awards, including the Saxon Teaching Prize. Throughout their degree programme, students apply the theoretical knowledge they have learnt in projects that span several semesters.

“Individual coaching supports the learning process. IT and creative skills are combined, not only in the joint development of the game at the end of the degree programme, but also in projects with clients from the business world,” explains Professor Matthias Baumgart, who, as Dean of Studies, is responsible for the further development of the programme, highlighting another distinctive feature of the ‘Games degree’ in Mittweida.

For anyone who’s made a last-minute decision and is now curious: there are currently still a few places available for the autumn 2025 intake on the Media Informatics and Interactive Entertainment programme and other degree programmes at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.