Communications and Marketing

A look back: H-BRS at Gamescom 2024

Tuesday 27 August 2024

Gamescom has once again proven its appeal as a colourful and flashy trade fair spectacle for the computer and video games industry. A good 335,000 visitors from 120 countries purchased a ticket for the major event in the Cologne exhibition halls. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS) was visible and approachable on all five days of the fair. At its stand in Hall 10.2, it showcased projects from the teaching and research areas of game development, virtual reality and robotics.

Gamescom is the world's largest trade fair for computer and video games and consumer electronics. Manufacturers from all over the world present their new software and hardware at the trade fair. It attracts developers, reporters of all kinds and, of course, a - predominantly young - computer-savvy audience. According to Gamescom 2024, around 335,000 visitors from 120 countries flocked through the halls on hot, summery days. Friday and Saturday were even sold out. Around 32,000 trade visitors came to see the latest developments and make contacts. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg had a stand on all five days of the fair. On each day of the fair, a new team of students, staff and professors from H-BRS formed to present university projects and provide information about the degree programme.

202211_fbinf_Project_Honu_KonzeptArt_GameDevTeam

The computer game "Honu" shown at the fair is being developed at H-BRS. Photo: GameDev Team

Of course, a computer game developed at H-BRS was not to be missed at the stand. The game development team presented the previously unpublished game "Honu". The action-orientated adventure game tells a story about the island of Honu, which is infested by a dark fog. The game, which features lovingly designed graphics, has been in development at the higher education institution since 2022. The Game Development team also organises gaming events such as game jams. According to the statistics, hundreds of visitors to the stand tried out the game and/or found out more about game development at H-BRS. Just as many visitors to the stand dropped into the massage chair and took a virtual journey through space with the help of VR glasses. Queues in front of the relaxing armchair proved that this project was one of the biggest attractions at the H-BRS stand. The Neanderthal avatar also attracted a lot of attention. The Department of Computer Science displayed the animated image of a Neanderthal as an example of the application of computer game technology for scientific and cultural purposes. The eye-catcher from the Robotics research area was the "robot arena", which had already been used at the "Night of the Robots" at the higher education institution. On Thursday, the three students from the Heinrich-Böll-Gymnasium in Troisdorf, who won first place at the Robot Night, supervised the imagination-inspiring robot arena.

The number of informational discussions that the university staff had with visitors to the stand totalled several hundred, which was also evident from the fact that some of the study programme flyers ran out. Many questions were asked and answered, for example about admission requirements, Master's degree programmes or doctorates.