TH Köln Wins "Best Serious Game" Award

The serious game "Worlds of Materials" has been awarded the German Computer Game Prize. During an online show, the game developed by the Institute for Materials Application and the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln (The University of Applied Sciences Cologne) was honored in the "Best Serious Game" category, which is endowed with 35,000 euros.

"With the serious game, I would like to support students in their learning and increase their action competence. The fact that the game has now also been awarded the German Computer Game Prize is a great tribute. The entire team is very pleased about this recognition," says project leader Prof. Dr. Martin Bonnet from the Institute of Materials Application. In the game, the students have to draw on their basic knowledge from the materials engineering course and can thus test their level of knowledge in a playful way.

The TH Köln project is designed to convey thoroughly demanding engineering content in a light-hearted and interactive way. Students can even have the completion of the tasks recognized as part of an examination. The Corona pandemic in particular has shown that there is a great need for innovative digital teaching and learning concepts in school and university education, and “Welten der Werkstoffe” makes an interesting contribution to this field," according to the jury's assessment. The game was explicitly designed so that it can also be played by students from other universities as well as those interested in materials science. The game is available online and for download [DE].

Worlds of Materials

The plot: Student Nicole Nickel seeks out her professor after failing an exam. The latter has been locked in a closet by a doppelganger - a malicious version of the professor. To open the lock, Nicole needs a certain alloy of different metals. With the help of her skills, the laboratory equipment and the objects she finds in the game, Nicole sets out to find the right composition.

A team of 20 in total has been working on the implementation of Bonnet's game idea since 2019. Staff and students of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln developed the game from sound and game design to programming, dialogs and texts under the direction of PhD student Jonas Zimmer and research assistant Melina Rose.

TH Köln is one of the most innovative universities for applied sciences. It offers students and scientists from Germany and abroad an inspiring learning, working and research environment in the social, cultural, social, engineering and natural sciences.