Digital tools for professional game development

Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Höhl


Screenshot from the VR multiplayer game concept using HTC Vive The Grid - Rogue AI by Jeff-Owens Iyalekhue, Lukas Bonauer, Peter Greth, Daniel Jazz Young, Oliver Jung and Moritz Rocksien

"Sicheres Wissen ist uns versagt.
Unser Wissen ist ein kritisches Raten;
ein Netz von Hypothesen;
ein Gewebe von Vermutungen."

Karl R. Popper: Logik der Forschung, Tübingen 1982, S. xxv


This seminar focuses on the experimental examination of digital tools for professional game development - both in modeling and game programming as well as in the integration of interaction devices and methods (e.g.: BioFeedback, Eyetracking, Gaze and Gesture etc.). In the form of a practical seminar, the project work is carried out on the basis of a practical problem.

The whole event works like a so-called "Bar-Camp". There are several parallel sessions for students and with students, as well as with partners from business, industry and research. Main topics are Game Development, Game Design using Augmented Reality and BioFeedback, Sim Games, Simulation and Industrial Applications, and 3D Real-Time Visualization with Open Source Software. Every semester a different main topic is proposed. The students are also free to choose their own topic as well.

Three sub-modules will lead through digital real-time technologies, 3D simulation and game engines. All workshop results will be collected and finally presented. In addition to the university's own hardware, all participants are also able to work with their own hardware using pre-installed 3D modeling software and a game engine.



Literature references:

Unraveling the Tales of Aurora - An Imaginative Serious Games Approach, Demo paper accepted for presentation at IMET 2023 Conference on Interactive Media, October 4-6, Barcelona, Spain. https://imet.cyens.org.cy/

Ambiguity in Utopian XR-Games. European Journal of Futures Research 11, 6 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-023-00218-w

Grimma Floodfighters - Open Geodata in a Real-time Strategy Game, Poster presentation at Federal Forum for Remote Sensing and Copernicus 2022. https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1662305

Nykus Exploration - Open Geodata in a Survival Game, Poster presentation at Federal Forum for Remote Sensing and Copernicus 2022. https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1662306

COVID-19 and digital transformation: developing an open experimental testbed for sustainable and innovative environments using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, in: F1000Research 2021, 10:264, https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.51357.1

Ideale Architektur ist eine Utopie, in: Deutsches Architektenblatt 10/2020, S. 26-27

Amtliche Vermessungsdaten und Virtuelle Welten, in: GIS Science 3 (2020), Die Zeitschrift für Geoinformatik, ISSN 1869-9391, S. 95-102

Official Survey Data and Virtual Worlds - Designing an Integrative and Economical Open Source Production Pipeline for xR-Applications in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, in: Big Data and Cognitive Computing 2020, 4, 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4040026

COVID-19 als Beschleuniger der Digitalisierung? in: Baumeister - Das Architekturmagazin vom 1. April 2020, Georg D.W. Callwey GmbH & Co. KG, München, 2020. https://www.baumeister.de/covid-19-digitalisierung/

Wayfinding in Museums - A Cross-sectional Comparison Between 3D Serious Games and 2D Drawings as Tools for Participatory Design, in: Proceedings of 2020 IEEE Conference on Games, Kindai University, Osaka, Japan, https://doi.org/10.1109/CoG47356.2020.9231921

Game-Based Learning - Developing a Business Game for Interactive Architectural Visualization, in: Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games 2019) Vienna, Austria, 2019, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/VS-Games.2019.8864595

The Role of Serious Gaming using Virtual Reality Applications for 3D Architectural Visualization, in: Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games 2019) Vienna, Austria, 2019, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1109/VS-Games.2019.8864576

Games, Interaktive Technologien und industrielle Anwendungen - Interdisziplinäre Vernetzung | gemeinsame Technologien, in: Bartholdy, B. Breitlauch, L.; Czauderna, A.; Freyermuth, G.: Games studieren – was, wie, wo? Staatliche Studienangebote im Bereich digitaler Spiele, Transcript, Bielefeld 2018, ISBN: 978-3-8376-4032-8. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839440322-016

Interdisciplinary Integration – Transportation and Applied Interactive Technologies, Innovation survey by the Federal Ministery of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), in: Boehnke, Niels: Verkehr und Applied Interactive Technologies, BMVI and Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur, Berlin 2017, pp. 33-41. https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/download/1576108/1576108.pdf

Open Innovation and Applied Interactive Technologies (APITs), poster presentation at SAP 2017 – ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, 16-17 September 2017, Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany. https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/download/1576102/1576102.pdf

Augmented Reality in Architektur und Stadtplanung - Potenziale und Anwendungsbereiche von Augmented Reality in Architektur und Stadtplanung, in: GIS Science - Die Zeitschrift für Geoinformatik, Nr. 1 / 2015, ISSN: 1869-9391, pp. 20–29.

Sim Games, Simulation und industrielle Anwendungen, in: Kaiser, Markus (Hrsg.): Ringvorlesung Games - Retro-Gaming, Gamification, Augmented Reality, 1. Auflage, Verlag Dr. Gabriele Hooffacker, Medien Campus Bayern, München 2014, pp. 80–97.

Interactive Environments with Open-Source Software, 3D-Walk-Throughs and Augmented Reality for Architects with Blender 2.43, DART 3.0 and ARToolKit 2.72, Springer Wien NewYork 2009.

MedienStädte - Stadtplanung und Kommunikationstheorie (Cities of the Media - City Planning and Communication Theory), Passagen Verlag, Wien 2000.