The Hamburg Games Conference 2021 welcomed more than 600 international attendees at the first online edition, featuring an industry first in its multiplayer online format as a virtual cruise ship.

For more than 20 years, Hamburg's 4Players GmbH is strongly connected with the games industry, delivering digital content with the online games magazine 4Players.de. But the company has also made a name for itself with digital service solutions for B2B and B2C alike. With their innovation project SCILL, the Hamburg-based company also offers a B2B 'Gamification as a Service’ solution to companies, publishers and development studios.

The Hamburg Games Conference on March 16 and 17 relies on a newly developed technical platform to offer participants a real conference feeling in a playful way. Using avatars, the participants of the conference can move around in a multiplayer online world to navigate to the sessions and panels with international experts, the virtual expo, or the business area with video matchmaking.

What is the best way to make a game? Don’t answer! It’s a trick question. There may never be one universal way of managing work across different teams and project sizes. Still, valuable lessons can be learned from the actual experience of the professionals in our teams.

Big changes at Playa Games: The previous COO, Thorsten Rohmann, is taking over the position of CEO with immediate effect. He has been part of the company for 9 years now. The founders Jan Beuck (CEO) and Martin Jässing (CTO), as well as  Hannes Beuck (Co-CEO), are leaving the company. Thorsten Rohmann kindly answered some questions about the future of Playa Games.

2020 is a year we will all remember. Apart from the fact that the entire world has changed, our working methods had to change, too. Plans, programs, and offers had to be redesigned and rethought.

We have reached our destination. After three months of hard work, our five teams got to present what they did during the Games Lift incubator. For most of them, this was their biggest showing yet. But to us, it did not feel like an exam – it felt like the celebration after.

You can see it in their faces, hear it in their voices, even tell it by the way their e-mails are worded: Our teams are excited. And they have very good reason to. On December 8, the Incubator will end with a public presentation. What’s in store?

The five Hamburg-based teams of the first Games Lift Incubator are coming out of three months of intensive workshops and coaching concerning the development and marketing of computer games. In the final event on December 8, the founders will present how the mentors' input has been applied to further develop their game concepts.

The Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft mbH is as of now looking for a working student (m/f/d) for the communications department for Gamecity Hamburg (16 hours per week)

The Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft mbH is as of now looking for a PR / Communications Manager (m/f/d) for the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft and Gamecity Hamburg (full- or part-time, starting with a limited contract)

Last weekend was all about "Exploring Borders" with the PLAY20 Creative Gaming Festival and our PLAY20 Game Jam, where teams from all over the world participated to create new games in about 45 hours.

Working on Public Relations for video games is challenging; it is especially so for small game developers working on tight schedules and limited budgets. That is why at Gamecity’s Games Lift Incubator, PR is a special focus. We sat in on two luminaries coaching our teams.

It may be powered by a technical achievement, but this novel VR game is all about the story. Players will walk around a dilapidated amusement park, solve puzzles and take in the scenery. There is a layer cake of a tale to discover.

And it might be done soon! Developer Roman Fuhrer has worked at a variety of successful game studios. But this action-adventure is his very own. And he wants to get it just right.

Developer Julia Reberg has a small, but enticing idea: Research alchemy in a fantasy world and find a miracle cure. If you don’t, Zombies will arrive and end the game. But we do not need to worry yet.