In collaboration with UT Tracs – Global Awareness Education, UT Digital Humanities, and the German-French Cultural Institute (ICFA) in Tübingen, the Graveler Game Festival took place from November 13 to November 16, 2025. The four-day event with 92 participants began with a conference that brought together experts from higher education, the gaming industry, and politics with students, lecturers, and researchers to discuss the future of game-based learning in higher education in keynote speeches and workshops. Over the following three days, a total of 55 participants with seven mentors (including Mexico, Romania, Italy, and Uganda), mainly students from six universities as well as researchers and freelancers, formed teams to develop serious games within 48 hours. Forty-seven participants worked on site in Tübingen, while a team of eight participants worked at Makerere University in Uganda. As part of this “game jam,” participants were given four sponsored challenges, including topics such as digital cultural heritage, political and ethics education, citizen science, and educational games. They were supported on site by experienced mentors in the areas of game narrative, graphics, audio, and software architecture, and ultimately developed a total of 16 serious games (to view the finished games: https://itch.io/jam/graveler-game-jam-2025/entries). An initial evaluation of the participants' feedback showed that they were very interested in the educational and transformative potential of their games, and no team developed games without a conscious learning purpose. In terms of collaboration, 100% of respondents received helpful feedback from team members, 76.7% from non-team members, and 63.3% from experienced mentors. Fifty percent of respondents said they would continue to refine their games and add additional content. The University of Tübingen was strongly represented during the four days with a total of 67 registrations. You can find the SWP's report here: https://www.swp.de/lokales/tuebingen/game-festival-in-tuebingen-in-48-stunden-zum-fertigen-spiel-78448087.html

The game has been designed as an engaging two-dimensional online multiplayer role-playing game with both collectible and puzzle components. In the game, a group of students embark on a virtual trip around the world, visiting a number of selected cities. As they travel, they must solve puzzles and meet the people they need to solve them, some of whom are real. These interactions are designed not only to develop students' problem-solving skills, but also to give them the opportunity to explore the content in greater depth.