The third edition of Games Ground in Berlin presented itself in a now seemingly established structure, offering clear orientation through its formats, tracks, and topics. The bisected games festival at Alte Münze – comprising two days of a business conference followed by a public weekend of play – was, as in the previous year, followed by an investment week featuring a series of online funding events at local, national, and European levels. The industry gathering remained the central pillar of the event, providing lectures and meeting points while showcasing productivity and offering entry points for an industry-interested audience.
While the central hall mainly showcased independent developments and projects from media schools and public funding initiatives, the lectures focused on production post-mortems, marketing strategies, and financial conditions across different stages within the event area. Lecturers, developers, and students could meet at matchmaking events throughout the show to deepen exchanges or establish cooperations and hiring activities.
In the basement of the venue, the XR Dungeon returned once again, as in previous years, serving as a special underground showcase for projects related to immersive media technologies. Many of these presentations continued cooperations established in earlier editions, featuring student works primarily from HTW, mixed-reality playgrounds from local startups, and meditative visual experiences from art cooperatives. Body and mind were engaged (meta)physically through hand-tracking installations, motion-capture demonstrations, and role-playing scenarios addressing social empathy, cultural heritage preservation, and health-related activities for the elderly.
While the stages on the upper floor addressed contemporary promotion strategies via social media, a somewhat fragmented financial investment landscape within the industry, and legal considerations surrounding the adoption of AI in game production, the lower floor focused on the subconscious and cosmic dimensions of virtual realities. I entered Kafka’s Metamorphosis in the body of a cockroach with the mind of Gregor Samsa, traveled through an artistic interpretation of the human circulatory system, and engaged in a gesture-based conversation with an AI trained on ancient Persian mythology.
Games Ground 2025 once again established itself as a key hotspot for the games and immersive media industry. By combining conference formats, public showcases, and targeted investment and matchmaking opportunities, the festival created a space where emerging talent, established studios, educators, and investors could meet on equal footing. The variety of encounters across stages, exhibition areas, and networking formats underscored its role as a catalyst for collaboration, knowledge transfer, and the playful reconnection of the body with the mind.
