The following workgroups are part of the Community & Reflection modules in semester 1-4 and 6 of the Digital Games Bachelor program. For approx. 30 hours of work per semester the students receive 1 ECTS. Working in the different groups, they contribute to CGL´s community and culture and thereby gain valuable soft skills. Ideally, each student finds a group that fits his or her interests and competencies which allows him or her to „grow“ from a junior to senior member – from novice to mentor.

Workgroups at CGL

Course Guidance

Mentor: Katharina Tillmanns

The course guidance work group advises applicants and future students. In particular, it offers the following services:

  • Course guidance at internal and external events, such as the CGL info hours and the open day of TH Köln
  • Digital course guidance including (unofficial) student feedback on work samples
  • Supervision of applicants during interview stage of aptitude test

Applied & Artisitic Research

Mentor: Katharina Tillmanns & Emmanuel Guardiola

Step into the future of gaming and interactive media with our cutting-edge research teams! As part of this group, you will help shape the next generation of innovation by:

  • Developing exciting prototypes
  • Conducting hands-on experiments
  • Running insightful user studies
  • Playtesting new creations

Throughout your studies, you will dive into diverse projects, tackling them one at a time and making meaningful contributions to the future of gaming and interactive media!

Communication

Mentor: Tobias Pritzl

What’s our job?

  • Take turns in attending CGLs conferences, workshops, lectures, parties
  • Take pictures, conduct interviews, make videos
  • Put all our news and events on CGL Spaces
  • Support the PR & Press office in press-related matters

Events – Conferences

Mentor: Vanessa Ossa

As part of the events group you will be actively involved in the SomaFest (September 16-22, 2024) and all future conferences and academic events.

  • Help organizing the event
  • Support the CGL staff before and during the event
  • Event-, Hospitality- and Guest- Management
    (Registration, Welcome-desk, Coffee Bar, Speakers Lounge, Location Setup: branding and preparing the rooms & cleaning up afterwards etc.)

Student Life

Mentor: Katja Aller

This Workgroup is all about student community building.
As members of a remote academic community with minimal connections to the greater TH Köln campus, CGL students must be able envision and shape their community as well as the way they want to live, work and express themselves. This group is responsible for planning community-building events such as holiday parties, film evenings, LAN parties, game jams, cooking lessons and whatever other ideas you can come up with! We also manage a small food and drink budget to help facilitate these events.

Tech Service & Development

Mentor: Mathias Mehr

This group helps to implement new IT services and provide support to others. As a member of the group you get one IT task and help to develop or implement this in our systems. If you choose this group it would be good to have general IT knowledge or special Windows and Unix Server / coding skills etc.

Eco-Friendly Game Development

Mentor: Sonia Fizek & David Abel Wildemann

  • Evaluate existing game software, partially made by CGL students during their project phases
  • Experiment with different interventions and evaluate their effects
  • Develop guiding principles, tools, and advise students during their project phases
  • Submit the results to academic publications or conferences, and exchange knowledge with other academics and practitioners

Broken Paternoster Games Label

Mentor: Greta Hoffmann

We are a Student Publishing Label.

Our goal is to afford the possibility for every student to have at least one published game during their studies!

We are here to:

  • Publish your games
  • Organize group appearances at exhibitions/fairs
  • Provide Quality Control Management/Feedback
  • Create funding opportunities
  • And have a great time together

Student Resource

Mentor: Felix Gauer & Odile Limpach

We build tools and frameworks to support students in accessing health and self-management resources

  • Dig through existing info from THK and other places for helpful contacts and material
  • Turn this info into friendly, accessible guides for CGL students
  • Develop a long term plan for well-being at CGL

Brain & Play Initiative

Mentor: Emmanuel Guardiola

  • Research in the area of psychology and cognitive sciences
  • Focus on the players of digital games and above all the psychological aspects of video game playing
  • It covers questions like: What are the cognitive abilities trained by a certain type of gameplay? Is there a specific state of consciousness while we play? Can we guess the personality of a player from his gameplay data?
  • Members of the group set up experiments and contribute to research projects 
  • –> additional application required (by email to eg@colognegamelab.de & kt@colognegamelab.de )