Games research lab opens in Germany

RMIT University’s Games and Experimental Entertainment Laboratory (GEElab) has opened a European centre in the German city of Karlsruhe.

Professor Daine Alcorn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, travelled to Karlsruhe to sign an agreement with Mayor Margret Mergen in a ceremony attended by Austrade.

“GEElab is a creative think and design tank for the future of games and entertainment,” Professor Alcorn said.

“It researches how game design thinking can positively affect and alter architecture and urbanism, mobility, popular media, storytelling, engagement and other sciences, as well as society itself.

“The GEElab Europe office will be a dedicated, research-only facility staffed by two PhD candidates who are full-time scholarship holders, a postdoctoral researcher and a director.

“Karlsruhe has become the main centre of the games industry not only in the state of Baden-Württemberg, but in the whole of Germany.

“I’m delighted that the city’s culture and creative office, K3-Büro, and GEElab Europe have already scheduled a joint symposium for September.”

Dr Steffen Walz, GEElab Director and a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, said: “We don’t develop games here. For us, it’s more about finding out what other segments of business, science and society can learn from the games sector.

“A long-term research cooperation already exists with Audi; here, we are jointly developing concepts for the car of the future.

“Using insights from games research, our aim is to make driving safer, more informative and, above all, more entertaining for the passengers on the back seat.”

GEElab Europe will be working initially with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and the high-tech entrepreneur network CyberForum e.V.