Gamescom 2025: Students Present around 50 Indie Games

Gamescom is the world’s largest trade fair for computer and video games and will take place from August 20 to 24, 2025. The Indie Area is considered a hotspot for independent game development and, with its many indie titles, offers great potential for real insider tips. This year, around 50 teams with roughly 160 students will also present their games there — at a 63-square-meter booth. For the first time, student projects will thus have their own dedicated stage right in the middle of the Indie Area in Hall 10.2.

“It is the dream of many game design students to one day be at gamescom during their studies and showcase their own game." Until now, this was usually only possible at booths run by universities or federal states in the Business or Campus Area. While students could present themselves there, they did not yet have the full visibility and proximity to the community that is so important for the development of young talent,” says Prof. Dr. Greta Hoffmann of the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln, initiator and organizer of the “RAW TALENT” booth. The fact that students can now exhibit on a large scale in the Indie Area and be treated like indie developers is, she says, a tremendous opportunity and a strong signal from the trade fair.

Indie Area as a Reality Check

According to Hoffmann, it’s above all the atmosphere and hustle and bustle in Hall 10.2 that make the difference: “There’s no area at gamescom that compares to the madness of the Indie Area: every day, hundreds of eyes fall on your game. Visitors give you feedback, discover bugs you can’t fix anymore — and that you have to live with during the fair. At the same time, you’re competing for attention with countless other excellent indie games at neighboring booths and at the Indie Arena Booth across the way. It’s a real reality check!”

For the students, gamescom is meant not only to be a stage but also an important step toward professional life and part of a deliberately designed learning process: “In the games industry, people with experience are almost exclusively in demand — and that includes having presented a game at trade fairs,” says Hoffmann. The “RAW TALENT” booth is intended to offer all students equal opportunities — regardless of country, state, or university. At the same time, the booth is an educational format: “The students gain experience in organization, teamwork, and communication — all within a safe space where they’re also allowed to make mistakes. As a result, they build self-confidence as well as a feel for the realities of the industry,” Hoffmann explains.

About the “RAW TALENT” Booth

The 63-square-meter “RAW TALENT” booth (booth number: D042g–D044g) is jointly supported by eleven public universities from Germany and Austria. Participating institutions include: the University of Bayreuth, HTW Berlin, TU Chemnitz, Hochschule Darmstadt, Hochschule Furtwangen, TU Graz, TH Köln, Hochschule Mittweida, Technical University of Munich, Hochschule Neu-Ulm, and the University of Siegen. The patron institution of the booth is TH Köln.

Following its premiere at gamescom 2024, the “RAW TALENT” format is now entering its second year. Back then, 19 student teams presented their projects in a space of just four square meters in the “Home of Indies” (HOI) — organized by HAW Hamburg, Hochschule Mittweida, and TH Köln under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Greta Hoffmann.

Text excerpts taken from the TH Köln press release