Berlin and Brandenburg: Schools can apply for the Games Project Days

Schools in Berlin and Brandenburg can apply for this year's “Games Project Days” organized by the Digital Games Culture Foundation. The foundation has been offering the project days with media educators since 2019. On the one hand, they are intended to convey how computer and video games can contribute to strengthening digital and media skills and, on the other, to present the various job profiles in the games sector.

The project days will take place in workshops from May to November 2025 during regular school hours. Applications for workshops should be submitted around four weeks before the desired date. For secondary level I from grade 7, the foundation recommends the thematic focus “Digital games in the classroom & strengthening media skills” and for tenth grade and secondary level II the focus “
Job profiles in the games industry”.

Storytelling and media literacy

Suggested topics for the first focus include “Digital games as an approach to art and design” (e.g., using GRIS and Okami), “Bringing history to life” (e.g., including Valiant Hearts, Assassin's Creed Origins), “Creative writing” (using Gone Home, Don't Make Love), “Reflecting on morals and values” (with A Normal Lost Phone, Papers, please), “Gender and society” (with cross-game discussions) and “Politics and society” (for example with Through the Darkest of Times, This War of Mine).

The workshop “Creative, digital storytelling with Actionbound” teaches young people the basics of storytelling and interactive digital storytelling. According to the foundation, participants first learn what makes a good story. They then discuss current topics such as hate speech or climate protection and select one of the topics. The young people will then learn methods for actively involving the audience in their story. To this end, they will receive an introduction to the Actionbound tool, which can be used to create their own digital treasure hunts, mobile adventures and interactive guides. At the end of the workshop, the results are presented, and the participants reflect together on the content and experiences.

For the workshop on the topic of “Bringing history to life”, the media educators use the puzzle adventure game “My Memory of Us”, among other things. The aim is to bring pupils into contact with the topics of National Socialism, racism, anti-Semitism, and resistance during the Nazi era, to sensitize them and to teach them media skills. To this end, the young people play the game in pairs, interspersed with reflection phases in which representations and content are discussed. In “My Memory of Us”, the players accompany a boy and a girl through a fantastic setting, which, however, has clear references to the occupation of Poland and the persecution of the Jewish population there by the Nazi regime.

Insight into games professions

For older pupils in the second focus area, there are insights into the following professional fields: Animation, game design, graphic design, level design, production, programming, sound design, writing/interactive narration and eSports. To this end, the foundation invites professionals from the games industry from the Berlin-Brandenburg region to schools to talk about their careers and answer questions from young people. The exact job profiles to be discussed will be agreed in advance. However, the foundation advocates that the broad spectrum of professions in the games industry should be presented, regardless of the specializations of the experts present.

Last year, 20 schools took part in the project days, reaching 782 adolescents. These are also the highest figures for the project days to date. In 2019, nine schools took part with 381 pupils in attendance. There were some online workshops in the first and second year of the pandemic, but only one workshop was held online in 2022. Since 2023, the workshops have been held entirely in person again.

The “Project Days Games: Berlin-Brandenburg” are funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The Digital Games Culture Foundation was founded in 2012. It is a non-profit foundation that operates nationwide and is based on an initiative of the German Bundestag and the German games industry
.

(kbe)