The Vienna-based association SUBOTRON, the New York NGO Games for Change and the Belvedere are joining forces for the first time in spring 2026. Together, they are organising events at Austrian universities where playable prototypes of digital games will be created that are inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and combine entertainment with social issues. These games show how digital technologies can address future issues and make artistic heritage accessible through interactive formats.

Hands-on Digital Literacy

By participating in Games for Change’s annual global Student Challenge, students have the opportunity to showcase their visions and the high quality of Austrian education in the STEM and multimedia fields on an international stage. They expand their technical skills, strengthen their social competencies and enhance their portfolios with projects that combine creativity, innovation and social responsibility.

Artistic Heritage

With Belvedere, one of the oldest museums in the world and also a venue for contemporary art and digital communication, as a cooperation partner, students also have the opportunity to develop a prototype based on Austria’s artistic heritage under the title ‘PLAYING ART’. For several years, the Belvedere has been engaging with games as a contemporary form of art and knowledge transfer, fostering experimental approaches between collection, digital culture and participation. Through the Belvedere’s open content programme, students gain access to extensive databases that serve as the foundation for game elements, level designs and narrative concepts.

Releases, Presentations, Award Show

The games developed during the game jams will be published online in September and will be available to play at Belvedere 21 as part of an exhibition in November 2026. Presentations will provide insight into the students’ ideas, concepts and development processes and invite visitors to engage in dialogue with the young developers and their teachers. The event will conclude with the presentation of the ‘Austrian Impact Game Idea 2026’ award.

Game Jams

HTL Spengergasse – Game Design

UAS Technikum Wien – Computer Science

UAS St.Pölten – Media Technology

UAS Salzburg – Multimedia Technology / Multimedia Art

University of Applied Arts Vienna – Experimental Game Cultures

TU Wien – Computer Graphics

UAS Upper Austria – Digital Arts / Media Technology and Design

University of Klagenfurt – Game Studies and Engineering

Game Jam HTL Spengergasse Vienna

Game Jam Experimental Game Cultures at Angewandte Vienna with participation of students from Cross-Disciplinary Strategies, Transformation Studies, Digital Arts, Industrial Design and Art Education

(Winners 2025)

Calling all Viennese Devs!

We partnered with the Vienna Business Agency again to bring you and your prototypes and finished game creations to this years gamescom as trade visitor!

Up to three projects get € 1´500,- to cover their travel expenses and tickets.

You can join gamescom dev conference 24.-25.08., book a space at Indie Arena Booth 26.-30.08. or simply stroll through the Business Area 26.-28.08. and the Event Area 26.-30.08. to pitch your ideas to potential partners, mingle with fellow indie devs and network with the global community. SUBOTRON founder Jogi Neufeld will support you on site.

Also, there will be a get-together Tuesday 25.08. to network with the Austrian scene and international industry experts including a presentation opportunity for your game in an informal setting.

And the winners are:

• In the cozy management game “Tenshi´s Teatime” by Jennifer Brozek, players design and run a Japanese teahouse using hand-animated characters in a charming Kawaii style. 
  
  
• Flavia Mazzanti´s “Sound of Matter”(by Immerea) is a narrative-driven VR mystery game in which a quantum scientist travels through fragments of time and space to find clues and solve a boycott. 
  
  
• The treasure huntress in Florian Kraner´s “Mazestalker: The Veil of Silenos” explores handcrafted Escher-like dungeon labyrinths in a retro-style isometric action-RPG.

Congrats and see you in Cologne!

SUBOTRON founder Jogi Neufeld started consulting and curating Austrian Game History for the emerging Software Archive and Collection at the Research Institute of the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology (Technisches Museum) in 2023.

Besides nurturing the growing collection of digital games made in Austria, he started to collect oral history by conducting in depth interviews with the key figures of the scene since the 1980s.

Focus is not only company founders and employees of the industry defining studios but also hobbyists, (demo)sceners, artists and other creatives developing, expanding and playing with the medium in Austria in the last 40 years.

If you have contributed or witnessed interesting activities, please get in touch: office@subotron.com

Summary

The history of the development of digital games in Austria is still little researched in comparison to the global markets of the USA and Japan, but also to many small initiatives throughout Europe. The research builds upon the groundwork laid by researchers Eugen Pfister and Konstantin Mitgutsch, expanding it with insights and findings gained through interviews with key figures in the local scene, spanning from the mid-1980s to the early 21st century.

The universal developmental stages of a medium – from spectacle (chess computer) to self-reflection (avant-garde games) – were also executed by developers in Austria. Among other topics, the research seeks to explore whether there were local specifics in this process, and whether these resulted in unique characteristics.

The following questions will be addressed: What social, educational, and economic backgrounds motivated students to engage with the medium and pursue professionalization? What opportunities were available to them, and what challenges did they face? Were there similarities in this respect and how did they differ? And what impact did their careers have on the development of the Austrian industry?

The professional engagement with digital games in Austria did not differ significantly in content from that of other countries. Early experimental approaches emerged in university environments in the 1960s and 1970s. The subsequent commercialization and diversification during the so-called “Golden Age” from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s led to the first products by hobbyists and sceners. By the early 1990s, some of them had become entrepreneurs and achieved international success.

This economic development had occurred a decade earlier in the US and UK, explaining the initial dependency of Austrian companies on the marketing and distribution structures established in those regions. The shared language and preferences for certain genres – such as simulation games – naturally led to close cooperation with German publishers and media. While German studios could rely on their domestic markets, Austrian firms had to think internationally from the outset. This international mindset, coupled with the necessary know-how, gave them competitive advantages and resulted in some of the biggest commercial successes in the German-speaking world.

The lessons learned from operating in a volatile global market during those years continue to inform the entrepreneurial thinking of new generations in the industry. The collaboration and mutual support among pioneers during the first decade have evolved into a sustainable practice within the Austrian game development scene.

Unique applications of game-centered technologies were developed by Austrian artists in the late 1990s. From a modding community where artists became game developers and developers began to see themselves as artists, some of the most important interactive artworks emerged. These were showcased and discussed at the world’s first festival dedicated to art games (“Synworld”, May 27–31, 1999 at the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna). These works are part of Austria’s long-standing tradition of avant-garde approaches by artists whose tools have included “older” media like literature and film.

Here´s a growing list of the dialogue partners so far:

Hannes Seifert

From Hobby to Profession: Hannes Seifert was the first passionate game developer in Austria to turn his love for creating vast worlds on the Commodore 64—affectionately known as the “breadbox”—into a profession. His text/graphic adventure “Der verlassene Planet” (The Abandoned Planet) from 1989 was the first commercially released game from Austria and laid the foundation for the company Neo Software, which he co-founded with two friends in 1993.

Following successes with titles such as Whale’s Voyage and Die Völker (The Nations), the studio became Rockstar Vienna in 2001, where it handled ports of AAA titles like GTA and Max Payne for Xbox and PS2. After its closure in 2006, Seifert founded another company before moving to Copenhagen in 2010 to join IO Interactive. In 2017, he began working at Riot Games as Country Manager for League of Legends and other MMOs. Today, he serves as Head of Publishing at Riot.

In a two-hour conversation conducted by Jogi Neufeld, Seifert shares insights into his early days as an amateur filmmaker and musician, discusses opportunities for game studios in the era of the New Economy, and reflects on the challenges of collaborating with global corporations. His passion for the medium, spanning over 30 years, remains an inspiration for anyone interested in creatively engaging with interactive media.

Wilfried Reiter

Professional game development in Austria began in 1991 in Schladming. After releasing a few puzzle games, the company Max Design developed its first business simulation just a year later: 1869 – Hart am Wind, which—with its historical setting—laid the foundation for a series that continues to captivate players around the world. Anno 1602 (1998) and Anno 1503 (2002) sold millions of copies globally and were among the most successful German-language titles around the turn of the millennium.

Jogi Neufeld interviewed Wilfried Reiter, one of the studio’s three co-founders, for the TMW (Technisches Museum Wien), and spoke with him about his early days as a hobbyist on the Commodore 64.

A passionate programmer to this day, Reiter recalls the spirit of optimism in Austria’s game development scene during the 1990s, reflects on the challenges of handling success, and explains the decisions that ultimately led to the studio’s closure in 2004.

Hans Schilcher

At the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, JoWooD, based in Ebensee and Liezen, was the largest employer in the Austrian games industry. Jogi Neufeld interviewed company founder Johann Schilcher about his creative roots and early days as a hobbyist using an Atari PC—beginnings that ultimately led to a publicly traded company with hundreds of employees and subsidiaries around the world.

Schilcher traces his journey from the release of his first commercial game, Th!nk Cross, in 1991, to writing manuals for games developed by fellow Austrian studios, and eventually to building JoWooD’s core business: economic simulation titles such as Industry Giant, Traffic Giant, and Transport Giant. He offers unprecedented insights into the decision to go public in 2000 with studios in Ebensee and Vienna, and discusses the financial consequences that followed.

The game designer explains JoWooD’s rapid expansion through acquisitions of external studios targeting console and online gaming markets, how the pressure to grow impacted game production quality, and why he ultimately left the company in 2005 following the closure of its internal studios.

JoWooD stands as a prime example of how the promises of the New Economy at the end of the 1990s took root in Austria—and how ambitious game developers sought to align their core skills and visions with that rapidly changing landscape.

Erik Pojar

Few people understand how software development and its applications in game development have changed over the decades as well as those who have shaped and accompanied Austria’s games industry from the very beginning.
In a two-hour interview, Jogi Neufeld spoke with programmer Erik Pojar about his multifaceted career.

Pojar’s passion was nurtured early on during his technical high school education with a focus on data processing, supported by teachers and family who encouraged him to pursue programming professionally. He was a member of the demoscene group Surprise! Productions, where he formed a network of like-minded individuals across Europe—connections that would remain valuable throughout his career. While this subculture remains largely unexplored in Austria, it has been officially recognized as UNESCO cultural heritage in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Poland, the Netherlands, and—since March—Sweden.

Emerging from a background in software hacking, Pojar landed his first freelance gigs in the local games scene. Starting in 1993, he worked at Neo Software on titles like Whale’s Voyage and Prototype. In the late ’90s, he worked remotely on flight simulators and early VR experiences for Innsbruck-based Reality2, all while completing a computer science degree with a focus on computer graphics at TU Wien.

Pojar continuously sought new challenges to broaden and deepen his expertise. At Rockstar Vienna, he helped port games like Max Payne to PlayStation and Xbox—benefiting from his demo scene experience, especially given that Finnish studio Remedy was founded by members of the legendary demo group Future Crew. At Hybrid Graphics, a subsidiary of Nvidia in Helsinki, he expanded his knowledge in mobile gaming, which he further developed at Team Vienna.

After that studio closed, Pojar joined Greentube, known for the popular Ski Challenge, but left the gambling industry after four years. A chance reunion with former Rockstar colleagues led him to Socialspiel, where he dove into the volatile free-to-play market. When a collaboration with a Japanese publisher unexpectedly fell through, he was quickly recruited by his current employer.

Today, Pojar works at Graz-based Bongfish, where his decades of simulation experience make him a key expert on Microsoft’s Flight Simulator. He now helps evolve and market the game’s “Digital Twin” technology for clients far beyond the gaming industry.

Harald Riegler

In the 2010s, the company Sproing was the largest employer in Austria’s games industry, carrying on the legacy of influential 1990s studios like Max Design, Neo Software, and JoWooD.
Jogi Neufeld spoke with founder Harald Riegler about the studio’s eventful history.
The early career of the passionate sportsman followed a similar path to that of other Austrian game developers: HTL, university studies at the TU Wien which were abandoned in favor of hands-on professional experience, involvement in the demoscene community, and early cooperations with studios and publishers.

Harald was very active in the demo group Lazer under the name “(The) Energizer”, contributing to countless works and helping to organize international conventions. He maintained these contacts over decades, which supported and still accompany his career. In the second half of the 1990s, these networks led to initial collaborations with German publishers, building up his portfolio and generating further contract work.

The logical next step was founding his own company in 2001 together with Gerhard Seiler (now at Rabcat). By taking over development of the wildly popular Moorhuhn IP around the turn of the millennium, the young company was able to establish a solid foundation and create its first jobs. By 2010, the studio had grown to 55 employees, including many graduates from the TU’s Visual Computing Institute. Later, universities of applied sciences such as Hagenberg and Salzburg also helped meet the demand for skilled talent.
Sproing built a USP through its technical versatility: it developed for all major platforms: Windows, PS1–3, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, GBA, and released its own IP Panzer Tactics for the Nintendo DS in 2007.

Around 2010, the global market shifted dramatically, and Sproing had to adapt. “Free to Play” became the new mantra, and the studio began producing games like Skyrama, Asterix & Friends, and Sigils with various partners for this volatile market. These dependencies and unpredictable shifts led to serious challenges in the first half of the 2010s, culminating in insolvency in 2016. However, the studio was able to continue operating with half of its 100-person staff. Further setbacks, however, sealed the company’s fate the following year.

Riegler founded the studio Purple Lamp with the help of an investor and 30 former Sproing employees, but left the company just six months later to work as a consultant for various studios and publishers. Since 2020, he has been CEO of the Swedish publisher Jumpgate and is working on the online platform Games Industry Network to foster sustainable global networking within the industry.

Martin Martin

At the beginning of the 1990s, a pioneering spirit in game development was also sweeping through the valleys of the Wild West of Austria, as proven by cousins Martin and Elmar Martin, who, together with a school friend, developed and released two games from the Klostertal region in Vorarlberg. Jogi Neufeld spoke with company founder Martin Martin about the short but intense history of the studio.

Inspired by typing out listings from gaming magazines, the self-taught developers began to learn BASIC and transform their fondness for historical economic simulation games like Kaiser or Fugger into their own version. The most obvious setting was one close to home in southern Germany. In Regent, set in the year 1109, up to four players conquer and trade across 23 territories while managing tax, education, and healthcare policy. The extensive project was carried out over three years by the three hobby developers alongside their schooling and jobs. Production was also initially handled entirely on their own — from packaging at a local print shop, including a limited wooden box crafted by a neighboring carpenter, to duplicating the disks in the basement of the company’s headquarters.

Through ads in German gaming magazines timed to the 1992 release, the newly founded GmbH caught the attention of publisher Linel, based in Appenzell, Switzerland, 60 km away. Linel offered support with bug fixing, marketing, distribution, and porting the game from Amiga to DOS PC — a task Martin Martin ultimately took on himself. Regent Deluxe was released in 1994 and, like the first version, was a moderate success.

The trio undeterredly  moved on to their next idea. Dark Universe: Hüter des Friedens (Guardians of the Peace) shifted the simulation genre into the distant future. Here, too, the studio tried to set itself apart from its inspirations with original ideas while appealing to a broad audience. At a software fair in Vienna, they met their booth neighbors from Neo Software, who were promoting their sci-fi strategy game Whale’s Voyage — it was a perfect match. Neo became the publisher, while their current partner, Max Design, took on distribution for this game as well. However, the release in 1995 was somewhat rushed to avoid launching what would be considered an “outdated” game, a decision that ultimately proved disadvantageous.

Over the next few years, Martin GmbH worked on two more prototypes, but neither made it to market. Still, the adventure of being among the first game studios in Austria remained a treasured memory for the three professional hobbyists, and it continued to inspire and benefit Martin Martin in his later career in the IT industry.

Congrats to the five bachelor students from FH St.Pölten – Media Technology (BA)
who won this years SUBOTRON Live Pitch Competition for Student Projects
with their story-based adventure game

“Pollucean”

Thank you:

• the jury who gave precious feedback and will coach the winning team:
  Philomena Schwab, Regina Reisinger, Dietmar Hauser
  
  
• the other four finalists “Dorfhex”, “Off Course”, “Paddling Pals”, “SONDER: Embrace The World”
  
  
• all students who submitted their games
  
  
• the educational institutions that foster the austrian game dev scene
  
  
• the local jury Conny Lee, Vivien Schreiber, Rainer Angermann, Johannes Gäbler and Albert Gerlach
  who picked the finalists
  
  
• Jan Halwe who coached the students in a workshop
  
  
• moderator Robert Glashüttner
  
  
• you, the playtesting and engaging audience
  
  
• and our sponsors:
  
  

Unterstützt von der Fachgruppe UBIT Wien

Unterstützt vom Fachverband UBIT

Finalists of the SUBOTRON Live Pitch Competition 2025

Press: Gamesmarket Global

At the jury meeting on 18 September, our dear local experts Conny Lee, Vivien Schreiber, Rainer Angermann, Johannes Gäbler and Albert Gerlach were excited about the increasing quantity and quality of participating student projects.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and precious feedback for all applicants!

Set sail! This year, we explore Austrian folklore and our inner conflicts, survive as racoons, restore the ecosystem and alter laws of nature.

Here´s the five project who will attend a pitch workshop with Jan Halwe from ByteRockers´ Games (don´t miss his talk on 17 October!) and pitch live to our international jury and you, the audience, on 21 November.

Save the date to playtest the following games and attend the pitches of these talented devs from all over Austria:

“Dorfhex” – FH Oberösterreich – Digital Arts (BA)

“Dorfhex” is a small indie game that plays in the Austrian Alps with a heavy focus on the story that is inspired by Austrian folklore and includes four different endings. Instead of many typical narrative games, in “Dorfhex” the endings aren’t influenced by big decisions or dialog options, but rather by many small aspects of the player’s playstyle throughout the whole game. The gameplay itself consists of alternating stealth and small calm sections, where the players can explore the village (which consists of entirely hand-made 3D assets) and test out different ways to sneak past the townsfolks.

“Off Course” – FH Salzburg – MultiMediaArt (BA) & MultiMediaTechnology (BA)

Players follow Noi, a young girl navigating her troubled inner world after being ghosted by a friend. With hook and dash abilities, they traverse surreal water environments and confront themes of friendship anxiety and self-reflection. The game combines an emotional story with realistic water physics, a distinctive art style, and immersive audio design.

“Paddling Pals” – HTL Spengergasse Wien – Game Design (Matura)

“Paddling Pals” is a chaotic co-op adventure where you and your friends must steer a small boat through dangerous, fast-moving waters. What starts as a calm cruise quickly turns into a frantic fight for survival, full of obstacles, tight turns, and wild physics. Work as a team to survive as long as possible on this journey!

“Pollucean” – FH St.Pölten – Media Technology (BA)

“Pollucean” is a story-based adventure game with management and automation elements. Collect trash, recycle in your very own factory and craft equipment to restore the natural ecosystem. The game offers a beginner-friendly game loop with increasingly deep mechanics that reward experimentation and exploration.

“SONDER: Embrace The World” – FH Oberösterreich – Digital Arts (MA)

You wake up inside an enormous cave system harbouring mysteries yet to be solved. Explore & embrace “Sonder”, a first person exploration game set within an asteroid in which time flows back and forth, harbouring a vibrant paradise and a communal civilisation doomed by an imminent flood, radical environmental changes, and the collapse of their social structure. Progression is driven by accumulating knowledge and using these rules & mechanics of the game world rather than by levelling skills, upgrades or similar systems.

Partners

Unterstützt von der Fachgruppe UBIT Wien

Unterstützt vom Fachverband UBIT

“I see you”

Thank you:

• the jury who gave precious feedback and will coach the winning team: Ellen Hume, Margarete Jahrmann, Eberhard Dürrschmid, Dietmar Hauser
• the other four finalists “Dead End Job”, “Mug Off!”, “Peak Rhythm” and “Synth Cycles”
• all student projects who submitted their games
• the educational institutions that foster the austrian game dev scene
• the local jury Conny Lee, Daniela Etzinger, Tova Bele and Helmut Hutterer who picked the finalists
• Rami Ismail who coached the students in a workshop
• moderator Robert Glashüttner
• the lovely staff at Studio Experimental Game Cultures
• you, the playtesting and engaging audience
• and our sponsors:

Unterstützt von der Fachgruppe UBIT Wien

Unterstützt vom Fachverband UBIT

Unterstützt von Golden Whale Productions

Congrats to Marlien and Johann Hauser!

The two masters students from FH Oberösterreich won this years SUBOTRON Live Pitch Competition for Student Projects
with their puzzle adventure

“Morigami”

Have fun playing “Tetris” on your Gameboy-Trophy! Your pitch gave us “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”-vibes!

The decision-making process of the jury Valentina Birke, Phillp Seifried and Albert Gerlach wasn´t easy, the quality of the finalists was once again impressive, even though one team (“Taking Root”) was unable to take part due to illness.

Press: gamesmarkt.de derstandard.at kleinezeitung.at

Thank you:

• all 16 student projects who submitted their games
• the other four finalists “Another Chance”, “Container Masters”, “Isolation” and “Taking Root”
• the educational institutions that foster the austrian game dev scene
• the local jury Conny Lee, Margarete Jahrmann, Tova Bele, Dietmar Hauser and Rainer Sigl who picked the finalists
• Rami Ismail who coached the students in a workshop
• moderator Robert Glashüttner
• Manny Hachey, who could not attend as a jury member due to plane-vs-birds issues
• the lovely staff at Depot
• you, the playtesting and engaging audience
• and our sponsors: