Award for Creative Game Development: “Roast in Pieces” Impressed the Jury at the Best in Class Award 2026

On January 22, 2026, the best projects in the field of game engineering were honored with the Best in Class Award 2026 at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien. The award-winning works impressively demonstrate the creative and technical potential of the students from the Master’s program in Creative and Human-Centered Technology and underscore the high quality of education in the field of interactive media and game development.

All submitted projects were evaluated by an internationally renowned jury with a total of 18 members. The evaluation was based on the criteria of creativity, design, technical implementation, and gameplay. The jury included Martin Filipp, Chairman of Pioneers of Game Development Austria, Maroš Brojo from the Slovak Game Developers Association, as well as Julian Breddy, Jorge Magan Martin, Dietmar Hauser, Kai Erenli, Christian H., Raphael Dohnalek, Markus Altenhofer, Michal Kabát, Sebastian Hofer, Irene Holec, Karl Hofer, Eugen Jiresch, and other experts from the international games industry.

Overall winner impressed with its deliberately chaotic yet lovingly designed approach

The overall winner was the 2D platformer Roast in Pieces. The game impressed with its deliberately chaotic yet lovingly designed approach and was also named the winner in the creativity category. Second place went to Ellies Quest, a playfully designed application for training your own voice that combines interactive mechanics with a practical field of application.

Benedikt Salzbrunn, program director of the Master’s program in Creative and Human-Centered Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, emphasized the achievements of all those involved:

“Thank you to all the students for their great work and once again, congratulations to the winning team. And also thanks to all our colleagues who supported us at the event: Jürgen Konrad, Patrik Plöchl, Markus Petz, Fabian Wagner, Miran Jank, Bernhard Knapp, and above all Alexander Nimmervoll.”

The award not only recognizes outstanding individual projects, but also highlights the importance of creative, user-centered, and technically sound developments in the range of courses offered by the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien.

All projects and videos from previous years can be found here:

Game development projects

Further Information:

Master’s program in Creative and Human-Centered Technology

Best in Class Award 2025: Best game engineering projects of the academic year honored (2025)

Inspiring look into the future of artificial intelligence and game engineering (2024)

From eye-controlled calculators to AI action video games: Master AI Showcase Evening (2023)

Versatile game ideas: Game Engineering students presented their final projects (2022)

Faculty of Computer Science & Applied Mathematics

Picture Gallery:

Projects 2026

Roast in Pieces (Best in Class)

Team: Cruz Franchezca Meree, Ernst Fridolin, Issa Kevser, Zaki Khalil Youssef

Supervisor: Christoph Quas

Description: Roast in Pieces is a fast-paced 2D party platformer survival game for 2–4 local players. You play as burning marshmallows and compete against each other in short, chaotic rounds. Constant fire damage keeps the pressure high and demands quick reactions. Collect milk to fight the flames and keep your marshmallow alive, grab power-ups, and place items to sabotage the arena. Survive the longest and win this heated marshmallow party!

Ellie’s Quest

Team: Salomé Christiani, Markus Knittelfelder

Supervisor: Jürgen Brunner

Description: Ellie’s Quest is a voice-controlled exploration and expression game centered around a warm-hearted, quiet 14-year-old girl named Ellie. She loves music but struggles to express herself. Set in a charmingly illustrated suburban neighborhood, the player helps Ellie find her voice literally, by navigating her around the map using singing, sound-making and pitch. It is designed to foster creativity, confidence, and cooperation.

Drive Me Crazy

Team: Botond Kovacs, Lucienne Angeli Maramara, Marius Damm

Supervisor: Fares Kayali

Description: Drive Me Crazy is a chaotic, local party racing game for up to four players in one car. One player drives, collects points, and avoids obstacles—if they hit too many, another passenger takes the wheel. The other players can sabotage the driver at the same time, for example by blocking the brakes or turning the steering wheel to take control themselves. The player with the most points wins.

Shattered Bonds

Team: Paul Bliemegger, Nikolaus Rieder, Julian Haderer, Karim Sid Ahmed

Supervisor: Julian Breddy

Description: In Shattered Bonds, you rise as a guild leader, recruiting powerful heroes and strengthening your guild as you face strategic action combat and roguelike dungeon challenges. Actively change your team formations during combat and unlock special combat abilities to overcome your enemies. Every great leader succeeds with the support of their guild– forge strong bonds, combine your strengths, and ascend together.