Calls of the Polar Night is an immersive puzzle horror game based on the Lovecraft universe.

It is winter in Antarctica and Prof. Sybille Cunningham is relatively new at the “Zecher-Gutennest” Research Station for the Analaysis of the Earth's Magnetic Field, Climate and Ocean Sounds. The research station is severely isolated due to its location. One day the power goes out and suddenly she finds herself in a time loop. She hallucinates terrible occult acts, but it soon becomes clear that it's not all imagination. She must fight through her own notes, uncertain memories and visions and find a way out of the time loop.

Here the focus of the game is on exciting and challenging puzzles. Players can move freely in the game world and work through the puzzles at their own pace.  They receive help from a mysterious voice on the radio, as well as glowing clues that are only visible in the dark. Players must carefully search for items and think outside the box if they want to solve all the puzzles and reach the end of the game.

Melody of the Tits is a picturesque adventure game with the main focus on music.

Tits and sparrowhawks once lived in harmony and shared their native forest. But over time, the sparrowhawks began to envy and despise the titmice for their ability to sing. Over many generations of sparrowhawk oppression, the titmice lost their beloved songs and many of their abilities. The protagonist grew up in a now desolate and silent forest. But his grandmother passed on to him his love of music and the desire to revive the forest and live in harmony with the sparrowhawk once again. That's why our little titmouse sets out to rediscover the songs of titmice by helping others and exploring the forest. However, the sparrowhawks always keep an eye on the tits.

Players move around a picturesque game world in jump-and-run style. Over time, they learn additional skills through songs that allow them to explore more and more of the game world and avoid enemies. In the village they can accept quests, communicate with non-player characters (NPCs) and unlock shops where helpful items can then be purchased.

Stranded Station is an immersive story-driven VR horror game.

Alex is a storm researcher currently stationed in Antarctica. He and his wife are cut off from the outside world by a storm. He has to watch, without hope of help, as his wife is killed by a monster. Then everything starts all over again. He can interact with his environment and, among other things, scan objects and solve puzzles in order not only to communicate with his wife, but also to confront his past. Can Alex escape the time loop and save his wife?

This is the first VR game that was created at the University of Paderborn using the newly installed VR Lab. Using a VR headset, players can immerse themselves directly in the world of the game, move objects and solve puzzles to learn the truth about the game world. At the same time, the players are under timer pressure as they are caught in a fixed time loop.

In the academic year 2022/2023, teaching in the GamesLab was organised as a two-semester event, which left sufficient time and space for ithe nterdisciplinary and cooperative learning and testing of the creative, technical, social, organisational and academic skills that are necessary in the development and research of computer games.

In winter semester 2022/2023, a total of 60 students from different study programs such as English & German linguistics, computer science, art, management, media studies, philosophy, popular music and media, or economics took part in the event and jointly developed the prototype of the computer game BossCrawl.

For the first time, the open source game engine Godot was used in GamesLab, replacing work with Unity. In addition to a new software solution, the basics of the industry-standard disciplines of 2D arts, 3D arts, audio, coding and game design were also taught and applied in a practical phase lasting several weeks.

The developed prototype represents the basic mechanics of the BossCrawl game. There are two levels. It's about a dungeon boss and a hero character competing against each other. The players control the boss character instead of saving the world as a hero as usual. This concept was carried over into the summer semester of 2023, in which it was further expanded.

In the summer semester of 2023, the development project and research into computer games was continued by 64 participating students from the subjects of English linguistics, English-language literature and culture, educational science, computer science, art and art education, mathematics, media studies, popular music and media, sports economics and economics. In addition to the prototype project, this semester's course also deals with the importance of e-sports in the media and computer gaming industry.