As the new semester started on April 1, 2024, we want to take a closer look at the HAW Hamburg (Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaft/Hamburg University of Applied Science).

While the HAW offers a broad field of studies ranging from electrical engineering, to fashion or communication, people in the Hamburg Games industry might be most familiar with the study program "Sound - Vision - Games" ("Zeitabhängige Medien - Sound - Vision - Games") which might be better known under the inoffcial name "Games Master". This is a unique master program in Germany. The Games branch trains specialists in concept art, 3D animation, level and game design and interactive programming, providing hands-on experience with it's project-based structure. At the beginning of the program, students can find themself a group or work as a solo dev on a project which they will work on throughout the next three semesters, while also completing classes on different game disciplines. 

Through this program, several studios have been founded and multiple student projects made their way out of university into our funding and incubator programs. But there are also several members of the local games industry who started out in other disciplines at the HAW, for example in the Bachelor degree for illustration. We asked several graduates from the different programs, how they remember their time at the HAW Hamburg and how it helped them get started in the industry.