[External Essay] Gamescom 2025 Interactions

Written by Anton Sagel, 16 Sepbember 202

Introductory Interaction

As a Cologne native and game designer, I thought I would share my key takeaways of this year’s Devcom and Gamescom. I hope you can learn something new about how to interact with Cologne, Devcom, Gamescom, Games and Game Developers. A lot of topics, I know, but press – which button actually? – to interact and jump right in.

Interacting with Cologne

You might not have noticed it if you only ever visit Cologne during Gamescom, but it is usually not like this. Everything suddenly revolves around games; advertisers are hard pressed to use the “newest” Gamer slang. And since it is election time, some politicians were trying to do the same with their posters. That being said, by virtue of having lived in this city since more than 25 years, there are many things that can be recommended besides just Gamescom.

Cologne is famous for its beer, Kölsch. Except for a few copycats in the US and in Brazil, beer can only call itself Kölsch if it has been brewed  within the vicinity of Cologne. Many a German will make a poor remark about the flavour of the venerable Kölsch. But they are likely mistaken, as the Kölsch has to be drunk in its own way. This is due to it becoming stale after only two minutes. Consequently, it is served in narrow glasses and to be drunk quickly. Typically, it is refilled without asking; you have to place your beermat on top of your glass to  stop the refill. The breweries also have their own restaurants, called Brauhaus, where you can eat typical food from the area.

But enough of the local patriotism; it is time to go global.

Interacting with Devcom

As a trade visitor to Gamescom or Devcom, the Gamescom.biz app is a great help in navigating the trade fair. This year, the unstoppable progress of AI technology had reached the app and, like every feature no one had asked for, quickly caused its fair share of chaos. It was supposed to enhance networking. And as such, the AI integration not only matched you with “potential” people of interest to you, but also scheduled meetings on its own, with time, location and all. Of course, it also accepted these AI-generated meeting requests for you. Having made the human factor of networking wholly redundant, those responsible had to issue a public apology already around Monday noon, the first day of Devcom. But the cherry on top of these AI-generated meetings was that you did not have the user rights to cancel or remove them  - as you were not the one who created them.

Despite these minor hiccups, however, Devcom was yet again amazing. Listening to interesting speakers, participating in great workshops and speaking to other game developers. My personal favourites are always the talks given by the developers of games I love. In that vein, the keynote “Picking Up Things: First-Person Interactivity in ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’” by Zeke Virant, Lead Designer at Machine Games, was my absolute highlight, as I loved that game. But also Don Daglow’s talk “Creating Great Characters, Monster & NPCs by Asking the Right Questions”, together with the overview of his decades-long ludic work was awe-inspiring. A refreshingly balanced view was presented by Tommy Thompson from the company AI and Games with his talk “A Hype-Free Assessment of AI in the 2025 Games Industry.

If you never visited Devcom before and this paragraph made you interested, be aware that the Gamescom and Devcom Combo ticket does not actually give you access to the talks at Devcom, only to the exhibition at Devcom, which is sadly not clearly communicated. Unless you seek to do business with the few companies and indies that exhibit there, that exhibition is rather underwhelming. So unless they update the website to be more transparent, be aware of that when you buy your Gamescom ticket. Either way, try to get an early bird ticket, as they are significantly cheaper.

Interacting with Gamescom

Gamescom of course was yet another blast. The first day of Gamescom, Wednesday, is only open for trade visitors and as such the most comfortable day to visit. The following days get subsequently fuller. However, due to cooler weather and more efficient spatial layouts, overall Gamescom felt less crowded than last year, especially in the Indie Arena Booth – despite sold-out tickets on some of the days. Let’s hope we can avoid the full brunt of summer heat again next year!

If you came to Gamescom to play games and not stand in line, I recommend you do not head straight for the big booths – rather, look for the hardware booths, as many companies there will put on the newest games to showcase their monitors, controllers, chairs, and so on. With little to no line at all!

Interacting in Games

Perhaps I am biased as a Game Designer but to me the most interesting part of Gamescom were the many ways in which you could interact with objects in the game world. What I am mostly used to is what Zeke demonstrated in his talk: you walk up to an item, hover over it and see the prompt “Press E to Interact”. That will then allow you to equip the item, put it into your inventory, open a chest or similar. But this year I saw many interesting variations of that formula. Many games had put object interaction on the F key instead of the E key, such as The Midnight Walkers by One Way Ticket Studio or the fascinatingly chaotic Pizza Bandit by JOFSOFT. I ended up in an interesting discussion with the game’s designer and he explained to me that they chose the F key for interaction as the E key was already used for combat abilities. That use of the E key apparently follows the tradition of MOBAs, a game genre I am sadly not very familiar with. While I found this irritating at first, I quickly became accustomed to it. I now even find this setup useful, as it allows you to both quickly alternate between combat moves on the Q and E keys while also quicker to pick up items.

An interesting middle ground was taken by PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions with their game Go Wayback. There, you would pick up items into your inventory using the conventional E key, but you could use the F key to put it under your arm instead – especially useful for bulky items like firewood, as inventory space is highly limited in this ultra-realistic survival game.

A similar route was taken by God Save Birmingham by Ocean Drive Studios, where you could use the E key to pick up items but also press the Q key to open a context menu that offered quick access to several actions such as consuming, dismantling, etc.

Interacting with Game Developers

Of course, Devcom and Gamescom are about more than just games; they are also about the people who make them. Key to meaningful networking connections are not only the many booths and talks but also the parties that surround Gamescom. Many are informal meetups but others require pre-registration, so early research pays off. Usually there are excel sheets circulating before Gamescom, so I recommend being at the lookout. For visitors of Devcom, the Sunset Mixer and the Developer Night are good picks. As the Sunset Mixer is actually outside of the Devcom building, you might be able to attend without purchasing a ticket. For the Developer Night you do need a Devcom ticket but you can get around it by getting a free ticket to the Courage Cologne event happening inside – they are just limited. My favourite was the Mixer Party by PLAYERUNKNOWN PRODUCTIONS, where PlayerUnknown himself DJed and you could play and talk with good food and drink. A secret tip would be the Corkonian Irish pub, where an informal, chill meetup happens on the Thursday of Gamescom.

During Gamescom, my friends from all corners of the world gather in Cologne. Being able to see them again after all this time brings a nice personal note to the event. And so one of the first things I did at Gamescom was visiting my friends at the BACKND booth who came all the way from Korea. There I did not only get coffee capsules in the form of keyboard keys but was also introduced to their student program, which I hope to introduce at my university.

Having been all alone to game fairs myself, I know this can be a daunting task – so if you find yourself all alone next near, feel free to reach out to me and I will see what we can do!

Finishing Interactions

Devcom and Gamescom provide a perfect opportunity to visit Cologne. Mingling with other game developers, drinking some fresh Kölsch and gaming are all you need to do for an amazing time. Without a doubt, the many unexpected learnings are the highlight, allowing you to learn new insights on subjects you thought were all mundane – such as interaction in games.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the official stance of BACKND.

© 2025 AFI, INC. All Rights Reserved. All Pictures cannot be copied without permission.