Games at MängudeÖÖ 2026

This year’s MängudeÖÖ was organized together with a game development conference. We went there with our rising game development students, who, in addition to gathering essential feedback for their games, learned a lot from the industry professionals at the conference. Two of our student games were summer projects, one was a course project from our Computer Game Development and Design course, and one, Hardwired, is a student game on Steam.

Every year, we provide the experience of showing their game at the MängudeÖÖ expo for different students and their games. The booth design, what we need to bring for it, packing, and setting everything up are all big parts of the adventure.

One of the conference talks was by James Butcher from the University of Staffordshire. He explained that while making it in the video game industry might be daunting, especially nowadays, it is important to start. There are plenty of success stories by small teams, and regardless of where you are in life, you should start now!

We also visited Simon Landry’s workshop on pitching music for games. It was great hearing about his process at Ubisoft: how they prompt the potential composers, what guidelines they have, how the choices are made, with examples of Assassin’s Creed and Avatar games, and how to communicate in a way that you keep the options open for the next project. Many people also brought their own audio samples, which we listened to together with Simon.

After the conference came the MängudeÖÖ main party. What caught my eye was the improv D&D organized by KVEST and Ruutu10. The Ruutu10 improv actors were playing characters that three volunteers from the audience controlled within a short D&D story DM-ed by the amazing Rauno Meronen.

At our own booth, there were always people playing our student games and discussing game development education. We discussed many interesting topics like why the Estonian game development industry is so small compared to neighboring countries, how the emergence of new technologies is changing game development and its education today, and the different opportunities to learn the field we have at the University of Tartu. Of course, we also had our meta-game of collecting four stamps by playing all our student games and getting a prize for it.

Hardwired

This is a game about being a hacker in a retro cyberpunk world made by our student Egor. For people who have ever used a command line on a computer, there is instant recognition in writing commands like “help” and “tree” in Hardwired while trying to solve an increasingly intensifying mystery. Soon to be released on Steam.

Apotheria: Herbs & Elixirs

Apotheria is a game created during our Computer Game Development and Design course by a team of four students. It is a cozy and polished game, inspired by Stardew Valley. In Apotheria, you discover different herbs growing around your house and mix them into all sorts of potions. By selling the potions, you get currency to buy seeds, which allow you to grow more herbs. It was showcased by our students Charlotte and Erik.

Skulls Below

The dungeon crawler first-person hack and slash game Skulls Below was developed by our student Kristo. Previously he had worked on Blastronaut for his bachelor’s thesis, but wanted to try creating something new during the summer. There is something very nostalgic about battling skeletons in a dim dungeon.

Pieces of Dream

The 3D exploration and puzzle game Pieces of Dream was also developed as a summer project by our clever student Evelina. Do not let the beautiful graphics mesmerize you into missing the environmental details important for solving the puzzles.