Greater Games ENDE
Founder · professor · game designer

Greta Hoffmann

Game designer, illustrator and researcher. Greta makes games about topics nobody wants to touch, from waste sorting to money to false play, and gets people to play them anyway.

Invite Greta to speakCologne Game Lab profile
Greta Hoffmann
NowProfessor of Game DesignCologne Game Lab, TH Köln
StudioFounder, Greater Gamesco-founder of Bunny & Gnome
CommunityDGSW boardRAW TALENT booth, gamescom
ResearchPhD, KITgame design for learning
Highlights

Awards, invitations, firsts

A selection. The awards for the games themselves are on each game’s page.

2026
Serious Play Award Humanitarian & NGO category, for Uuugh – False Play
2026
Speaker, Serious Play Europe ↗ first European edition of the conference
2026
Researcher Spotlight ↗ portrait on gamesmarkt / games market global
2024–26
RAW TALENT at gamescom ↗ booth for game research from German universities
2024 + 25
ZDF Morgenmagazin ↗ gamescom expert, two years in a row
2023
Professor of Game Design ↗ appointed at Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln
2021
Falling Walls Lab ↗ 3rd place
2025
GALA Best Paper Award ↗ for the Uuugh – False Play paper, Games and Learning Alliance conference
On the road

Moments

TH Köln New Year’s reception
2024TH Köln New Year’s receptionPhoto: Thilo Schmülgen / TH Köln
gamescom week, Cologne
2026gamescom week, Cologne
Panel at the Karlsruhe 300 city talks
2015Panel at the Karlsruhe 300 city talks
Gigi, Greta’s character for zkm_gameplay. the next level, ZKM Karlsruhe
2018Gigi, Greta’s character for zkm_gameplay. the next level, ZKM Karlsruhe
Selected talks

On stage since 2013

Conferences, festivals, science slams and ministries: from game jams in Karlsruhe to DiGRA in Japan.

2026Serious Play Europe ↗Talk on serious game design
2026Lernkino DüsseldorfUuugh – False Play, child protection
2025WIA Festival, TH KölnTalk
2025University of Agder, NorwayInvited talk
2024CIVIS conference, MálagaTrack chair and talk
2024KeinSpiel, Helmut Schmidt UniversityDefining play through Game Stencils
2024Indie Campus, KölnTrashmonsters: a 10-year journey of promoting a serious game
2024Science Slam, TH KölnFrom straw to gold: making the unattractive tempting
2023Winter of Games III, TH KölnTopics nobody likes, games everybody plays
2023JLU GießenInvited talk
2022RAL award ceremony, TU DarmstadtDie Müll AG: waste sorting that is fun
2019DiGRA, JapanWorkshop: metaphor-based character design
2019VS-Games, AustriaFinancial education for millennials · perfectionism in games
2019ZKM KarlsruheKubun.io: criteria-based research
2018DiGRA, ItalyIncentivizing correct waste sorting
2017iGBL, IrelandTrash Monsters: game design that fosters perfectionism
2015Karlsruhe 300Panel, city anniversary talks
Research

Selected publications

Papers on game design for learning, sustainability, money and child protection.

All publications on ORCID
2026
“Uuugh – False Play”: a serious game to teach detection and prevention of perpetrator strategies ↗Bittner, Hoffmann, Hoffmann, Fegert
Games and Learning Alliance (GALA) · Best Paper Award
2024
Dagstuhl Report 14(6) ↗Dagstuhl Seminar 24261
Dagstuhl Reports
2022
Gameful learning for a more sustainable world ↗Hoffmann, Pfeiffer
Business & Information Systems Engineering
2022
Doctoral thesis on game design for learning ↗Hoffmann
KIT, Karlsruhe
2021
Can immersive systems help address sustainability goals? ↗Pfeiffer et al.
Springer book chapter
2019
Exploring game design for the financial education of millennials ↗Hoffmann, Matysiak
VS-Games 2019
2019
Perfectionism in games ↗Hoffmann, Martin, Weinhardt
VS-Games 2019
2018
Incentivizing correct waste sorting by game designClocher, Hoffmann
DiGRA 2018
2016
Gamification-Anreizmechanismen ↗Zentek, Hoffmann
Mensch und Computer 2016
Listen & watch

Greta in the media

PodcastOK COOL meets Greta Hoffmann ↗2023 · Punzel, behind the scenes (German)
PodcastSpielsinn #57: Reichhaltiges Game Design ↗2024 (German)
TVZDF Morgenmagazin ↗gamescom 2024
RadioDeutschlandfunk Kultur, Breitband2024 · Nintendo vs. Palworld
TVWDR Lokalzeit ↗2024 · Cologne games at gamescom (German)
InterviewForesight Festival ↗2016 · digital learning (German)
Research

Game Stencils

Greta's long-term research: drawing the fundamental structures of games, so designers can see what they are navigating. Published as an open notebook.

Read the research log

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