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12/18/2024 | Pressemitteilung

Start-up idea for mobile games receives EXIST start-up grant

Since October 1, 2024, the riprip start-up team from the School of Art and Design in Kassel has been supported in the implementation of an innovative business concept with funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy totaling 139,300 euros as part of the 12-month EXIST start-up grant.

team pictureImage: Michelle_Haupt
The riprip team from left to right: Chris Schnerr, Hannes Drescher, Robin Vehrs, N.B. Spiders. Make-up: Cat Woywod

Traditional video games are increasingly competing with short-form content on social media, such as Tiktok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, especially among younger audiences and as a result of ever shorter attention spans. The only alternative offered by the games industry so far are typical mobile games from the app store. These are usually associated with gambling mechanisms and other "dark patterns" (manipulative mechanisms) and, as simple casual games, rarely offer any added social and cultural value.

The founding team riprip is developing an innovative mobile game genre that dispenses with typical gambling mechanisms and other dark patterns. As a pilot project, riprip is currently producing the first season (10 episodes) of the game series "Terminal Crossing" (working title), a satirical deconstruction of the popular cozy game genre. The game series for mobile devices will be published regularly on social media. The pilot game series also serves to build up a community that identifies with the new genre to a high degree. Finally, the team is developing its own game engine as part of the funding period, which facilitates the development of mobile games and breaks down development barriers. "We envision a world in which everyone can be a game maker," says Robin Vehrs, member of the EXIST team. The founding team, consisting of Robin Vehrs, Nico Fiona Brauer, Christoph Schnerr and Hannes Drescher, combines skills from their studies in visual communication at the University of Art and Design with experience in project, financial and community management.

As EXIST mentor, Prof. Joel Baumann, former Rector and Head of the Faculty of New Media at the Kunsthochschule, supports the team with his expertise and network. The New Media major was established in the Visual Communication program at the School of Art and Design at the end of 2003. "Studying new media means engaging with technologies in an artistic or creative way. It involves researching and developing future infrastructures, accepting mistakes and learning from them. Students are encouraged to critically question and reflect on their enthusiasm for technology and to renegotiate it in theoretical and social discourses," says Baumann.

EXIST is a funding program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The aim is to improve the start-up climate at universities and non-university research institutions. It also aims to increase the number and success of technology-oriented and knowledge-based start-ups. To date, around 50 projects at the University of Kassel have already been supported by the EXIST funding program. The funding amount includes personnel, material and coaching resources. The teams are supervised by the UniKasselTransfer Incubator, the University of Kassel's central start-up support program. The incubator accompanies young scientists, employees, students and alumni of the University of Kassel and the School of Art and Design with a wide range of support services in the phase from brainstorming to founding.

Further information:
about riprip: www.riprip.world
about the EXIST start-up grant: www.exist.de
about the UniKasselTransfer incubator/start-up support services: www.uni-kassel.de/unikat

Contact:
Sandra Wilhelm
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer Incubator
Phone: 0561 804 7252
E-mail: sandra.wilhelm@uni-kassel.de

Gabriele Hennemuth
University of Kassel
UniKasselTransfer Incubator
Phone: 0561 804 1859
E-mail: hennemuth@uni-kassel.de