School Workshops

As part of its media education program, the PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival invites school classes to play, program, and experiment with digital technology!

Our workshop program includes a visit to the interactive exhibition, participation in a “Hausbesuch” where experts from the gaming industry provide insights into their professions, and a 3-hour workshop focused on the creative use of digital games. A total of nine workshops will be available over three days, each for one school class or course. We recommend our workshops for young people starting at age 12.

This year, you can choose from the following three workshops and methods:

1. Platform and Sound – Game Design with a Soundtrack: In this workshop, the students will design their own platformer game (Pocket Platformer) and learn how to easily create music and sounds to set the mood for their games — in the process, they’ll learn the basics of game design and discover how music influences a game’s atmosphere. At the end, students can bring home the games and sounds they’ve created.

2. Build Your Own Instrument – Creating Instruments with MakeyMakey: In this workshop, students will learn about the tool MakeyMakey and use various everyday objects to build their own instruments, which they can then play themselves. At the end of the workshop, we’ll form a MakeyMakey orchestra and play different instruments together!

3. Game Body – From Game into the Body: In this theater education workshop, students explore the movements and emotions of characters from digital games through their own bodies and examine how the body responds to well-known game soundtracks. In the process, students can become game characters themselves and develop their own short scenes and choreographies. Clothing that allows easy movement is recommended for the workshop.

All workshops are led by media educators.

Dates: Nov. 18, 2026 / Nov. 19, 2026 / Nov. 20, 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. each day

Registration: Binding reservations for workshops and festival visits can be made starting Sept. 15, 2026, via the booking tool on our website.

Costs: €125 per class

Keywords: Career guidance, media literacy, living environment, creativity, storytelling, change of perspective

In combination with a school visit to PLAY26, we offer a hands-on teacher training at your school. Our media educators will visit your school either before or after the festival and demonstrate how creative gaming methods can be applied in subject-specific and creative ways in classroom teaching.

Dates: Starting in September 2026

Duration: Training (4 hours); lesson planning and implementation (approx. 8 double hours)

Registration: Together with booking a workshop/festival visit at PLAY26: anmeldung@playfestival.de

Get ready to dive into the festival preparations!

Tech-focused profile classes, school companies or project groups can take part in the technical realization of the PLAY exhibition – from setup and testing to supporting visitors during the festival. The project will start at the beginning of the 2026/27 school year.

Dates: Start at the beginning of the school year (26/27).

Duration: It depends on the schedule for the profile.

Registration: email anmeldung@playfestival.de