25 Years of Games at ITU
This year, games research and education at the IT University of Copenhagen celebrates its 25th anniversary. The anniversary will be celebrated at ITU on 26 and 27 August, with talks and an exhibition about the games made by ITU students and alumni.
Hanna Elina WirmanPawel GrabarczykEventscomputer games
Written 15 August, 2025 09:34 by Mette Strange Mortensen
For 25 years computer games have been part of ITU’s DNA. In 1999 the first PhD student in games was brought on, in 2001 the first computer game course was launched, simply called “Computerspil”, and in 2003 the Centre for Computer Games Research was inaugurated. With all of this, ITU started taking game development seriously, and researchers started looking into gaming and game development from both a cultural, societal and technological perspective. This has made ITU pioneers of game development education in Denmark and the world.
“ITU has always been part of building the games industry in Denmark. We started the study program and research centre about the same time as some of the big, Danish games development studios that still exist today were founded. Back then the Danish government was making educational games for example about the risks of using alcohol. There were fantastic TV-based games originating from Denmark, too, and some early groundbreaking local PC games. When ITU started educating students to make and research games, it meaningfully supported the growth of the emerging industry,” says Hanna Wirman, Associate Professor at ITU and Head of the MSc in Games.
On 26 and 27 August 2025, you can meet current and former ITU researchers and students for talks and presentations of the games they have developed. Both current student projects, projects that started as student projects and projects with ITU developers will be showcased at the Atrium.
“We want to celebrate this with a number of different things. One is to present our students accomplishments and how diverse the ideas of our students are. And we are doing this by showing, our current students’ and alumni’s projects, so everybody can see and play them and talk to the creators. We hope this will give and idea of the history of the game development program,” says Pawel Grabarczyk, Associate Professor at ITU and head of the Games Research Group, and is supported by Hanna Wirman:
“Through the exhibition we want to get in touch with the people, who have been here throughout the years. 25 years is a long time, and ITU’s Games students are now all over the world, and they play a role in the industry. Making a game is a group effort and therefore our alumni are part of many games alongside people from other games programmes from across the world. Most likely our alumni have worked on hundreds of different kinds of projects that many of us have been playing over the years. Because of the interdisciplinarity of gamework, where individual names disappear, it is quite difficult to keep track on all that.”
Celebration of Games then and now
In the past 25 years, game development and distribution have become much more accessible, and people can learn the basics already in primary school or in free time activities. However, education and research are still important for making games that answer to different needs and different audiences.
“What we teach is, among other things, to make games responsibly. I think that a big part of teaching how to make games in a university setting is to help students understand how the games they made fit into people’s daily lives. Vocational education for games typically teaches the craft and the technologies. At a Master’s level, students create games with a recognition of what has been done before, who might be the player, and responsibly for the society, workforce and business. A lot of what we teach is about understanding games in their cultural and societal context and, to a degree, also challenging and highlighting cultural norms and even inequalities through games,” says Hanna Wirman.
The current students of the Games program are already developing successful games and will without a doubt be part of the industry both in Denmark and across the world. But what the future holds for games is hard to predict.
“In the past 25 years there have been a massive change in how people play games. And this is also the big thing that is ahead of us. 25 years ago, nobody would have thought that people would be playing the same game for 15 years. Now you have games such as Fortnite, which is nearing ten years, and it is still one of the biggest games. There are also live games, and I think that education and research on these games is very different, and we need to adapt to that, because more and more of our students who come here, have these games in mind, when they think about video games,” says Pawel Grabarczyk.
The celebration of the first 25 years of games research and education at ITU will take place in the Atrium and Scroll bar, and everyone is welcome to join.
Join the celebration here
Theis Duelund Jensen, Press Officer, phone +45 2555 0447, email