Cologne-based outfit The Good Evil may be one of the newest startups in Germany, but that hasn't stopped founders Linda Kruse and Marcus Bösch taking on some innovative projects.
Right now, The Good Evil is working on everything from a puzzle game designed to help pre-school children learn a new language to a fitness game modelled around a custom controller.
Perhaps most interesting, however, is the transmedia project with a movie studio The Good Evil has on its books.
We've already established that Cologne is the perfect base for such games, given the city's strength within the film and television industries.
But, given Cologne lags behind German rivals such as Berlin and Hamburg when it comes to games development, what issues has The Good Evil faced by being there? And wouldn't it make sense to move to an existing games dev hub, rather than expending effort building up Cologne's standing?
Media moguls
The pair chose to settle in Cologne not for its gaming connections, but for the hand it has in the wider world of media.
"Cologne is already an established city for the film and media business and we can use and build upon a working infrastructure," says Kruse.
But is Cologne such a desolate place for the games industry? Bösch admits that the city is no world leader, but he believes Cologne is making ground up on the competition.
"Let's say it is up and coming," offers Bösch. "We see a lot more of events, people and start-ups compared to the situation in 2010 when we started our university career.
"There is an evolving development-scene with things like the Cologne Independent Game Developers Network and events like the Interactive Cologne and places like the [workspace] Dingfabrik where people meet and just do stuff.
"If you ask me, I hope things will just grow and become even better."
Talking talent
Nonetheless, it's interesting that, while the developers we've spoken to have all cited a desire for a stronger games community in the city, there appears to be no great movement designed to tie those studios together.
Developers undoubtedly try to make use of facilities like the Dingfabrik to get together, but this particular creative space is designed for more traditional pastimes and skills.
It lists everything from knitting to welding on its website, but not games.
Left to right, Linda Kruse and Marcus Bösch
Finding talented development staff is also a problem in a city that isn't yet known for being a development hub. The Good Evil had a lot of difficulty in locating just a single programmer.
"One of the biggest challenges for us was to find a proper programmer who is living around here," Bösch tells us.
"It took us a while and we are very happy that we found Guido who is our very first employee and a great guy!"
Life support
Developers in Cologne aren't entirely on their own, however. The area as a whole - North Rhine-Westphalia does come with some notable advantages.
The AV-Gründerzentrum is the North Rhine-Westphalia's government funded support programme for media businesses. It's becoming increasingly involved in the games industry, providing funding opportunities and 12 month training programmes to entrepreneurs.
Every studio we've spoken to in Cologne is striving to be noticed by this support. It seems crucial for the growth of games dev in the region is the continued roll out of AV-Gründerzentrum and The Good Evil should know.
It's one of the studios supported by the regional government.
"We are very lucky to have a one year scholarship at the AV-Gründerzentrum at the moment and, in addition to that, we received regional funding for a game concept and a game prototype," Kruse tells us.
"They are very open and supportive especially for the games industry. But before you get too excited, we are very happy that we have the possibility and that they are open for games, but the funding is rather small in comparison to usual game budgets."
Things can only get better
Cologne's main draw, however, is undoubtedly Gamescom this year's expo due to kick off next week.
As you might expect, having Gamescom roll into town every year brings with it a rush of industry talent and media attention that, otherwise, would likely never consider popping over to Cologne.
Will The Good Evil be looking to take advantage of this year's shebang?
"Sure, that is a must," says Bösch. "Not only because of Gamescom, but because of the many events that accompany the event. Things like the GDC Europe, Evoke or the Notgames Fest.
"We will present a working prototype of our language learning adventure game Squirrel&Bär, and I will sit on a panel coping with the concept of 'newsgames', focusing on the idea of combining games and journalism with our very first News Games Week, where we produced a game about the NSA and PRISM."
With all the excitement that Gamescom brings to The Good Evil's doorstep, Bösch is convinced that the development community will improve and grow.
"Things are evolving around here," he concludes. "With a strong games programme at the relatively new Cologne Game Lab and more young new companies like ours things will get better. That is a promise!"
