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Dongseo Universitydispatched a nine-person team, including seven students from the Department of Game Studiesto the Game Design Startup Hackathon, held in Vilnius, from November 5, as well as to GameOn 2025, Europe’s largest game and technology festival. This delegation was made possible through the university’s RISE(Research-Innovation-Startup-Entrepreneurship) Project, and allowed the students and their professors to showcase their creative works on a global stage.

The hackathon was conducted as a collaborative program between GameOn and Mykolas Romeris University (MRU), a leading Lithuanian national university, and sponsored by the Lithuanian Game Developers Association (LGDA). As part of a joint educational program operated by Dongseo University and MRU, students, from both universities, majoring in Game Development, Digital Animation, and Digital Media Design formed teams to conceptualize, develop, and present creative game ideas.

Thirteenteams, comprising over 120 participants, competed. The joint project “The ADHD Simulator,” created by Dongseo University and MRU students, won first place. The first-place team—Chaeyoung Lee, Hyun Kim, Rasa Sindaravičiūtė, Monika Andraitytė, and Rugilė Stundžiaitė—was praised for its aesthetics, technical quality, and originality.

Second place was awarded to “Race King” (Geun ah Nam, Seung wook Kim, Ramazan Mustafazade, Kateryna Shidlovska, Seljan Aliyeva, Alicja Orlovska, Ilham Jafarov), and third place to “Motel Staff” (Byung seop Kim, Hyun min Baek, Anil Cem Musaoglu, Sahra Gucer, Batuhan Balci, Santiago Mendivil). Securing the top three spotshighlighted the students’capabilities as global creative talentsand underscored the excellence of the Department of Game Studies’educational system and its’portfolio-focused, practice-oriented learning approach.

Following the competition, the joint Dongseo University–MRU team participated in the GameOn 2025game expofrom November 7 to 9in Vilnius. At the expo—Europe’s largest game and technology festival—games and digital content projects collaboratively developed by students were showcased drawing significant attention to the international cooperative education model promoted by Dongseo University and MRU, and garneredstrong interest from local experts and faculty.

At the MRU booth, an Old School game zone was set up, allowing visitors to experience classic pixel games and reflect on the origins of gaming culture. The King Sejong Institute Vilnius also attracted enthusiastic crowds by showcasing various Korean cultural programs, including hanbok experiences, traditional Korean games, chopstick-use activities. Visitors simultaneously enjoyed both traditional Korean and gaming cultures.

GameOn 2025 centered on the theme of “generations of gaming,” offering content for all age groups, from retro game enthusiaststo the generation playing the latest AAA titles. The venue featured: ▲ An EXPO zone with the latest games, VR/AR experiences, and indie developer booths; ▲An eSports zone with professional teams and influencers; ▲ A conference zone covering game production, business, technology, and culture; ▲ An event zone blending artistic and cultural elements, including cosplay competitions and the game soundtrack concert “GameOn Live.” Together, these zones showcased the convergence of industry, culture, and art through gaming.

Through their participation in GameOn 2025, Dongseo University and MRUsuccessfully presented an innovative educational vision that combinescreativity, technology, and international collaboration on the European stage. The two universities plan to continue cooperating to cultivate global creative talents who will lead the gaming and digital content industries.

Kyung-ho Han, Director of the International Office at Dongseo University, concluded, “Through our participation in GameOn and the hackathon, students gained valuable experience collaborating on a global stage and exchanging ideas and cultures with one another. We will continue to expand our cooperation with Mykolas Romeris University to nurture digital creative talents who will attract attention across Europe and the world.”