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“Final Countdown” Theme Sparks Creative Innovation at Klagenfurt Game Jam”

A remarkable display of game development talent unfolded at the University of Klagenfurt as 64 participants created 16 unique games during the intensive Klagenfurt GSE Jam, held December 13-15, 2024. The event, which welcomed in-person and online participants, challenged developers to create games around the theme “Final Countdown,” resulting in an impressive array of interpretations.

The event commenced with opening remarks from Wilfried Elmenreich and Felix Schniz, launching participants into 48 hours of intensive development. While anchored in the University’s Game Studies and Engineering master program, the jam welcomed developers of all backgrounds, creating a dynamic environment for creative collaboration. Organizers Armin Lippitz, Bodo Thausing, and Tom Tucek structured the event to maximize creative potential while maintaining a supportive atmosphere.

The diversity of submitted games demonstrated remarkable creativity, with developers crafting experiences ranging from intense action games to atmospheric adventures and narrative-driven experiences. Many teams embraced additional challenges known as diversifiers, including “Unconventional Controls,” “Minimalist Style,” and “Unusual Perspectives,” adding extra layers of complexity to their projects. The resulting games were evaluated across multiple categories, including Most Fun Game, Best Art, Best Audio, Best Writing, and Best Use of Theme, ensuring recognition for excellence across all aspects of game development.

Competition was fierce this year, with numerous standout titles demonstrating the participants’ ability to blend innovative gameplay mechanics with creative interpretations of the countdown theme. The event culminated in a game fair showcasing all sixteen titles, highlighting the remarkable achievements possible within a 48-hour development window.

All games from the Klagenfurt GSE Jam are available to play at https://itch.io/jam/klagenfurt-gse-jam-ws24/entries

Paper accepted: ALPHAS: Adaptive Bitrate Ladder Optimization for Multi-Live Video Streaming

Authors: Farzad Tashtarian (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria); Mahdi Dolati (Sharif University of Technology, Iran); Daniele Lorenzi (University of Klagenfurt, Austria); Mojtaba Mozhganfar (University of Tehran, Iran); Sergey Gorinsky (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain); Ahmad Khonsari (University of Tehran, Iran); Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt & Bitmovin, Austria); Hermann Hellwagner (Klagenfurt University, Austria)

Event: IEEE INFOCOM 2025,  19–22 May 2025 // London, United Kingdom

Abstract: Live streaming routinely relies on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and content delivery networks (CDNs) to scalably disseminate videos to diverse clients. A bitrate ladder refers to a list of bitrate-resolution pairs, or representations, used for encoding a video. A promising trend in HTTP-based video streaming is to adapt not only the client’s representation choice but also the bitrate ladder during the streaming session. This paper examines the problem of multi-live streaming, where an encoding service performs coordinated CDN-aware bitrate ladder adaptation for multiple live streams delivered to heterogeneous clients in different zones via CDN edge servers. We design ALPHAS, a practical and scalable system for multi-live streaming that accounts for CDNs’ bandwidth constraints and encoder’s computational capabilities and also supports stream prioritization. ALPHAS, aware of both video content and streaming context, seamlessly integrates with the end-to-end streaming pipeline and operates in real time transparently to clients and encoding algorithms. We develop a cloud-based ALPHAS implementation and evaluate it through extensive real-world and trace-driven experiments against four prominent baselines that encode each stream independently. The evaluation shows that ALPHAS outperforms the baselines, improving quality of experience, end-to-end latency, and per-stream processing by up to 23%, 21%, and 49%, respectively.

 

Paper accepted: Generative AI for Realistic Voice Dubbing Across Languages

Authors: Emanuele Artioli (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Daniele Lorenzi (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Farzad Tashtarian (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria)

Event: ACM 4th Mile-High Video Conference (MHV’25), 18–20 February 2025 |
Denver, CO, USA

Abstract: The demand for accessible, multilingual video content has grown significantly with the global rise of streaming platforms, social media, and online learning. The traditional solutions for making content accessible across languages include subtitles, even generated ones, as YouTube offers, and synthesizing voiceovers, offered, for example, by the Yandex Browser. Subtitles are cost-effective and reflect the original voice of the speaker, which is often essential for authenticity. However, they require viewers to divide their attention between reading text and watching visuals, which can diminish engagement, especially for highly visual content. Synthesized voiceovers, on the other hand, eliminate this need by providing an auditory translation. Still, they typically lack the emotional depth and unique vocal characteristics of the original speaker, which can affect the viewing experience and disconnect audiences from the intended pathos of the content. A straightforward solution would involve having the original actor “perform” in every language, thereby preserving the traits that define their character or narration style. However, recording actors in multiple languages is impractical, time-intensive, and expensive, especially for widely distributed media.

By leveraging generative AI, we aim to develop a client-side tool, to incorporate in a dedicated video streaming player, that combines the accessibility of multilingual dubbing with the authenticity of the original speaker’s performance, effectively allowing a single actor to deliver their voice in any language. To the best of our knowledge, no current streaming system can capture the speaker’s unique voice or emotional tone.

Paper accepted: Adaptive Quality and Energy Enhancement in Video Streaming with RecABR

Authors: Daniele Lorenzi (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Farzad Tashtarian (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria), Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Austria)

Event: ACM 4th Mile-High Video Conference (MHV’25), 18–20 February 2025 |
Denver, CO, USA

Abstract: HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) dominates video delivery but faces sustainability issues due to its energy demands. Current adaptive bitrate (ABR) algorithms prioritize quality, neglecting the energy costs of higher bitrates. Super-resolution (SR) can enhance quality but increases energy use, especially for GPU-equipped devices in competitive networks. RecABR addresses these challenges by clustering clients based on device attributes (e.g., GPU, resolution) and optimizing parameters via linear programming. This reduces computational overhead and ensures energy-efficient, quality-aware recommendations. Using metrics like VMAF and compressed SR models, RecABR minimizes storage and processing costs, making it scalable for CDN edge deployment.

Mathias Lux
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First Game Creators Barcamp Held at the University of Klagenfurt

Local game developers and researchers gathered for the inaugural Game Creators Barcamp on Friday, December 6th, at the University of Klagenfurt. The event featured discussions on game development, educational technologies, and industry funding opportunities.

The first Barcamp drew a small but engaged group of participants who explored various game design and development topics. Discussions covered diverse areas, including the story behind the game Electric Alps, potential improvements in language learning through gamification, particularly for teaching irregular German verbs, and an examination of game theory in puzzle game design. The attendees also provided an overview of funding schemes available for game studios. Plans are underway for the next Barcamp, scheduled for spring, hoping to increase participant numbers.

Interview with Felix Schniz on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of “World of Warcraft”

On 20 November, Dr Felix Schniz commemorated the 20th anniversary of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft by giving an interview to the Kleine Zeitung. The interview focused on the secret behind World of Warcraft’s ongoing success and what we can learn from a historiographic perspective on the game.

The full interview was released in print on 23 November. It can also be accessed here:

https://www.kleinezeitung.at/wirtschaft/gaming/19088300/wie-world-of-warcraft-das-computerspielen-massentauglich-gemacht-hat

 

 

Game Creators Barcamp 2024

Calling all game enthusiasts! Whether you’re into game development, game design, game studies, or anything in between, join us for the Game Creators Barcamp. 

When: December 6th, 2024 from 13:15 to 16:00
Where: HS 4, Klagenfurt University

A Barcamp is an open, participant-driven event. There’s no pre-set schedule—you create the content! Attendees can sign up on-site on the day to host an (up to) 20-minute-session. This can be a game-related talk, a discussion, or an on-stage demo.

Some topics to explore might include:

  • Game development
  • Game design
  • Game studies
  • Playtesting and prototyping
  • Stories and non-linear narratives
  • Sound and music for games
  • Podcasting and streaming about games
    as well as novel and groundbreaking ideas for games

This is a chance to share your knowledge, explore new ideas, or simply connect with others who share your passion for games. Whether you’re a seasoned developer, an indie creator, a GSE student, or just curious, you’re welcome to take part in shaping the day!

🔗 Sign up to host a session on-site, or just come along and join the conversation!

 

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Magdalena Strobl @ “Game Over?” – Conference, Salzburg

Magdalena participated in the “Game Over?”- Conference from November 14th to 16th with its topic “Dystopia x Utopia x Video Games.” Together with Iris van der Horst (MEd), she presented the talk titled “From Oppression to Liberation: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Dystopian World of Xenoblade Chronicles 3” focused on how the game displays a critical dystopia variant 1 and how it criticizes colonial structures by magnifying the abstract concepts of third space and contact zone and depicting them in a very concrete and creative way. Therefore, this presentation combined theories on utopianism and postcolonialism.

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Paper accepted: PreMatch: A Prediction-based Scheduler for Dataflow Asynchronous Processing on the Computing Continuum

Authors: Narges Mehran, Zahra Najafabadi Samani, Samira Afzal, Radu Prodan, Frank Pallas and Peter Dorfinger

Event: The 40th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing https://www.sigapp.org/sac/sac2025/

Abstract:

The popularity of asynchronous data exchange patterns has recently increased, as evidenced by an Alibaba trace analysis showing that 23% of the communication between microservices uses this method. Such workloads necessitate exploring a method for reducing their dataflow processing and completion time. Moreover, there is a need to exploit a prediction method to forecast the future requirements of such microservices and (re-)schedule them. Therefore, we investigate the prediction-based scheduling of asynchronous dataflow processing applications by considering the stochastic changes due to dynamic user requirements.

Moreover, we present a microservice scaling and scheduling method named PreMatch combining a machine learning prediction strategy based on gradient boosting with ranking and game theory matching scheduling principles. Firstly, PreMatch predicts the number of microservice replicas, and then, the ranking method orders the microservice replica and devices based on microservice and transmission times. Thereafter, the PreMatch schedules microservice replicas requiring dataflow processing on computing devices. Experimental analysis of the PreMatch method shows lower completion times on average 13% compared to a related prediction-based scheduling method.

Hadi
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Patent Approval for “Scalable Per-Title Encoding”

Scalable Per-Title Encoding – US Patent

[PDF]

Hadi Amirpour (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria) and Christian Timmerer (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria)

Abstract: A scalable per-title encoding technique may include detecting scene cuts in an input video received by an encoding network or system, generating segments of the input video, performing per-title encoding of a segment of the input video, training a deep neural network (DNN) for each representation of the segment, thereby generating a trained DNN, compressing the trained DNN, thereby generating a compressed trained DNN, and generating an enhanced bitrate ladder including metadata comprising the compressed trained DNN. In some embodiments, the method may also include generating a base layer bitrate ladder for CPU devices and providing the enhanced bitrate ladder for GPU-available devices.