Timeline of Game Development in Graz and Styria
The following is a non-exhaustive list of events, sorted in chronological order, that have a connection to game development in Graz and Styria.
For larger context, other notable game industry and world events are added.
Notations on time and date are using the Gregorian calendar.
1991 – Max Design gets founded in Schladming, Styria.
1992, June – The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) gets released in Europe.
1994 – Sony releases PlayStation
1995 – Bongfish gets founded, back then as a multimedia company. [1]
2000 – Maxis releases The Sims.
2001 – Microsoft releases Xbox worldwide.
2004 – Max Design closes down.
2005 – Blizzard Entertainment releases World of Warcraft in the European Union (EU).
2006/7 – Bongfish shifts its focus primarily towards video game development.
2006, October 17 – Rarebyte gets officially founded. [1]
2006, December 8 – Nintendo releases the Wii in the EU, with Wii Sports as launch title.
2010 – The video game Minecraft gets released.
2012, July 2 – Greenheart Games gets founded.
2012, November 1-3 – A game jam takes place at Graz University of Technology
2013, August 29 – Greenheart Games releases Game Dev Tycoon
2014, January 24-26 – The Global Game Jam gets organized in Graz for the first time, at the Technical University of Graz (TU Graz).
2014, February 13 – The Game Dev Graz Meetup (known as “Indie Game Community Meetup Graz” back then) gets organized for the first time at Spektral.
2015, June 8 – Game Dev Graz (that’s us) gets officially founded as a non-profit association.
2016 – The Game Dev Days Graz get organized for the first time in Graz. [1, 2]
2016, April 1-2 – Ludovico organizes the button Festival at the Seifenfabrik Graz, with Game Dev Graz and local developers exhibiting their games.
2016 – Ludovico organizes the first analog game jam together with Game Dev Graz.
2017, March 3 – Nintendo releases the Nintendo Switch worldwide in most regions.
2017 – Epic Games releases Fortnite
2017 – The SAGA (Styrian Games Award) gets hosted for the first time.
2019 – The Hüttenjam 2019, a game jam in the Styrian and Corinthian Alps, gets organized by Game Dev Graz and people from the University of Klagenfurt.
2019 – The Game Lab Graz, a research and development group, gets officially founded at TU Graz.
2020 – Nintendo releases Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2023, July 18 – Accidently Awesome releases RotoForce
2025 – The video game ‘Art of Fauna‘, by Klemens Strasser, wins the 2025 Apple Design Award for Inclusivity in Games.
2025 – Rarebyte releases Hyperspaced
2025, October 4 – The 10th edition of the Game Dev Days Graz gets organized.
History of Game Dev in Austria
For more information on the history of game development in Austira, see the following links.