From the lecture room to Gamescom

Mastering difficult examinations online, saving ducks from evil and not losing your mind in the process: These are the challenges of "Duck Paradox", an online game developed by Norman Lista, Miguel Lenero and Diego Lenero, all alumni of Fulda University of Applied Sciences. Together they founded "Magic Games", an independent studio for online gaming. Their first project is now "Duck Paradox" - in which players have to shoot evil ducks with flying bullets in order to find Dr Paraduck's beloved pet in the multiverse that passes by.

"Our journey began in Fulda," says Diego Lenero, who completed a Bachelor's degree in digital media at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. His brother Miguel studied Engineering and Management here and his friend Norman Lista completed a Master's degree in Global Software Development at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. The fact that the three students would one day end up in the game development industry was not something they could have foreseen during their university studies and ended up being a bit of a surprise.

"Our first project was an app on the topic of environmental protection called 'Urban Bees', which we worked on for three years. After that, we experimented with a few other ideas until I started to teach myself the art of game development," recalls Diego Lenero. With videos on YouTube, books and a lot of curiosity, he immersed himself more and more in the world of online games - and Diego Lenero's enthusiasm was infectious.

"This is exactly what I want to do"
Miguel Lenero and Norman Lista were soon just as passionate about it. "Today I can say with full conviction: this is exactly what I want to do," says Diego Lenero with conviction. He and his companions have achieved immediate international success with their endeavour: With the game "Duck Paradox", they were even nominated for the best Latin American-Canadian game and the best student game at Gamescom Latam, the Latin American offshoot of the world's largest games fair.

Although they didn't end up taking home a prize from the university fair, their game "Duck Paradox" was still really well received by online gaming fans from all over the world - and their "Magic Games" studio is certainly already working on a fantastic new idea for the next online game with Fulda roots ...

The game was published on the Steam gaming platform in October 2024. A demo of the game is available free of charge, the full version costs 9.75 euros.