Games Lift: Triflgard Develop More Than Just a Pub

Triflgard, a three-person student studio from Hamburg, is profiled as part of Gamecity Hamburg's Games Lift incubator coverage, published October 24, 2024. The piece introduces the team and its early-stage project "Pubcrawler," a multiplayer game in which players keep a pub running as it walks across a post-apocalyptic wasteland on giant robot legs. Players host guests and maintain the mobile refuge, with local split-screen and online multiplayer planned, all in 3D.

The central design idea is a feeling of shelter and coziness, which 3D artist and programmer Lio Kaplanski compares to sitting in a car while it rains outside. The world beyond the pub is ruined and hostile, while the interior stays warm and safe. Task difficulty is meant to vary from simple to somewhat complex, but the team stresses that fun takes priority over challenge.

The founders are bachelor's students at HAW Hamburg. Kaplanski handles 3D art and programming, Finn Reimann covers gameplay programming, sound effects and music, and Fred Alfs works on network code. Game design is shared among all three. They tested their compatibility through board game nights, often playing the board game version of "Northgard," which inspired the studio name and a habit of puns, including their first project "Billgard," a multiplayer billiards battle. Billgard served as a practical test case covering a Steam page and working multiplayer implementation.

Pubcrawler remains in the early concept phase, with its tone not yet fixed. The team joined the incubator to gain expertise, with Reimann hoping to eventually build a company that hires fairly and responsibly. A first playable version is being developed during the incubator's initial phase, while prototype funding and public demos remain future steps. Sidebar news also notes that Games Lift 2026 offers five teams 15,000 euros, workshops, mentoring and a 1,000 euro coaching budget.