Educator

Teaching courses on games with a purpose, mixed reality, and location-based technologies at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Campus Hagenberg. The courses include a theoretical component, where core concepts from XR and game design are explored, and a practical component, where students develop projects throughout the semester under my mentorship.

Leading ain introduction to making games with Unity workshop for the Master’s program in Interface Cultures at the University of Art and Design Linz.

Ocean Maps

My main tasks include developing new features, planning architecture and maintaining our codebase. Besides my C# programming responsibilities, I am also accountable for UX and interface design, conceptualizing and planning future tools, managing junior developers, and overseeing project organization and software documentation in ClickUp.

Trackbar

Implemented a Unity widget within a Flutter application to visualize workout curves, enhancing user engagement with real-time data from a custom tracking sensor.
Developed multiple innovative game concepts to expand the app’s feature set.

Playful Interactive Environments

Led the development of strategy and simulation games from concept to publication using Unity3D and C#.
Integrated advanced AR/VR technologies (Mapbox, Vuforia, ARKit, ARCore, Oculus, SteamVR, MRTK) and networking libraries (UNET, MirrorNet) to create immersive gaming experiences.
Designed 2D graphics with Photoshop and Illustrator; basic 3D graphic design.
Produced promotional and in-game videos with FinalCut, PremierePro, and After Effects.
Conducted game development research and mentored students on various projects, fostering innovation and collaboration.

HektAR

In HektAR, players take control of a small virtual farm to meet the needs of a growing community as sustainably as possible. Resources such as land, water and labor can be used to grow various crops as well as to buy and care for animals. I worked on the game design, programmed the game logic and published the game.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/hektar/

Logistify

In Logistify, players learn about different means of transport, supply chains, the careful and efficient use of resources and about professions within the field of logistics. We developed the project over several years, redesigning the graphics, interface and adding new mini-games in the process. I was responsible for the game design, logic, publishing and UX.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/logistify/

CATRINA

My role in the CATRINA project was to design and build a VR simulation of a civil courage situation. We designed a branching narrative, recorded voice actors and worked with great 3D artists to create the environment and characters. I programmed a tool for designing the branching story with a visual node-based tool in Unity, which I also used to run the logic of the game. I used Timeline for creating and blending between the individual sequences, including character animations, audio and subtitles. My role was also the UX – designing simple interaction in VR, where users interact only with their hands and gaze. Additionally, I implemented an in-game smartphone, which itself was an interesting interaction design challenge.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/catrina/

The Game Changer Suite

The Game Changer Suite is a collection of games, developed for large scale public play spaces such as the Deep Space in the Ars Electronica Center Linz. We developed the game as part of our 2. semester project in the master studies Interactive Media. I designed and developed one of the games Tower of Power, co-designed the game Beelzeball and participated in the continued support of the entire Suite, including upgrading it to 4K graphics and adding networked capabilities so that it can be used with different types of hardware setups. The project was shown at the the Ars Electronica Festival, became a fixed installation at the Ars Electronica center and served as a base for multiple research papers and a reference implementation for other student projects.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/game-changer/

PIEDeck

PIEDeck is an experimental co-located installation combining virtual reality and a laser tracking system, allowing two players to walk around a virtual environment and interact with a morphing sculpture. My role was the design and development of the project, including implementing a networked solution for synchronising a VR headset with a computer application and solving a multitude of novel problems such as calibration, latency, managing tracking points. The project was exhibited at the Animafest in Zagreb and the Ars Electronica Center in Linz.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/piedeck/

Invisible Walls

Invisible Walls is an experimental art installation, developed for the Vienna Design Week 2016. It’s a combination of a virtual reality experience, public projection and a laser tracking system. The VR player can see the audience as abstract shapes and can interact and manipulate their representation by using their hands. I was responsible for programming, some of the visual effects and interaction design.

More information: https://pie-lab.at/projects/invisible-walls/

i2f – Interface2Face Mixed Reality Game

In this project, we investigated how traditional board games can be extended using augmented reality. We experimented with different ways to design tracking markers, integrating them in the board or in cards, using 3D printed game figures for tracking or in combination with markers, using classic cards for triggering actions or equipping items. I worked on designing the software architecture around Unity 3D in order to decouple the game logic as much as possible from engine-specific features, explored the use of injection dependency frameworks such as Zenject and entity component systems such as Entitas for better code design. I implemented multiple prototypes to test game mechanics and AR tracking and worked with different networking frameworks.

More information: https://projekte.ffg.at/projekt/3262914

Play!UC (Playing with urban complexity)

Play!UC investigates to what extent computer games can be used to support participatory processes in urban development projects. I designed and developed multiple board and card games, as well as augmented reality game prototypes, which were used as a base for research papers and informed the design of the final toolbox.

More information: http://play-uc.net/

Publications

Georgi Kostov, Josef Wolfartsberger. Designing a Framework for Collaborative Mixed Reality Training, Procedia Computer Science,
Volume 200, 2022, Pages 896-903,
ISSN 1877-0509,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.01.287.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050922002964

Diephuis, J., Kostov, G., & Mittermair, G. (2021). All AR-Board: Seamless AR marker integration into board games. In Proceedings – 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021 (pp. 410-412). 9419302 (Proceedings – 2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops, VRW 2021). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc..
https://doi.org/10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00089

Putz, L-M., Diephuis, J., Hofbauer, F., & Kostov, G. Y. (2020). Logistify: Using Augmented Reality and Gamification to Promote Interest in Logistics. In Proceedings of the 4th International GamiFIN ConferenceProceedings of the 3rd GamiFIN CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org).

Teodora Iulia Constantinescu & Oswald Devisch & Georgi Kostov, 2017.
City Makers: Insights on the Development of a Serious Game to Support Collective Reflection and Knowledge Transfer in Participatory Processes,”
International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), IGI Global, vol. 6(4), pages 32-57, October.

Lankes, M., Hagler, J., Kostov, G. Y., & Diephuis, J. (2017). Invisible walls: Co-presence in a co-located augmented virtuality installation. In CHI PLAY 2017 – Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 553-560). (CHI PLAY 2017 – Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3116595.3116609

Kostov, G. Y., & Diephuis, J. (2016). Singularity: Designing a Cooperative Mixed Reality Game for a Co-located Setting. Abstract from DiGRA 2016, Dundee, United Kingdom.

Diephuis, J., Friedl, A., Kostov, G. Y., & Naderer, O. (2015). MoCo Motion: Integrating Mobile Devices into a Multiplayer Floor-based Gaming Environment. In E. Rukzio, M. Roland, R. Mayrhofer, C. Holzmann, & J. Hakkila (Eds.), MUM 2015 – Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (pp. 412-416). (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series; Vol. 30-November-2015). ACM Press.
https://doi.org/10.1145/2836041.2841219

Diephuis, J., Friedl, A., Kostov, G. Y., Piroozan, P., & Wilfinger, D. (2015). Game Changer: Designing Co-Located Games that Utilize Player Proximity. Abstract from DiGRA 2015, Lüneburg, Germany.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282002937_Game_Changer_Designing_Co-Located_Games_that_Utilize_Player_Proximity

Diephuis, J., Kostov, G. Y., Friedl, A., Piroozan, P., & Wilfinger, D. (2015). Game Changer : a (Game)Space for Intercultural Play? In Proceedings Cross-Cultural Business Conference 2015 (pp. 324-333). Shaker Verlag.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martina_Gaisch/publication/311932897_Proceedings_of_Cross-Cultural_Business_Conference_2015/links/5863660d08ae6eb871abe007/Proceedings-of-Cross-Cultural-Business-Conference-2015.pdf#page=327

redaktion24 GmbH

Oct 2012 – Sep 2015, 3 years, part-time

• Producing educational and test videos for a variety of industrial products
• Camera work, editing & motion graphics design
• Running a Youtube channel
• Bachelor Thesis

V4 GmbH

Sep 2011 – Feb 2012, 6 months, internship

• Video Editing with Final Cut Pro
• Motion graphics design with After Effects
• Set runner & location scouting

Education

University of Applied Sciences Hagenberg

2013 – 2015

Master of Science (M.Sc.), Game and Interactive Media Design

Stuttgart Media University

2009 – 2013

Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Audiovisual Communications Technologies

91 German Language School “Prof. Konstantin Gylybov ” Sofia

2004 – 2009