Xiaoming Zhu and Matthew Urmston of the Competence Center for Business English were proud to present their serious game “The Mystery of EPP” at the recent IATEFL International Conference 2026 in Brighton, England.
Created to support first-semester students, the game introduces learners to the structure and scope of our standardized first-semester course (English for Professional Purposes) by integrating course content into an immersive, gamified narrative. CCBE’s team members were reimagined as in-game avatars to introduce students to grammar essentials, key Business English terminology and orientation to course logistics.
Learn English Through Play
The game itself resembles an adventure-style role-playing video game where players move around within several different levels interacting with a variety of characters. The characters in the game challenge players to answer knowledge questions or sometimes riddles to move forward onto further levels. Finally, there is a “boss fight” and after triumphing over the final boss, there is a happy ending which wraps up the whole story.
The IATEFL international conference at which Xiaoming and Matthew presented the serious game brings together around 3,000 English language teaching delegates from across the globe. CCBE is an active member of this international language teaching community and regularly contributes to discussions on innovative approaches to language education. By presenting at IATEFL, CCBE continues to raise the profile of FHWien der WKW on the international stage.