Behind the scenes
More AI, more price transparency – dispatches from Hackfest
by Martin Jungfer
Game on: inspiring vocational training at Galaxus
4.8.2025
Translation: Katherine Martin
Co-author: Llyn Baumann, Dmytro Puntus
In 2019, Galaxus’s Product Development team decided to launch an apprenticeship for budding IT specialists with an interest in application development. Five years on, we’re proud of the programme we’ve created. Ten motivated apprentices have become part of the team we call «The Rookies». As a vocational trainer and team leader, I didn’t just get to see our apprenticeship scheme grow. I also got to celebrate the first successful graduations – a milestone for us all!
During their time at Galaxus, apprentices get to develop and advance their skills in practical settings. To make this possible, we embed apprentices into our feature teams once they enter their second year, allowing them to work on the features of tomorrow. We get our rookies ready for this by giving them the responsibility of developing and maintaining our internal web app for managing employee training costs. This gives them the chance to learn the fundamentals of programming while they’re in their first year. Not only that, but it means they can get to grips with the key frameworks of our tech stack in Product Development.
Over the past five years, our apprentices have gained a solid reputation within the company – we’re always getting requests from different departments for exciting little project ideas. Since the apprentices are firmly rooted within their teams, however, they only have limited capacity for these extra projects. So, we carefully prioritise project ideas by importance, then give the apprentices time to bring them to fruition, working together in small groups.
Real projects, not dry theory
Two of these project ideas involved developing games to recruit new apprentices and graduates. Since they went well together thematically, we organised a mini game jam in June. This involved all ten rookies coming together and spending three weeks on bringing the two projects to life. Two trained game designers were there to help them along the way. The apprentices were divided into two teams, each responsible for one of the projects.
Below, Llyn and Dmytro, two of our rookies, have summed up what each project was about.
Source: Christian Walker
Game 1: BoxShooter
This game simulates a day in the Galaxus warehouse that suddenly spirals out of control. It’s chaos! Parcels are falling off the shelves, and you’re all alone in the warehouse. The only thing you can use to save your job is the grappling hook.
Why did we create this game?
The Galaxus recruitment team came up with the idea of using a game to attract visitors at graduate fairs. Game sessions had to be short so that as many visitors as possible could give it a go. Another of the team’s requirements was a leaderboard at the end so that the players could compete against each other and potentially win prizes.
Source: Screenshot
In BoxShooter, the aim of the game is saving parcels by using a grappling hook. If a parcel falls on the floor, you lose a life. If you successfully grab it, you get a point. Alongside regular parcels, there are also ones with special effects. For example, if you grab a parcel with a heart on it, you regain a life. If a parcel has a feather on it, it’ll fall more slowly, giving you more time to catch it.
This game consists of different levels. Once you complete one, you continue to the next, more difficult level until you run out of lives. If you do well enough, you’ll be able to check your final score on the leaderboard.
Game 2: LogicSolver
Too many parcels fell on the warehouse floor, so you lost your job. But now you have the chance to redeem yourself: as a delivery driver. Your reflexes might not be great, but you’re probably better at programming.
This time, the chaos has spread outside of the warehouse. Your goal? To collect all the parcels as quickly as possible and deliver them to the stores.
Why did we create this game?
We wanted to teach aspiring apprentices the fundamentals of programming in a playful way. However, since we couldn’t find any suitable games for the C# programming language, we created our own game with a Galaxus twist.
Source: Screenshot
During the game, you have to program the truck to collect all the parcels and reach its destination. Each task teaches you different commands, which you can then use as code to steer the truck. Live feedback allows you to check the movements of the truck and see whether you’ve made a mistake.
How did we create the games?
With love and passion! We used Godot Engine to develop the games, as it’s open source (so doesn’t cause any licensing issues) and easy to use. For the BoxShooter, we modelled the 3D objects using Blender, as well as other programs. As for LogicSolver, we worked on the 2D elements in Figma, and used Gimp or Inkscape for images or icons.
Source: Christian Walker
For most of the rookies, game development was completely undiscovered territory. This considered, the results of their work are particularly impressive. The apprentices really threw themselves into the projects. From my perspective, the game jam project was a great success. However, the games still need some fine-tuning before we can use them. We’ll be working on that in the coming weeks.
Coding jams like these obviously aren’t an everyday thing, but they’re a good way of giving apprentices variety and allowing them to use technology they don’t typically come into contact with at Galaxus. It also gives them a chance to make ideas a reality that otherwise never would’ve made it off the backburner due to a lack of capacity.
Interested in an apprenticeship at Galaxus? Check out our 2026 apprenticeships.
Header image: Christian Walker
Daniel Steiner
Teamleader Engineering
Daniel.Steiner@digitecgalaxus.ch
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