The gaming industry centre will be built in the town's Pismo business zone on an area of eight hectares. The centre will be dominated by an e-sport arena resembling a grounded UFO with 2,500 spectator seats and a zone for gaming competitions. It will also include a faculty, a sports hall, a dorm for 250 students, an accelerator with a VR studio, an incubator with a hall for video game testing and other amenities.
The future gaming centre will provide a five-year university programme and a high-school programme in video game design.
The head of the project is the Public Institution Sisak-Moslavina County Regional Coordinator, and its partners are the county, the SIMORA development agency and the town of Novska.
The project was first presented four years ago and now all conditions for the start of construction work have been met. A tender will be published for the construction of the campus and work on it should begin at the end of this year.
The project builds on the Pismo Business Incubator, specialising in the development of video game companies, established in Novska in 2018.
Speaking at the presentation, Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Šime Erlić said that this was the first project to be financed from the new Just Transition Fund.
Sisak-Moslavina County head Ivan Celjak said the gaming centre was a strategic state project and one of the most important projects in the county that was expected to contribute to its revitalisation.
Labour and Social Policy Minister Marin Piletić, who was the mayor of Novska at the time when the project was launched, expressed satisfaction that young people from all over Croatia were coming to Novska.
"The local economy has been revived, one can feel a new energy and enthusiasm... because a lot of young people from all over Croatia have come here. Some of them choose to stay," said Novska Mayor Marija Kušmiš.