The growing list of speakers at the devcom developer conference now includes yet another games industry legend: Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, will deliver the business keynote on the final day of the devcom developer conference. This was announced today by Aruba Events, Koelnmesse and BIU – The German Games Industry Association, the organizers of devcom. Sweeney has many years of experience developing the popular Unreal Engine, giving him a unique perspective on the intersection between AAA and indie games, as well as mobile and PC markets.
His talk on augmented reality, virtual reality and the development of the metaverse emphasizes devcom’s focus on exploring the key issues facing the games industry today. In addition to Sweeney, the following speakers have confirmed their appearance: Rebecca Harwick (Lead Writer at Wooga) will talk about the role of collaboration in making story-driven games, Brendan Green (Creative Director at Bluehole Studio) will explain how PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds became the phenomenon it is today, and PJ Esteves (Studio Director of Playsnak) will address common problems in prototyping Virtual Reality games. Craig Morrison (Blizzard Entertainment), Alexander Fernandez (Streamline Studios) and Ivan Buchta (Bohemia Interactive) will also speak at the event, as has been previously announced. Further speakers include: Rusimov Cvetan (Imperia Online), Oscar Clark (Unity), Adrian Goersch (Black Forest Games), Callum Underwood (Oculus) and Jose Paredes (Reflections). The remaining speakers, talks and keynote topics will be announced in the following weeks. Beyond Sweeney’s lecture, there will be one more business keynote, as well as two public keynotes open to gamescom attendees.
All in all, devcom includes over 50 talks, panels and workshops, featuring speakers from all branches of the industry and covering a wide range of topics, focusing on mobile games, virtual reality and game design.
A selection of highlight talks:
Brendan Green, Creative Director, Bluehole Studios: From UNKNOWN to PLAYERUNKNOWN: Deconstructing the Phenomenon
Rusimov Cvetan, COO, Imperia Online: Hacking the human brain. Irrational Thinking 101
Jose Paredes, Reflections – a Ubisoft Studio: The Division Underground DLC: Procedural generation
PJ Esteves, Studio Director, Playsnak: PROTOTYPING VR SUCKS! Embrace Chaos, Think Less, Feel more
Rebecca Harwick, Lead Writer, Wooga: Best Practices for Narrative Collaboration Across Disciplines in Story-Driven Games
Craig Morrison, Design Manager, Blizzard Entertainment: The Power of Us – Ten rules for forging genuine creative collaboration
Alexander Fernandez, CEO, Streamline Studios: The evolution of game development into Co-Development
Ivan Buchta, Creative Director, Bohemia Interactive:
Geodata in Environments of Arma and DayZ
Craig Morrison, Design Manager, Blizzard: The Power of Us – Ten rules for forging genuine creative collaboration
Alexander Fernandez, CEO, Streamline Studios: The evolution of game development into Co-Development
The brand new games industry meeting devcom will take place for the first time this summer as a side event to gamescom. From the 20th to the 24th of August (Sunday to Thursday), devcom will offer a varied lineup of events, including the devcom developer conference on Monday, the devcom summits and a new networking area, the devcom developer lounge.
Beyond keynotes and panels, the devcom developer conference also includes workshops, summits, master classes and matchmaking:
- devcom master classes are a set of two three-hour round tables for up to 40 participants, hosted daily on topics such as marketing, game design, production and sales
- devcom summits are three one-day summits focusing on mobile gaming, virtual reality and monetization respectively
In addition to devcom, gamescom’s own official keynotes will take place from Tuesday to Thursday. Finally, this exclusive program will be rounded out by the indie conference RESPAWN. With its wide range of talks, workshops, tutorials and keynotes, devcom has the right event for anybody working in the games industry, from students of game design and young professionals to senior developers and managers in leadership roles.
You can find additional information on devcom and its individual events and conferences at devcom.global