DevGAMM 2019, the biggest conference for game industry professionals in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was held in Hyatt Regency Moscow Petrovsky Park hotel on May 16 and 17. More than 2000 people attended the show over these two days: game developers, game designers, artists, publishers, mass media, and video games fans that are into the game development industry.

The Lost in Sky team couldn’t miss such an important event. We took part in DevGAMM Showcase—but first things first!

This time DevGAMM was held at a completely new venue, and the hosts of the event had to face a challenge of placing the showcase area, sponsors’ booths, and the lounge area. It turned out just excellent! The participants appreciated their care and approach.

The event program and activities the hosts had in store for the visitors were super exciting. See for yourselves:

• 80+ sessions with speakers held in 6 halls, with simultaneous interpretation in three of them;
• the traditional DevGAMM Awards ceremony with eight nominations;
• the DevGAMM Showcase that presented 88 gaming projects;
• Speed Game Dating: speedy 3-minute meetings between developers and publishers;
• DevGAMM Roundtables: moderated one-hour meetings that brought together gaming industry experts in closed 10-12 people discussions;
• Game Roast show.

Speakers

• One of the most highlighted sessions was held by Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox. He told the audience about the Borderlands series creation and the studio’s creative routine. We also found the fireside chat with Randy Pitchford and Richard “Levelord” Gray, the creator of Duke Nukem 3D, powerfully engaging!

• Adam Boyes, the CEO of Iron Galaxy Studios that ported such titles as Diablo 3 and Skyrim, told the audience how the studio dealt with the industry’s hardest problems like Source Code Reviews and Games-As-A-Service.
• Anton Arkatov, the founder of Soviet Games studio and the main narrative designer for the Everlasting Summer novel, reflected on the increasing popularity of his genre and explained that a seemingly simple story is never that simple.
• Alexandra Golubeva, the narrative designer at Ice-Pick Lodge, is currently working on Pathologic 2. She gave the audience her own perspective on the game journal turned into a visual mind map—and a distinct mini game as it engages the player in filling it out.
• The fireside chat of Alex Nichiporchik, tinyBuild CEO, and the screenwriter Timur Bekmambetov, was perhaps the most notable event of the show. They discussed a new movie language, Screenlife, and the way it affected the joint future of the gaming and movie industries.

DevGAMM Awards

60 judges and 20 reviewers selected and evaluated gaming projects. Industry professionals were invited to award the winners.

The DevGAMM Awards Grand Prize went to Pathologic 2 by Ice-Pick Lodge, a Moscow game development studio. The very same game received three more awards: Best Desktop Game, Excellence in Audio, and Excellence in Narrative.

Full List of DevGAMM Awards 2019 Winners:

Grand Prize

Pathologic 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge)

Best Desktop Game

Pathologic 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge)

Best Mobile Game

Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery (Kiary Games)

Best Indie Game

7th Sector (Sergey Noskov)

Excellence in Visual Art

7th Sector (Sergey Noskov)

Excellence in Game Design

Swag and Sorcery (Lazy Bear Games / Uroboros Games)

Excellence in Audio

Pathologic 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge)

Excellence in Narrative

Pathologic 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge)

Best Indie Games received 30,000 dollars, distributed evenly and justly among the winners! The industry giants Kefir!, tinyBuild, and Unreal Engine have volunteered to become nomination sponsors.

Lost in Sky on DevGAMM Showcase

Developers showcased 88 video games of different genres, published on different platforms, and created on different engines. We saw platformers, strategies, RPGs, adventures, VR, fantasy games, 3D shooters, visual simulators, slashers, arcades, casual games, roguelike games, side scrollers, a visual novel, and even a Telegram messenger game! The vast majority of the projects, both mobile and PC, are developed using the Unity engine.

The showcase was the most exciting part of the show for us, and it’s only natural: we were in direct contact with our players, gaming industry professionals, and mass media, and most importantly, we had the chance to receive the feedback!

We showcased our game in all its glory, with all its strong and weak spots, cool implemented features and not-so-cool glitches.

And the commendation of our artists’ and animators’ work, the elaborated game universe and lore made us see our game through others’ eyes, see our great potential! The players loved the idea of controlling several characters simultaneously with a focus on a local coop play—the feature we’ve already started developing.

We also received blunt feedback on the level design, current bot’s intelligence level, combat system, monsters’ animations, and other very important aspects.

In fact, the event didn’t showcase too many platformers, and Lost in Sky was the only action platformer game. This created a certain fuss around our booth. We received very excited comments, “The game truly stands out among other games!” The awesome part was the visit of the conference juries and sponsors to our booth!

Now that we’ve gone most of the way, we don’t think we should be enchanted by the praise. It’s the other way around. We’ve received the feedback that we needed to make Lost in Sky more than just visually attractive. We want to engage our players in dynamic and responsive combat and create a Lost in Sky signature environment.

We’re eternally grateful to DevGAMM for the warm reception and valuable lessons. We’re looking to come back here as a nominee!

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Summary

Article Name

DevGAMM 2019: The Whole Story

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DevGAMM 2019, the biggest conference for game industry professionals in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was held in Hyatt Regency Moscow Petrovsky Park hotel on May 16 and 17. More than 2000 people attended the show over these two days: game developers, game designers, artists, publishers, mass media, and video games fans that are into the game development industry.

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Android_LIS

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Lost in Sky

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