Sessions
This list will be updated gradually.
Tilting At Windmills: The Quest for Better (Narrative) Quest Design
Audiences read books and comics and watch TV and movies for the story, but often the story in games is seen as secondary, as flavor dressing, or a wrapper to the main dish of gameplay. While we do not argue that gameplay is king in (most) games, the variety of games, experiences, and stories that can be told through the medium has expanded tremendously in the past decades.
In development, narrative is the cheapest way to add retention, it's a key element in helping an IP break out past the traditional bounds of gaming and yet it's frequently relegated to being delivered in the same ways we've delivered narrative for a hundred years.
However, every once in a while you get something great, something truly special: something that ties writing and game design together...and that's what we're going to discuss on this panel: from games drenched in the story like Disco Elysium to ones that elevate the mechanics and make the story something you have to struggle to understand, like Elden Ring, to games where the core game loop of death and rebirth is etched into the narrative, such as Hades.
In this panel, a diverse group of veteran writers and narrative designers will discuss the peak examples of games using everything available to deliver narrative. Discussions will include what lessons we can learn from these games - both indie and AAA - and how we can stretch these techniques even further in the future. We'll follow that up with observations and techniques that we've used in games and finally round out the session with a group of theoretical narrative ideas and structures that we've been toying around with that can only be delivered in games.
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From Concept to Comeback: The Evolution of Crime Boss
The talk explores the journey of transforming a video game concept into a successful product, from idea inception and refining the vision to prototyping and overcoming development challenges such as missed deadlines, shifting goals, and complex bugs. Despite initial poor reviews, 15 regular updates over 27 months ultimately turned Crime Boss: Rockay City into a well-reviewed success.
Speaker: Jarek Kolář (CEO, INGAME STUDIOS)Stage: N/A
The Power of Buttons: How Interfaces Shape Game Immersion
In this session, we will explore game immersion, revealing how even seemingly minor UI elements — like buttons — can be essential in setting the game's mood. Drawing from research on player responses to interfaces, we will present 12 techniques for using buttons effectively in games, illustrated with examples from World of Tanks. Whether you're a designer, developer, or just curious about game psychology, this session will change the way you click the next time you play.
Speaker: Lucia Magáthová (UX Designer, Wargaming)Stage: N/A
Unique F2P monetization strategies
As the free-to-play (F2P) market evolves, traditional monetization strategies like in-app purchases and ads are no longer enough to stand out. This session dives into unique and innovative monetization approaches that push the boundaries of what’s possible in F2P games. From ads integrated into the game world to Web3 technologies like NFTs and blockchain, brand partnerships, audio ads, and more, we’ll explore creative pathways to unlock new revenue streams. Drawing from my extensive experience in F2P game production, I’ll share practical insights, real-world examples, and my personal opinions on these strategies' effectiveness.
Speaker: David Vykopal (Producer, NOXGAMES)Stage: N/A
How to design multiplayer combat spaces
In the last couple of years, I was blessed with the opportunity to work on Vigor, a third-person multiplayer shooter. I learned a lot, I did my best, and I took a ton of notes along the way.
Let me share with you some of my observations and methods that helps me in my design process.
Currently, the talk has two parts. The first focuses on a high-level layout. What that is, how it looks, what patterns we can see repeating across different games, and how to design one.
The second part is about cover distribution. What types of covers are usually present in a game, and how to mix them to provide a variety of choices to the player.
Stage: N/A
Finished stories for endless games
How do you write the story of a game that could be replayed forever? How do you build a game narrative that can hold multiple playthroughs and updates? How do you plan your stories and characters ahead?
These questions have been on my mind since I started working on roguelike games such as ASTRAL ASCENT and WINDBLOWN. A story is about change, about movement. But some games cannot afford changing too much.
In this talk, we will explore how to set up your world, your characters and the your story to support a "forever game". We will discuss about how lore is important, but also a very dangerous zone where a lot of writers and designers end up wasting time and energy. We will also explore the risks of using Hades as your benchmark and why narration is often not the best way to reward your players.
All this will come from personal experience as well as knowledge shared by the writing community. We want this talk to be quite accessible to everyone interesting by storytelling. The idea is to leave this talk with ideas, solutions, and a list of red flags you want to avoid as much as possible.
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Mind Games: A Psychological Approach to Game Design
Great games move us emotionally, but creating these feelings isn't magic – it's psychology. Learn how understanding human emotions can transform you into a better game designer. We'll look at practical techniques for crafting powerful emotional experiences and explore why certain gaming moments stay with players forever.
Speaker: Adam Mirkowski (Senior Game Designer, 11 bit studios)Stage: N/A
Beaver on the Train: A story of modding support in Timberborn
A vibrant modding community is a dream for many developers. It enhances a game's longevity and playability. For us, it was an organic process: the community began creating mods for Timberborn on their own. However, at a certain point during our Early Access journey, we decided to step in and provide native modding support. In this talk, I will walk you through how the process unfolded and how I became a modder myself.
Speaker: Marcin Wierzchoś (Programmer, Mechanistry)Stage: N/A
Level Design in Indiana Jones
Description will be announced soon.
Speaker: Dominic Everett-Einarsson (Head of Design, Grip Studios)Stage: N/A
City Building Workshop
Join your peers and game urbanist Konstantinos Dimopoulos in a world-building workshop, and collaboratively create an imaginary city. Pens, pencils, paper, and online whiteboards will all be used to construct and flesh out a city that has never existed before; a city that will be able to fit perfectly into a game.
Please bring your laptop to this workshop.
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Things You Don't Know About Your Lead
Many people dream of a leadership role, but do we really know what it involves? In my panel I would like to talk about my journey from a developer to a team leader and how my scope changed from coding to taking care of Techland's tool team. Would like to look under the surface of the common beliefs about what leadership is about and talk about challenges, and struggles but also its most rewarding moments.
Agenda:
Introduction - who I am and what is my gamedev career path, from tester of some small games, through gameplay programmer, finishing as tools programmer and then transitioning to a leadership role.
Why being team lead is difficult - after working as a programmer where your work was mostly focused on dealing with code, now you are dealing with other people. Not coding as much as you used to and doing things that seem to be invisible. It’s daunting and you feel like a fraud. But it gets better… a little bit.
Why being team lead is rewarding - you can help your team members grow. You see how they evolve in their careers, how they become more open and brave with taking new challenges. You see how they blossom from just coders to people with initiative that bring more and more great ideas to the table. All invisible work that we do is well worth it.
Technical background - why it makes things simple and why it makes things more difficult
First weeks of leadership - what to do now?
Soft skills - it’s easy but… it’s not. I’ve read many books and listened to multiple podcasts but faced with real life scenarios you can never be prepared. Impostor syndrome never helps but as the time passes you understand it more and more that you cannot control everything.
3 years later - where I am now and how the perception of my role changed over the course of the last 3 years. What I did wrong and what I’m still trying to improve."
Stage: N/A
Harness the power of Value Stream Mapping
Do vivid visions of wasted time and ineffective production process haunt your dreams?
Does wondering how to adapt and utilize the visual tool of value stream mapping in Video Game production keep you up at night?
Fret not, there might be a solution in sight!
In the first part of this talk, we will discuss “by the book” implementation of Value Stream mapping to provide context. The second part will be dedicated to the real deal, discussing tried and tested applications and its highlights and pitfalls.
The goal of this talk is to add yet another tool into your hefty production tool kit to help you hammer away at various struggles of the video game production process.
Stage: N/A
11 Questions for a Great Video Game City
Cities are everywhere in games; from Bloodborne's Yharnam to Disco Elysium's Revachol and from Cyberpunk 2077's Night City to Dishonored's Dunwall, cities are rich, fertile, and memorable gameplay and storytelling stages. They are complex worlds to be explored and savored. They are game levels to be filled with challenges, stories, and characters. They are places to be traversed and played in.
This talk will present its audience with the 11 fundamental questions designers need to answer in order to create believable, immersive, and actually unique urban worlds for their games. Every question will be answered through the lenses of game design, world building, narrative and level design, and will be supported by both real world and video game examples. Additionally, the talk will also cover the basics of designing cities for video games and explain what game urbanism is all about.
These are the 11 questions I will be tackling:
-Where is the city?
-When is the city?
-Why was this city founded?
-How Big is the city?
-Where do people Live and Work?
-How do people and things move around?
-What is the city's Structure?
-What's the Architecture like?
-Can you describe the Society and the city's Theme?
-What Stories does this city tell?
-What Game is this place for?
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Let’s Make an Online Multiplayer Game without an Engine
In this talk, Tomas will talk about his approach for how to make online multiplayer games using C++. Instead of a game engine like Unreal or Unity he chooses a basic networking library ASIO and shows that game networking does not have to be hard. Through the talk he will develop a simple text-based roleplaying game with an online multiplayer. The talk is primarily aimed at intermediate C++ programmers but everyone who wants to start learning about game networking is welcome.
Speaker: Tomáš Janoušek (Intern - Software Engineer, Hangar 13)Stage: N/A
Leading Game Design Teams
Join Will Shen as he talks about the ups and downs of leading game design teams. How do teams of specialists who all want to build different things work together to deliver a single experience? How much control does a lead designer actually have, and when should that control be used? How do you get through times of uncertainty and manage creative conflict? Attendees will walk away with a set of tools for leading creative teams and how to demonstrate leadership if you are looking to move up.
Speaker: Will Shen (Lead Designer, Unknown Worlds)Stage: N/A
Communications, Creators and Community - How to build a communications plan
This talk will give the audience the foundations to build an effective communications plan, giving insights on which platforms and tools to use and how to harness the power of press, creators and community.
Speaker: Alessandro Fileni (International Communications Manager, Electronic Arts)Stage: N/A
Com'mu'ni’cate - How we do it at Mi'pu'mi
Effective communication is the key ingredient that makes game development not just successful, but truly extraordinary. This talk dives into the heart of why communication matters so much at every stage of game creation. We'll explore the magic behind practices like streamlined meetings, seamless onboarding, insightful note-taking, and the art of daily updates. From emails to instant messages, we’ll uncover how each form of communication plays a crucial role in shaping a smooth, cohesive development process.
Speaker: Jakub Pander (Producer, Mi'pu'mi Games)Stage: N/A
Concept to Launch: Navigating the Game Production Process
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes to make some of the world's greatest video games? In this talk, Probably Monsters Production Director / Riot Games veteran Victoria Caña will shed light on the concept-to-launch game production process to help you navigate creating your own video game, whether big or small.
Speaker: Victoria Caña (Production Director, Probably Monsters)Stage: N/A
