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Everybody in the game industry knows about the Game Developers Conference, which draws around 30,000 game developers every year to San Francisco. But who’s No. 2 in the world of game developer events?
Devcom, the business to business gaming event co-located each year with the gigantic Gamescom consumer gaming show, is making its bid to be No. 2 thanks to a larger venue. Stephan Reichart, managing director of Devcom, said in an interview with GamesBeat that his game dev event is expanding to a larger venue in hopes of being a clear No. 2 this year and future years in Cologne, Germany.“We are in a really interesting situation right now with Devcom,” Reichart said. “We are moving into Europe’s most modern conference center. They just opened it weeks ago. And this really gives us for the first time the opportunity to become No. 2 in the world, after GDC.”
Stephan Reichart is managing director of Devcom.
This year, Devcom will occupy Confex, a new part of the massive Koelnmesse expo center in the center of the city on the Rhine River in Germany.
Last year, Reichart said the older venue within Koelnmesse could not hold any more guests. The stages were overcrowded and there were long lines for entering rooms. Now Devcom will take place in the larger space in an attempt to accommodate a larger crowd.
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“We were really afraid of how to handle this for the future. And three months ago, Koelnmesse gave us the green light to become one of the first big conferences to use new complex at all. So we are now in the venue that is comparable to the Moscone Center. It’s still not as big as the Moscone Center, but it’s six times bigger than the venue we used to have.”
Highlighted speakers
Devcom talks were packed in 2023.
The opening keynote will be a talk by game writer and narrative designer Kelsey Beachum, known for her work on Outer Wilds.
Another highlighted speaker is Fleur Marty, executive producer at Fang & Claw, who will give a talk, “The Art of Closing,” which will offer advice on how producers can finish a project successfully and how to motivate their team for this phase.
And another big talk is “Simulation and Representation of Topology-Changing Rolling Waves for Massive Open Ocean Games.” Vladimir Lopatin, senior technical artist at Guerrilla Games, will present a novel method for capturing physical wave simulation data with a set of approximation curves that copes with overhangs, changing topology and strict budget requirements in large open-world games.
In her talk “Building and Growing a Cross-Project Department through the Power of Technical Production“, Lucie Prunier, producer at Don’tNod, will explain how cross-project technical departments can help optimize workstreams in game development.
New venue
Devcom’s new venue Confex is in a different part of the Koelnmesse expo center in Cologne.
Koelnmesse recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Reichart has been figuring out how to grow the event without stressing out the team. Devcom still has a way to go to catch up with GDC. It’s about a 10th of the size of the American show now, with 3,400 people attending Devcom last year.
Still, that’s not a small event. Last year had a record number of attendees, with 250 speakers and more than 160 sessions on 13 stages. This time, there will be 15 stages, an extended expo area and about 200 sessions. And this year, the halls will hold more people. Devcom hopes to grow its audience 30%.
In addition to a bigger show, Devcom is launching its own scholarship program to help underrepresented groups within gaming from all over the world attend the conference for free.
“They will have space there to meet and to talk to each other and to grow their networks,” Reichart said.
About 30 to 200 people will likely be taking advantage of the scholarship program. Reichart also stopped the volunteer program and replaced it with a group of paid support staff to help run the show. The volunteer program was growing, but Devcom would rather have paid employees now. Those who still want free tickets can apply for the scholarship program.
Devcom’s networking schedule.
Reichart wants Devcom to be more fun as well, with a retro gaming area and more games on display. Old souvenirs and design documents will be on display in the retro area.
On top of attending Devcom for three of the days during the week of Gamescom, industry professionals will be able to meet in the future for longer periods of time in a business-to-business setting, as the event will overlap with Gamescom in future years. With five full days, Devcom could rival GDC in its duration.
While layoffs have been rampant in gaming in the next couple of years, Reichart hopes the worst is behind us.
“My gut feeling tells me that our industry has overcome the biggest crisis. It’s getting better. And people urgently are looking for business opportunities and they are willing to travel again and they want to meet people again,” Reichart said.
Leaders of the industry
Devcom networking
Roughly 10% of the attendees will be students, and most will be game business people. Reichart sees people are more willing to spend on events.
It will be a full hybrid event with directly streamed sessions into the event app for all attendees (online and on-site) to view live or as video on demand. Devcom will have additional highlight sessions from past events available on its YouTube channel.
In a survey, 59% of Devcom respondents felt particularly safe at devcom events due to the presence of visible security, inclusive panels, and the availability of quiet rooms. Also, less than 5% of respondents reported ever feeling unsafe at Devcom events.
Devcom’s social events.
Discoverability is getting more important for matchmaking. People attending events want more time to network and bump into each other. The team is trying to make a better matchmaking tool within the Swap Card online events organizer app. The event will have mixers where entrepreneurs can pitch their games.
Last year, about 80% of the attendees were senior, lead or director level people from the game industry. About a third of the participants have been working in games for seven or more years. About 76% were European attendees, with 40% from Germany and 36% from other European countries. So far, ticket sales are 205 over last year in the same time frame and there are 60% more submissions for talks and sessions.
In the future, Devcom will hold leadership summits for VIP attendees.
Lots of networking
Devcom’s opening VIP dinner and Indie Game Awards is pretty elegant.
The Devcom event will start off on August 18 with a traditional networking dinner and Indie Award Night. There will be VIP and business mixers as well as a sunset mixer on August 19. The Xsolla game night will and an executive dinner will also take place on the evening of the 19th. On August 20, there will be a Pitch It Mixer, Spielfabrique’s European Game Night and a Devcom developer night party.
And during Gamescom on August 21 to August 23, there will be a Devcom lounge within the Gamescom B2B area of the show.
“We’ll be full of VIP events — let’s call them that,” Reichart said.
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