Games Gathering 2021 Kiev, the largest B2B conference in Eastern Europe dedicated to game development and the creation of high-quality gaming content, took place last week!

The HC.games editorial staff and the Hyper Games Conference team attended the conference and hurried to tell you about everything in detail.

Games Gathering 2021 was held in a hybrid format in the form of online and offline events. Of course, everyone was looking forward to an offline event and, finally, after 2 years, it took place in Kiev, Ukraine. The conference was held at a high-quality level, with exciting reports, panel discussions, contests and prize drawings!

Traditionally, Games Gathering is a great event for business development, with an opportunity to meet new business partners (publishers, investors, service providers) and have excellent networking.

Lectures from stars and game dev veterans, indie showcases, contests and giveaways from Google, Ubisoft, 4A Games, Gismart/Flime, Playrix, Gameloft, 24Play, Vostok Games, Kevuru Games, TapNation, G5 Games, Games Academy, Pingle and others, all this lasted for four days!

Online conference

November 30 and December 1 – Live events and broadcasts were held on the Pine platform. Topics were dedicated to marketing, analytics, game design and the general state of affairs in the gaming industry.

In five online rooms, streams, lectures, round tables, virtual stands of sponsors, perspectives of indie developers were held, and everyone had the opportunity to schedule an online meeting with business partners.

Experienced developers shared their experience and revealed the most engaging professional secrets with everyone, but the most exciting thing was waiting for the participants further.

Offline conference

December 4-5 – the main offline conference was held within the walls of the International Exhibition Center. About 100 companies and stands from the most famous companies and indie developers gathered 11 thousand square meters.

The conference hosted lectures on the main areas of the gaming industry: game design, programming, management, art, production, analytics, business, marketing, VFX, VR, QA, indie.

In addition, during the event, a competition for projects of indie developers Indie Blast was held. Many indie projects participated in it, and the best of them received PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and other valuable prizes from sponsors.

The companies presented their products on stands, gave gifts and were remembered for interesting contests for visitors, against which even Alleria Windrunner, Lady Dimitrescu, Genshin Impact characters and other cosplayers could not resist.

Wargaming.net decorated their stand with a real T-34-85 tank and allowed everyone to win a competition to ride a steel monster.

In addition to the flesh and blood participants, the conference was attended by a robot from Boston Dynamics, which amused everyone and left no one indifferent.

Everyone could also participate in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, win valuable prizes and find like-minded people and teammates.

How about breaking the record in Pac-Man on a slot machine? Or an opportunity to try out new VR projects? All this and much more was at the conference and captured the attention of everyone present!

Each stand was unique, fascinating and memorable. CEOs, team leaders, designers, artists, managers, and marketers of leading companies shared their experiences, case studies, and professional secrets at the event.

The conference was attended by David Müllich, who directed the production of Heroes of Might & Magic for a full five years. His 40 years of experience spans over 60 games, including DuckTales for Disney, I Have No Mouth, I Must Scream, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. He presented his lecture: “Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Forging of Erathia”, with a detailed look at project design and production decision-making.

Alexander Khrutsky, CEO of Games Gathering (left) and David Müllich (right)

These days were eventful, so a party was held for visitors with delicious food, fiery music and a good atmosphere for networking.

Director of Hyper Games Conference, Eugene Lavrinenko, moderated the discussion panel “Hyper-casual games market 2021. Secrets of success, recommendations, trends” in which marketing trends, a detailed analysis of situations with genres and their characteristics were discussed.

It’s been an incredible week! Thanks to the team of the Games Gathering for such a fantastic event!

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