The Digital Dragons conference is a unique environment for the game development community, where industry experts meet and share ideas. It is a space where new projects can be born, and Digital Dragons provides this environment for the game dev community to thrive and improve. For 10 years, Digital Dragons have provided this opportunity; with the relaxing of lockdowns, social distancing, and other safety measures that were new to all of us to slow and prevent the spread of Covid-19, Digital Dragons returns to Krakow with its 10th anniversary.
The beautiful people of Digital Dragons did not simply have one sent out for the event but also other the course of a weekend. Thus, allowing one to truly explore Krakow. First, try the famed pierogi, and check out the glorious Wawel Castle and the grounds. Then, headed down into the Dragons Den as rumour or Legend tells of a dragon living under Krakow, giving Digital Dragons its name. Indeed, a city I would happily return to something out of a fairytale, definitely somewhere CD Project Red was inspired by when creating The Witcher 3.
Nevertheless, I digress.
The main focus here is Digital Dragons itself though goodness indeed, what a fantastic location to have such an event. Held in the ICE Krakow Business Center.
The event has been growing since it began in 2012, with 300 participants to 2022 now having 2100. Digital Dragons seem to focus mainly on those already in the industry or those wanting to break into it. With there being 125 lectures and 146 speakers. There were games to be played though these were in the Indie area. The second-floor booths were mainly for networking with companies finding out what jobs they had, getting your name there to people and gaining a greater insight into the industry.
On the first day started collecting a bag with a schedule of the day (though I have since misplaced the program but do still have the bag.
From there it was time for the first talk of the day held by Piotr Babieno, Tomasz Gop, Pawel Wegryzn and Pawel Miechowski. On 10 years of polish game industry & digital dragons conference. The landscape certainly has changed from what they said. Startups have grown rapidly. The world of indie being able to approach the public via sites such as Kickstarter is vastly different from having to directly close professionals for funding. There has been an exciting shift in how many people are in the industry, but not enough programmers are more likely to simply be part of the games industry or become a designer or artist. This is most likely due to those studying Computer Science working outside of video games, as unfortunately, programmers in video games are not necessarily paid what they are worth. Thus, the industry has grown, but there are not enough developers. It too was suggested this is due to people becoming disillusioned with the industry; the dream was not to be pushed into crunch 100-hour weeks. The direct issues affect race, sexuality, gender, and such. Things are changing for the better as these issues are now being discussed. But not fast enough. Digital Dragons deserve its space and are one of a few gaming conferences/ conventions in Poland. It shows that governments worldwide and the public are waking up to just how important video games are. Though some may see this as a bad thing and should focus more on legislation and the current inflation, video games bring in such a considerable amount of money they can help in these areas.
Overall, while reflecting on the games industry in Poland, this talk really resonates on a global scale. Even touching on the fact that money can damage the industry. When companies begin to focus on how to make the next large amount rather than a sensible amount, getting greedy and focus on “predatory” tactics. Putting more efforts into mobile games or a game that may seem triple-A but has a significant monetary value attached to progress is known as “gotcha Games” Genshin Impact is often put in this bracket.
Commenting on how small companies must still follow the same rules as larger ones. While they may be able to work on their own time, making a game doesn’t necessarily become easier whether a small or a larger team. They still must have a team that works well together. Education in gaming has changed; many courses still focus on the art side of things, and Computer Science is a separate area. Video game courses are now trying to incorporate programming into their courses, making for a more educated and competitive sector. Potentially increasing wages as more companies begin to require a degree before looking at someone; this will have its positives and negatives; some companies have turned to in-house training allowing people from different departments to shift and a bigger opportunity for internships.
Next was a talk on Narrative Design by Roland Lesterlin of People Can Fly (these awesome guys put on a party later in the night where some people certainly did “fly”). The suggestion with narrative is that the sweet spot is to link systemic design with a non-linear narrative not simply to give the illusion of choice such as a TellTale Game but to have a lot of branching paths like The Witcher 3. The suggestion is that David Cage games, such as Detroit Become Human, are too focused on the narrative side of things to be considered a game and are far more akin to an interactive movie such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. This is up for debate as you play the character and grow relationships. However, the fundamental gaming aspect is the little areas of walking around finding some things and having a quick action interactive cutscene.
Games should notice that you have done something even if it was unexpected. So that a game such as Far Cry has so many ways to do something but never really immerses the player in a reward for doing something the way it has been done, it will be the same outcome regardless of how you get there. This is where an indie studio has less worry; big studios want to ensure their player base returns, so they don’t like to change the status quo or make things too tricky thus, something might be too easy. For example, Elden Ring by Fromsoftware has broken their own difficulty mode by creating difficulty by distance, allowing people to level up before travelling to farther distances. However, nothing stops them from going the distance before they should. In general, a game is never too complicated; you have not explored all the options.
Youtube and streamers continue to bring new eyes to games and thus create sales. They, in a sense, are a live or video-on-demand reaction to the game. These reactions may be fake and exaggerated at times; however, they do add flare to the fun, and when it comes to people playing choice-based games, someone will purchase the game to explore things differently from how they watched them. This adds to another layer of escapism that video games already add.
Games with a sequel are even considered odd as it means you are holding back a story. Making a game with the view to making a sequel is always risky; if it does not make enough sales, the sequel cannot happen, and the player base that did love the game may lose faith in the company if it should ever make it a game again. The community must be listened to, not just the development and publisher looking at things as often a game may take 4+ years to make. Still, if they don’t change their vision throughout the development cycle, they will be making a type of game that was popular at the start of development but no longer is. The game, genre and audience must all be considered.
It was then time for a Women in Games Panel. So much about what was spoken about here is known and problematic in the industry and needs to change even in society. Girls playing games are still seen as odd in many cultures even though the 50/50 gamer ratio of male to female is stated. This does beg the question of non-binary and transexual players. 24% of Game Devs are women, so here we have a lack. Women are often told not to follow stem subjects and are put with self-doubt or imposter syndrome once they are there. There has been extensive media attention on men being misogynistic/chauvinistic in the games industry and that placing women in a lead role is WRONGLY seen as a risk of backlash from stockholders. Unfortunately, this panel was not the best representative as it was from women in positions that people would still see as women roles. Human resources, narrative, games writer, artist. The arts subject.
After this, there was another talk on narrative by Hernan Lopez of Llama Games
This expanded on the earlier narrative talk explaining that human nature is to follow a pattern, so a game must follow consistency and that changes must be done subtly with art, tone, style, and such. That the game must not misdirect its player but that a player can find surprises and misdirection for themselves that, when found, is a shocking moment but one that encourages them to delve deeper. While a developer may feel adding the odd hint or skip there is unnecessary for a game, if you don’t do this and your game is too heavy in the narrative, people will search for the solution outside the game or simply move on. Localisation is becoming far more necessary in our global world of games as some jokes simply will not work in every language, so you must keep this in mind for narrative design.
At the end of day 1, we come to the Video game award
It was presented in Polish; however, fortunately, there was an earpiece which allowed for translation into English. Every now and then, there was an EDM musical piece with a violin to accompany. I found it quite remarkable; the other members in the audience seemed unused to this music, though only I was dancing.
The winners of the evening were
- Best Polish Game of 2021: The Medium (Bloober Team)
- Best Polish Game Art of 2021: Papetura (Petums)
- Best Polish Game Design of 2021: The Medium (Bloober Team)
- Best Polish Mobile Game of 2021: Here Be Dragons (Red Zero Games)
- Best Polish Orginal Game Soundtrack of 2021: The Medium (Akira Yamaoka, Arkadiusz Reikowski)
- Best Foreign Game of 2021: It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios)
- Best Indie Game of the Decade:Ghostrunner (One More Level)
- Special Recognition Award:Mateusz Witczak
Once back at the hotel, a gift had been left: a darling hoody, a little notebook, and a water bottle. There was wine too (that has since been finished but was truly divine)
Day 2
This day focused more on speaking with booths on floor two and some of the indie teams.
I was able to speak with Ted Hentsche, the maker of Dread XP, helping creators explore and develop their own IP, essentially a paid-for Games Jam with a reasonable time to create your game, all based around a horror aspect. It was thought of throughout Covid. It allows those from backgrounds of lesser wealth a chance to put their games out there. A man who has had a passion since the age of 8 has dealt with addiction got sober and made a realisation of life that you can’t just hire based on nepotism, strong racial bias and things of that nature that power is easy to abuse and something that plays on his mind often. He is a man who doesn’t come from privilege and even slept in his car for a while; nevertheless, he can understand that he is a white company owner and wants to give something back, not just save his wealth for himself. The game presented was BEST INDIE GAME – 1st Place: Sucker for Love: First Date, developer: Akabaka, publisher: DreadXP. Made by a black creator who, to this day, people are surprised to learn is black.
There was also time to speak with the main sponsor Third Kind Games. I met the Recruitment Manager “Chris McCarthy” at the People Can Fly party. We mostly talked about HS2 and the fact it has cost £194Billion that it was set up by the French, of course, with HS1 being the channel tunnel link. That there has been colossal Operation expenditure while Cross Rail/ The Elizabeth Line in London is essential, corners have been cut. That also the lines are being straightened by the French. Track and trace by Serco simply does not exist, and the communications on Covid have been terrible. I then had a chance to speak with the PR Manage “Victoria Wilson-Theaker” new to the team but has hit the ground running. I asked why Poland was the attraction for a new studio as opposed to other Game Dev powerhouses. IT was simple. Thankfully, someone on the team back in Leamington Spa, one of the founders, is actually Polish and was able to give an insight into how relevant the games industry is there. As opposed to somewhere like Paris or Montreal being far more expensive and Montreal, of course, being in North America. The fact Poland is also increasing education in growing programmers is a wonderful thing. I asked why they decided to be the main sponsor. They felt this was an excellent way to get their name out there, and even more, they have come to Poland and want their presence known. They would likely not be a main sponsor again but would most certainly be returning to Digital Dragons.
One was not able to attend the Indie awards: though the winners were
- BEST INDIE MOBILE GAME: Railbound, developer & publisher: Afterburn
- BEST INDIE GAME – 3rd Place: Lost in Play, developer: Happy Juice Games, publisher: Joystick Ventures
- BEST INDIE GAME – 2nd Place: Batora: Lost Haven, developer: Stormind Games, publisher: Team17
- BEST INDIE GAME – 1st Place: Sucker for Love: First Date, developer: Akabaka, publisher: DreadXP
- COMMUNITY VOTE WINNER: Hamster Playground, developer & publisher: We Dig Gam
Before the final day ended, I made sure to run around further booths and grab as much swag as possible. Getting a shirt from People Can fly, some pins from CD Projekt Red, a key chain with a bottle opener from Lion Studios, a hot from infinity ward and some impressive stickers from elsewhere.
Overall, it is clear that Digital Dragons is an incredible event mainly aimed at businesses, those wanting to start a business, those simply wanting to learn more from some lectures and those who want to collaborate directly with a company. Fantastic networking opportunities and an all-around wonderful time in an incredible city once the event ends and you have time to walk around the lit-up nights of Krakow make you feel happy to be a part of an industry that lands you in places like this.
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