The jubilee Digital Dragons hailed spectacular success

08 June 2022

Over 2000 people from over 40 countries participated in the Digital Dragons conference organised by the Kraków Technology Park (KPT) in Kraków on 16–17 May 2022. Their number included game fans from the United States, Canada, South American countries, nearly entire Europe, and even locations as distant as the Republic of South Africa, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines.

I believe it has been the best Digital Dragons we have ever made. This year’s conference exceeded our most daring expectations. We made a return to the ICE Kraków Congress Centre after two years of organising the event online. We also stood up against the new reality we all live in from the outbreak of the war against Ukraine. Organisation of the conference at such a difficult time was a profound challenge for all of us. Yet the game dev people showed us very clearly how important Kraków has become for them and how very important the Digital Dragons are for the sector. And we are profoundly grateful to them for that.

Anna Krampus-Sepielak, szefowa Digital Dragons

Digital Dragons is now one of the key B2B events organised for the gamedev sector in Europe. It was organised, for the 10th time already, by the Kraków Technology Park with the main intention to develop an appropriate meeting space for the entire games development sector in Europe.

146 speakers, 125 lectures

On top of that 613 companies, 1150 developers, 114 publishers and 55 media representatives. The great holiday of independent game developers and aficionados has just closed.

The conference was accompanied by lectures, discussion panels, plentiful talks and disputes, networking, two prize awarding ceremonies, and many accompanying competitions. There was also an opportunity to see the video games with the eyes of the artists: Rafał Szrajber’s PHOTOmodeBOOK was a photo documentation of his journeys to selected video game universes. The VIP meeting held in the unique historical interiors of the Potocki Mansion proved another opportunity for networking in much less formal circumstances among the sounds of pleasant music.

Digital Dragons Awards

On 16 May we met the winners of the most prestigious awards in the Polish video game sector – the Digital Dragons Awards. The exceptional gala dazzling with surprises was conducted by Radosław Nałęcz and Tadeusz Zieliński – a Polsat Games anchors and the minds behind the Faux Paux TV programme and by Sonia Wojciechowska from the Kraków Technology Park. This year’s winner, taking home most statutes home was Bloober Team and their game The Medium. This Kraków-based studio has been present at the Digital Dragons from its first edition. The gala was rebroadcasted by Polsat Games.

See the winners of the Digital Dragons Awards

The great music for the gala was designed and provided by Wojciech Urbański and Stanisław Słowiński. The production of the event was supported by the Municipality of Kraków, and Robert Piaskowski, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Kraków, announced close cooperation between the Digital Dragons and the Kraków Film Music Festival while presenting the prize in the Best Polish Original Soundtrack category.

270 studios from 37 countries

This year’s Indie Showcase has attracted a record number of developers: 270 from 37 countries. The 20 top-ranked teams receive the opportunity to present their games in the ICE Kraków Congress Centre.

We proudly present Indie Showcase 2022 winners

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

It is a great joy for us to see the game development sector returning to Kraków despite the long break. This year we have again been supported by the Małopolska Region and the Municipality of Kraków. We hope it is a new opening also to new options for cooperation.

Łukasz Słoniowski, wiceprezes zarządu Krakowskiego Parku Technologicznego

Results of the Polish Gamers Research

We were also made acquainted with the first results of the Polish Gamers Research during the conference. Drawn from a sample of nearly 2000 gaming respondents, the results provide a true mine of information for game developers. This year’s study has proven among others that the Russian invasion on Ukraine and its aftermath have caused a decline in the players’ interest in entertainment. The research has been conducted regularly since 2014, with this year’s study being the seventh already. The project is produced by Gry Onlie SA, Polish Gamers Observatory, and the Kraków Technology Park, while the technical aspects of the last two editions of the Polish Gamers Research have been in the hands of Data Science – the research section of the Publicis Groupe.

Digital Dragons Arena

This year’s novelty was the DD Arena that provided an opportunity for the studios only entering the market to present their projects to an audience of investors, publishers, and the media. The main stage became the arena for presentations by 19 carefully selected teams from Colombia, Czechia, Estonia, France, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Of the 19 teams who presented themselves, I have selected five that I intend to start talking to. A perfect efficiency ratio indeed.

- are the words of an investor participating in the Arena.

This year’s novelty were the options opening within the Digital Dragons ecosystem to the gamedev studios still at early stages of development. Everyone in search of mentoring, financial support, plentiful knowledge, and contacts within the sector is welcome to participate in the Digital Dragons Accelerator programme.

The Digital Dragons will return next year, and the organisers have already announced the dates! Keep 15 and 16 May 2023 free for the Digital Dragons!

Partners

Third Kind Games - is the Main Sponsor of the event: an independent studio with over 60 employees based in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom, founded on AAA experience by senior developers from Activision (FreeStyleGames) in 2016. Third Kind Games has also recently expanded into Poland, launching a new studio in early 2022. Third Kind Games has experience working with some of the largest companies in the games industry, developing critically acclaimed games and franchises for the likes of Activision, Sony, Nintendo, Codemasters, Crytek and, most recently, Mythical Games. Third Kind Games is the lead developer of Blankos Block Party by Mythical Games, a ground-breaking Play to Earn party game featuring NFT characters and accessories, providing players with proof of verified ownership and authenticity and enabling true player-to-player trading through Mythical Marketplace. Third Kind Games is also currently working on its own IP, alongside an unannounced project with a high profile industry name.

Województwo Małopolskie is the Main Partner of the event: the regional authorities implementing a range of projects that serve innovation and economic development of Małopolska, and its attractiveness for investors. Małopolska is a perfect location for running business, particularly based on new technologies. Evidence of that is the number of new ventures growing every year, including dynamically developing tech start-ups. Thanks to the massive support given to entrepreneurship and the optimal utilization of EU funds and other public funds, Województwo Małopolskie positively stands out among other voivodships.

Miasto Kraków is a modern metropolis with over a million people working in it. Krakow is 150 thousand students, 23 universities, over 200 international corporations employing nearly 80 thousand people in sectors such as finance, IT, services, research and development, business analytics. We base the development of the city, among others on intelligent management and strengthening the sector of modern services and research and development. That is why we focus on innovation and effective cooperation between science, business and local government.

Krakowski Park Technologiczny has contributed to the development of proper conditions for the development of entrepreneurship for 25 years. For 10 years it has managed the Technology Incubator for IT start-ups. The KPT inspires the start-up community by organising numerous events including workshops, hackathons, and conferences that help to verify business concepts. Besides these, it runs KPT ScaleUp acceleration programme. Companies may count on the support of seed funds, tax reliefs offered by the Polska Strefa Inwestycji (Polish Investment Zone) programme, and preferential office space rental conditions. The KPT is particularly focused on Industry 4.0 and the video games industry. It is the leader of the hub4industry consortium aiming to provide comprehensive support for companies wishing to implement Industry 4.0 solutions. The KPT also organises Digital Dragons – the leading games industry event in Europe.