More initiatives of the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft
De
More initiatives of the Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft

Hamburg Games Conference 2023: First Speakers announced

The Hamburg Games Conference returns on March 1 & 2, 2023 with the topic "Invest in Games". Now the first games industry experts are confirmed, who will share insights and best practices in talks, keynotes and panels around the main topic, as well as on dev, funding and start-up topics.

After two years of hybrid and digital editions, the Hamburg Games Conference will now again take place as an on-site-only event at the Altonaer Museum in Hamburg. Tickets  at the discounted Early Bird price are available until January 12, 2023. As always, there will also be ample opportunity to network and meet old and new faces from the international industry. 

For the main conference track "Invest in Games", multiple talks have already been confirmed, providing insights and best practices on investments and M&A deals from the perspective of founders as well as investing companies and M&A advisors:

  • Janosch Kühn and Daniel Stammler (founders of Kolibri Games / BLN Capital), will give the talk "Kolibri Story - From student dorm to multi-million dollar exit in 4 years", sharing experiences from founding their own studio and their successful exit. 
  • Maarten de Koning (Executive Vice President at DDM, a consulting firm specializing in games) will speak about the most important basic rules for successful deals in his presentation "10 Golden Rules to Avoid Investment and M&A Disaster". 
  • Arnd Benninghoff (EVP of Gaming at Modern Times Group) will give insights into the successful M&A strategy of the Swedish company that acquired, among others, InnoGames from Hamburg, Kongregate, Hutch and PlaySimple.
  • Michael Schade (CEO and co-founder of Hamburg-based studio Rockfish Games) will look back on the successful self-financing of Everspace 2 through crowdfunding, early access and licensing deals in his talk "How to Self-fund a 20 Million Euro Space Looter-Shooter".
  • Frank Zahn (Delivery Director & Managing Director at technology consulting and software company Endava) recaps his learnings and experience selling the digital agency Exozet, which he founded, to Endava in his talk "Lessons Learned on Selling my Company".
  • Christof Wegmann (Founder & CTO at Exit Games / Photon Engine) will give an overview of success factors and lessons learned in the development of the mobile hit Stumble Guys in his post-mortem talk "Stumbling into a Global Hit Downloaded 2 Million Times per Day".

Several speakers are also already on board for the second track, which will focus on the topics of funding, development and start-ups:

  • Linda Rendel (Production Director and founder of FemDevMeetup) will talk about "Production Leadership - How to be an authentic lead and build trusting relationships with your team", sharing insights as well as tools for authentic leadership.
  • René Habermann (founder and developer at Bippinbits) will share with the conference audience in a post-mortem his learnings from the development and successful marketing of the indie hit Dome Keeper, which raised over a million euros after just one day of release.  
  • Brothers Jan and Paul Taaks (founders of Hamburg-based indie studio Overhype Studios) will give insights into the development and marketing of their indie hit Battle Brothers in a post-mortem talk. 

More information about the speakers and their talks can be found at https://www.gamesconference.com/talks-2023


Become a speaker yourself 

Proposals for talks and presentations are still being accepted until January 20. Submissions on the topics of "Invest in Games", funding, game development, and marketing are open at https://www.gamesconference.com/call-for-papers

Conference tickets at early bird price until January 12, 2023. 

Tickets for the Hamburg Games Conference 2023 are available at https://HGC2023.eventbrite.co.uk. Until January 12, 2023, visitors can secure discounted Early Bird tickets at last year's price. In addition, reduced ticket prices are available for students and start-ups.

All current information about the Hamburg Games Conference is available at www.gamesconference.com.

News

Queer Games Bundle 2023 - Our Top 5 Games

Pride Month 2023 has just started and so has the third edition of the Queer Games Bundle on itch.io. It features 460+ items from 293 creators exploring queer topics. This bundle supports queer creators and celebrates the diversity of their games. We took a closer look at the bundle and chose our top 5 games, which we would love to play.

Gamecity Treff - The 20th Anniversary in Review

For this special edition celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gamecity Hamburg and the esteemed Gamecity Treff, we met up with Hamburg's games industry at the Jupiter.

Daedalic's "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum" Out Now

Daedalic Entertainment is releasing the long-anticipated "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum", a new adventure mixed with action elements exploring the story of the iconic Lord of the Rings character today.

Radioactive Dreams releases Turbo Shell

After receiving the Prototype Funding in 2020, Hamburg-based Radioactive Dreams finally release the game "Turbo Shell".

Games Lift: No expiration date!

This year, Gamecity Hamburg's Games Lift Incubator is doing the same as in previous ones: it's evolving.

Prototype Funding 2023: 410.000 euros for 6 Projects from Hamburg

Gamecity Hamburg funds 6 digital game prototypes with 410,000 euros in its 20th anniversary year.

Application Start for Games Lift Incubator 2023

Developer teams can now apply from May 2 until June 20 for our Games Lift Incubator. This is their chance to get professional input on their game ideas and to successfully develop and market their game projects.

Games Lift Insights 2023: Workshop with Cassia Curran on May 16

At this Games Lift Insights workshop, indie devs will get an impression of what awaits in the incubator with a talk on "Basic Market Analysis for Indies" by Business Development and Strategic Advisor Cassia Curran. The Gamecity Hamburg Team will share insights into the Games Lift Incubator and application process as well.

Networking after the speeches and panel discussion at Hamburg City Hall / Photo by Marcelo Hernandez

Celebrating 20 Years of Gamecity Hamburg at the Hamburg City Hall

At the invitation of the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the games industry celebrated 20 years of Gamecity Hamburg in the City Hall.

Kristin von der Wense (Daedalic Entertainment) was one of the experts in the 1:1 feedback sessions

Pitch Level Up 2023 in Review

At our second edition of the Pitch Level Up participating devs, founders and students got valuable insights and tips from our industry experts on pitching and optimizing their pitch decks in talks and 1:1 feedback sessions at the Hamburger Ding.

20 years supporting Hamburg's games industry!

Founded in 2003, Gamecity Hamburg was the first public funding institution for the games industry at the state level in Germany. We want to celebrate 20 years of supporting and being part of the wonderful games industry in Hamburg.

ROCKFISH Games CEO Michael Schade

ROCKFISH Games releases EVERSPACE 2

After five years of development and two years in Early Access, the single-player space shooter EVERSPACE 2 from Hamburg-based studio ROCKFISH Games will be released on April 6. In an interview with CEO Michael Schade, we talked about the long journey to the game's release and the studio's experiences.

More News
Cookies are used to make this website work and to enhance your experience.

To learn more about the types of cookies this website uses, see our Cookie Policy. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, not all functions of the website may be available.

Cookies are used to make this website work and to enhance your experience.

To learn more about the types of cookies this website uses, see our Cookie Policy. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, not all functions of the website may be available.

Your cookie preferences have been saved.