Welcome to the offline world
Although the last two editions of Digital Dragons, conducted online, undoubtedly abounded in interesting content, the event definitely gains in a more “live” form. The great advantage of the conference is its location, which brings with it all the benefits of the Krakow ICE Congress Center. Initially, it was difficult not to feel overwhelmed by the number of stands prepared by the exhibitors and the concentration of participants (according to the organizer, this year’s edition was visited by over 2,100 people, representing 600 companies from almost 40 countries). Despite this, the space has been arranged in a way that does not hinder the movement between subsequent stands, lecture halls and zones that allow you to replenish the valuable resources of caffeine with such an intense schedule of the event. Outside the building, there will be a place to rest in the fresh air (like in Krakow) and eat meals from several food trucks. Most importantly, in such a well-planned building, there was actually something to do.
A portion of knowledge
As I mentioned, the Digital Dragons featured numerous stands from the partners of the event. We could count, among others to the presence of representatives of the most important Polish studios, such as CD Projekt RED, Techland, Bloober Team, Flying Wild Hog or People Can Fly. Foreign sponsors also had their place, including Google and Infinity Ward. Although these places certainly looked attractive, due to the nature of the event, it is worth noting that they were primarily aimed at people researching employment opportunities in the industry.
Looking more broadly, including as media envoys, I think that the great value was the enormity of the appearances of people related to gamedev, which allowed us to delve into various aspects of creating popular games in a clear, concise form. 125 lectures were grouped into seven thematic sections – Business and marketing , Art in games , Production and Leadership , Mobile and F2P , Game Design , Programing and Technology and Blockchain . So, together with editor Michał, we listened to speeches devoted to creating a diverse, dystopian world of the already famous Cyberpunk 2077 , the visual style of Dying Light 2, techniques to make cutscenes more attractive or the long and bumpy road that he went through during the production of Ghostrunner by One More Level studio (awarded at the event as an independent game of the decade). An important moment of the conference was also the presentation of the conclusions of this year’s Polish Gamers Research , which is currently the largest current source of information on the demographics of people playing video games in Poland and their behavior.
Time of rewards
As it happens at events related to the game, the Digital Dragons also featured a practical element, i.e. the possibility of testing upcoming productions. On the ground floor, there were stands where we could see the games competing in the Indie Showcase competition, and at the same time take part in the audience vote. The big winner turned out to be the amusing “couch” game Hamster Playground from We Dig Games, but my attention was mostly drawn to the Outcore adventure game from a developer named Doctor Shinobi. This production is unusual in that it is based on the mechanics of … a Windows desktop. The demo was also very memorableThe Sad RPG, trying to convey the experience of social phobia in a very surreal way. It is a pity that the awards ceremony on the second day of Digital Dragons took place at a really fast pace and you could get the impression that the presented titles deserved a bit more attention.
There is no need to hide, however, that the main point that had to overshadow the smaller hand was the jubilee, well-organized Digital Dragons Awards 2022 gala. The show was hosted by Tadeusz Zieliński and Radosław Nałęcz, well-known to Polsat Games channel viewers. During the two-hour event, the ten-year journey of the conference was summed up and dragon statuettes were presented for: the best Polish game, the best Polish mobile game, the best Polish game design, the best Polish artistic layer, the best Polish soundtrack, and also the best foreign game. The horror movie turned out to be the big winner of the eveningThe horror film The Mediumfrom Krakow’s Bloober Team, gaining most of the possible prizes. The event was graced by live interviews with representatives of the awarded studios, as well as the music by violinists Wojciech Urbański and Stanisław Słowiński.
Summary
Digital Dragons is an event in the Polish gamedev field that is definitely worth having. Although it is addressed primarily to people professionally related to games, due to the amount of interesting content waiting on site, it is worth looking for an opportunity to participate, for example in a team of invaluable volunteers. From the media perspective, it’s good to know that in our neighborhood so big and important things for the game medium are happening.
