This year, it took place both on and offline – the first two days were devoted to lectures and online presentations, and on September 8 the Digital Dragons Awards Gala was held on Polsat Games. The third day was devoted to live meetings at the Kraków Technology Park.
Participation in the lectures, discussion panels and online recruitment meetings was completely free of charge. Among the speakers were David Jaffe from Movie Games, Ryan Burns from Ubisoft Bordeaux or Darren Korb – music composer for games such as Hades and Bastion. Participants could choose from more than 60 meetings that took place simultaneously on four stages.
At the same time, people who are taking their first steps in gamedev or thinking about changing their job could meet companies looking for employees. Recruiters from BoomBit, PixelAnt Games, SoftServe, 11 bit studios, Sperasoft, Rage Quit Games, and Innogames were waiting for those interested.
Companies such as Unreal Engine, 11 bit studios, Rage Quit Games, and Sperasoft were present in the virtual expo zone.
In the evening of September 8, the annual Digital Dragons Awards Gala took place. 17 games competed in six categories, including such titles as Cyberpunk 2077, Carrion, Ghostrunner, The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima. By votes of the jury, the title of the Best Polish Game went to Ghostrunner by the One More Level studio.
Full list of 2020 Digital Dragons Awards winners
Best Polish Game: Ghostrunner (One More Level)
Best Polish Mobile Game: Book of Demons – Tablet Edition (Thing Trunk)
Best Polish Game Design: Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
Best Polish Game Art: Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt RED)
Best Polish Original Soundtrack: Cyberpunk 2077 (Marcin Przybyłowicz, P.T. Adamczyk, Paul Leonard-Morgan)
Best Foreign Game: Hades (Supergiant Games)
An additional statuette of Special Recognition Award was given to Artur Maksara, for many years associated with the Flying Wild Hog studio, currently at AMD supporting game developers with professional hardware.
On the third day, the conference moved to the Krakow Technology Park and focused on live meetings. Those who attended the event had the opportunity to talk to publishers and representatives of development studios at partners' stands. Additionally, there were three panel discussions about the impact of pandemic on the game development process, the presence of women in the game industry and HR issues in gamedev. A good atmosphere during the live meetings was provided by a barbecue sponsored by Unreal Engine.
For developer studios from abroad applying to enter the acceleration program, the key moment of the conference was the awarding of the Golden Ticket. This one went to the Russian studio Pigeon Eye Games.
This year's Digital Dragons edition was undoubtedly a very successful one. Off and online lectures attracted many viewers. The attendance was also high during the last day of the conference. Once again, it was clear that the Digital Dragons conference organised by the Kraków Technology Park is a key B2B event for the games industry, bringing together publishers, developers, gamedev studios, and media. The conference promoters would like to thank all the participants, speakers, and sponsors for attending. See you (hopefully in May)!
Anna Krampus-Sepielak, Head of Digital Dragons, Kraków Technology Park
For more information you can also directly contact Digital Dragons:
Sabina Misiarz-Filipek – sfilipek@kpt.krakow.pl
Useful links:
Digital Dragons – oficjalna strona
Digital Dragons – Facebook
Digital Dragons – Twitter
Digital Dragons – LinkedIn
Digital Dragons – YouTube
About partners:
Województwo Małopolskie is the main partner of the event. The regional authorities implement a number of projects that serve the innovation and economic development of Małopolska and its attractiveness to investors. Małopolska is a perfect location for conducting business, especially based on new technologies.
Krakow is a modern metropolis with over a million people working in it. Krakow is 140 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.
SoftServe is the Gold Sponsor of the event. It is a team of over 600 people experienced in areas such as VR, AI, Machine Learning, Big Data, as well as core software development, Experience Design, DevOps, and many others. The company is present in five locations in Poland – Wrocław, Gliwice, Białystok, Poznań, and Warsaw. SoftServe is more than technology and ideas – it is a place where talented and ambitious people can develop their passion!
PixelAnt is a Gold Sponsor of the event. Together with Sumo Group, it works on some of the most recognizable high-end AA+/AAA game brands (like Forza Horizon, Hitman, and Sackboy) and collaborates with some of the biggest partners in the gaming industry (Microsoft, Sony, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, WB). This year the company is launching its own IP based on the Unreal Engine. Nothing is impossible for this brand!
BoomBit is a Gold Sponsor of the event. It is one of the largest worldwide mobile game developers and publishers. They publish their own, internally developed games as well as projects created in cooperation with studios from around the world. They're a group of highly experienced development, publishing, UA, Ads monetization, and BI professionals. At BoomBit they create games with passion, realizing their dreams of bringing entertainment to hundreds of millions of users from around the world, from the USA to China. Among their hits are hyper-casual titles such as Ramp Car Jumping and Slingshot Stunt Driver, and mid-core games like Hunt Royale and Idle Inventor. They build their own production and sales tools, which allow them to release high-quality games with optimized monetization potential. Let’s publish a game together!
About Digital Dragons:
Digital Dragons is currently one of the largest international events for the digital entertainment industry in Central and Eastern Europe. The main goal of the Digital Dragons is to create a Business to Business (B2B) cooperation platform within the Polish games sector, one of the most intensively developing sectors of the creative industries. Last year’s edition of the Digital Dragons, held online for the first time, attracted 2900 participants, including 1100 companies from 65 countries. Among the representatives of the digital entertainment industry, there were leading Polish and foreign companies. 366 projects from 30 countries were submitted to the two contests: the Indie Celebration and the Digital Dragons Indie Showcase, while media coverage reached over 1.5 million people. In 2021, the Digital Dragons will be held online as a series of events organised from May to September.
About Kraków Technology Park:
Kraków Technology Park (KPT) has contributed to the development of proper conditions for the development of entrepreneurship for 20 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. The KPT also works with the international EIT Digital, which aims to drive the digital transformation in Europe.