Gaming Experts to Participate in 15th Edition of IGDC

Hyderabad: Gaming experts from across the globe will converge at HICC Hyderabad on November 2, as the three-day India Game Developers Conference (IGDC) kicks off in its 15th annual avatar. South Asia’s biggest and most significant developer conference is back after last year’s resounding success. The high-octane event will pack a punch with 4,000 plus attendees, over 150 speakers and 100 hyperactive sessions.

The event runs concurrently with India Joy, which takes places from October 31st to November 5th. India Joy serves as a comprehensive platform, uniting prestigious international events under one umbrella and presents a myriad of opportunities for all stake holders through B2B and B2C events.

In the spotlight at IDGC will be nine parallel sessions, solo talks, workshops and round tables. These will dive deep into AI, Web3, Art and Design, Technology, Production, Business & Product Management, Applied games covering games for good, Emerging trends and Career opportunities. Also lined up are special sessions by conference partners: Unreal Developer Day, Xbox Discovery Day, Unity Dev and Google Dev sessions.

Also on focus will be various Round Tables between industry, government representatives, academia and other policy makers put together by Industry bodies such as Invest India, Start-up India, AIGDF, Primus Partners, MESC and Consortium of game developers.

Kicking off IGDC 2023 with the launch of the ‘Lumikai State of India Gaming report FY23,’ Day 1 will gather pace with an engaging panel discussion on “What makes some games great? An analysis of iconic games Vs their forgotten competition. What lessons can be learned?.” Mike Fischer from the University of Southern California; Mark Stanley, Games for Change and Dave Yonamine from MobilityWare are the panellists.

Another Day 1 panel will dive deep into “The Investment scenario: A sneak peek into the Indian and Global gaming market” with Nihansh Bhat, KRAFTON India; Rohit Naini, Scopely; Anupriya Sinha Das, Nazara; Yash Baid, Jetapult; and Tomoharu Urabe (Haru), MIXI, Inc. as speakers.

An informative talk on “Building a VC Backable Gaming Business from India” by Vivek Ramachandran of Matrix Partners and the panel discussion on “Building from India to the World” and “The India Gaming Market Status Quo” are other engaging events to look forward on Day 1 of IGDC. Ending the day on a high note, the Women in Games Hi-Tea will have all the women in India networking with each other and sharing and basking in each other’s success.

Day 2 will unfurl with a talk on “Playing for the Planet: How Video Games Can Deliver for People and The Environment” by Amit Khanduja from Reliance Games. This will set the stage for a panel on ‘Predictions 2024.’ Lined up as speakers are Sean (Hyunil) Sohn, KRAFTON India; Kadri Harma, Sisu Ventures; Jeff Strain, Prytania Media/ Dawon Games; Justin Swart, BITKRAFT Ventures and Saumya SIngh Rathore from Winzo.

Also on the Day 2 agenda is a talk on “Making a hit game in these uncertain times” by Abhishek Malpani from Funcel. Thereafter, a panel will address “Player Compensation: A Market Correction?” Among the panellists are Manoj Kasyap, VLT Esports; Akhil Kavuturu, Marcos Gaming; Rohit Jagasia, Revenant Esports; and Parth Chadha, Stan.

Some of the riveting panels lined up to make Day 3 captivating for the audience includes- The first, on “India's obsession with Shooters. What's the fad about?” will see Mayur Bhimjiyani, Hypernova Interactive; Jwalant Gangwar, Super Gaming; Shantanu Tonpe, Uniplay Digital; and Ojas Vipat, Mayhem Studios as speakers. The second will dive into Artificial Intelligence with a panel titled “Is AI going to take your jobs?” Taewon Yun from Super Evil Megacorp and Mark Stanley from Games for Change are the scheduled speakers.

The third panel on the final day will tackle the “Rise of Grassroot Esports in India” with Kunwarbir Singh from Lenovo India; Biren Sharma, Esports Caster; and Aviroop Mandal from Futuresmith as speakers. For complete agenda, please visit: indiagdc website

Beyond the panels, the conference agenda is packed with an engaging mix of interactions, awards and game-centred activities: An Investor-Publisher Connect linking them with studios and developers; trademark IGDC Awards to identify and reward game developers and studios across multiple categories; and a unique Build Your Own Game (BYOG) game jam.

Flowing in from across the nation for BYOG, game developers will build a game within a limited timeframe, based on a set of themes. Launched in 2010, BYOG is India’s oldest annual game jam, churning out champion game developers year after year. Past winners have used this as a springboard to win multiple global awards, launch their own game development firms and build riveting games.

Propelled by a robust ecosystem of developers and users, the Indian gaming industry has emerged as the world’s second largest market. By 2028, the Indian gaming market could touch $10 billion annually. In 2022, the vast expanse of gamers in the country had exceeded 400 million, clocking an impressive 40 million growth over the previous year. The massive 600 million plus smartphone user-base has given it a significant push. India has the highest mobile data consumption rate in the world at 20 GB per user per month. In-app purchases facilitated by UPI payments and localised content has also driven engagement.

Organised ‘By the Industry, For the Industry,’ the conference is led by industry volunteers, aided by corporates and industry leaders. Over the years, the IGDC has emerged as a major driver of growth of the Indian gaming ecosystem. Upgrading every year, the conference series has been a must-attend event for scores of game developers, publishers and investors. They have immensely benefited from the IGDC’s objective: Empowering game developers with insights, upskilling and networking options with industry leaders and investors.

Scheduled for November 3, the IGDC Awards will honour game developers and studios across 10 categories: Mobile Game of the Year, PC / Console Game of the Year, Visual Art, Game Play, AR / VR Game of the Year, Indie Game of the Year, Student Game of the Year, Upcoming Game of the Year, Jury Award for Game with a Climate Change theme and Popular Choice Award. The winners will be picked by an international jury of games industry leaders across different verticals. This year saw a record number of 300+ entries for the awards.

Another key event, the IGDC Investor-Publisher Connect 2023, is an invite-only flagship initiative. It is designed to help investors and publishers meet studios and developers looking to secure investments for their projects and studio or those looking to publish their games. All engagements are pre-screened and scheduled in an exclusive one-on-one format. Over 100 applicants have already signed up for interactions with more than 45 investors and publishers and master classes in pitch decks, investments and more.

Billed as a green summit, the IGDC has badges made of plantable seed paper with cloth lanyards and eco-friendly speaker gifts. There are no printable brochures at the expo area. Single-use plastic are strictly out of bounds. Used plastic bottles are to be recycled to make T Shirts. IGDC has tied up with Sankalptaru Foundation to plant a tree for every speaker at the Conference.

To green the expo area, booths are only allowed to use eco-friendly material for all collaterals such as brochures. Booth owners are encouraged to put up QR codes to allow people to download brochures without printable material. Printed material, if any, should be of recyclable paper.

Lined up to speak on all things gaming are an impressive list of Art Directors, Project Heads, Studio Heads and CBOs. They represent some of the top Indian and international gaming and investment firms. Here’s a list: Super Evil Megacorp, Firaxis Games, EA, IGDA, GameFounders, MasalaGames, Savage Games, Paradox Interactive, Gearbox Entertainment, Nazara Technologies, Crown Book / Scouts Life, Dawon Entertainment, Scary Robot, Daniel Mullins Games, LUDiMUS, Snapser Inc, Rovio, Nukebox Studios, SQOOL Co, Zoox Inc, Artsmith Concepts and Visions, Revenant Esports, Qlan, and Annapurna Interactive.

IGDC 2023 will also see a leading game designer from Larian Studio, the makers of one of the world's top grossing games at the moment, Baldur’s Gate 3 speaking on their experience.

Powered by Unreal Engine, the 15th IGDC has Nazara Technologies as diamond sponsor and KRAFTON India as its platinum sponsor and MIXI, Inc as the Gold Sponsor. With the Government of Telangana as State sponsor, Google and Unity are on board as Silver Partners and Prytania Media as the experience Partner, Reliance Games as co-Sponsor of the After Party, the conference has Microsoft Xbox and Winzo as bronze sponsors. Govt. of United Kingdom as Country Partner, Arsht- Rock Atlantic Council is the awards partner, Lakshya Digital, the diversity and inclusion partner and Peak XV as the Speaker Lounge Sponsor. Among the associate sponsors are Elevation Capital, TapNation, Audiomob, Payoneer, 88Games, Adjust, Agora, NCore Global, Liftoff, Moloco, SocialPeta and RedApple Tech with Funcell, Apptweak and Yesgnome as Supporting partners.

Till last year’s 14th edition returned to the physical mode, the IGDC was in a two-year long Covid-induced virtual mode. But the gaming community had kept the engagements alive, returning to the physical avatar in big numbers at HICC Hyderabad from November 3 to 5, 2022. Over 4,000 participants had turned up for the mega show.

India Joy being held between the 31st of October and 4th November has multiple events covering the whole of the AVGC sector. 31st October and 1st Nov has parallel events such as VFX Summit, Desi Toons, Cinematica and ASIFA India with IGDC as the sole event on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November.

Tickets are live at early bird prices for the 15th edition on  www.indiagdc.com.