The PowerPlay International Game Development Conference 2024, organized by the Armenian Code Academy, marked a significant milestone as the first cross-regional event fostering cooperation between the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries. Held in Yerevan, Armenia on 2nd of June, within the framework of the RECONOMY Program, the conference aimed to facilitate knowledge and experience exchange among game development professionals and enthusiasts.
RECONOMY is an inclusive and green economic development program of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in the partnership with Help Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe for the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkan countries.
The event commenced with welcome speech from Ruben Simonyan, Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia and and inspiring opening speech by Alexander Gogoberidze, Regional Manager of Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries in the RECONOMY Program.
With a total of 635 registrations, the PowerPlay conference witnessed 447 participants attending in person and an additional 576 online views, split between the Main Stage (387) and the Workshop Stage (189). The diverse attendance highlighted the growing interest and importance of game development in the digital age.
The agenda featured a variety of sessions, starting with a keynote by Djordje Markovic from Bohemian Pulp, who shared his journey of releasing the first indie game, “Let Bions Be Bygones.” This was followed by a talk by Davit Mkrtchyan of Kimura Games on managing free-to-play multiplayer games sustainably. Valeriia Trofimova from My.Games provided insights into developing mobile zombie shooters, while Ramiz Trtovac from GameBiz Consulting explored creative blind spots in user acquisition success. A panel discussion on “How to Get into Game Dev in 2024” featured notable speakers like Narek Aslikyan, Co-Founder and CEO at ACA, and Milica Todorović, Associate Producer at Ubisoft. Aleksey Karmanov, a Deep Learning RnD Engineer at NVIDIA, conducted a workshop that delved into the future of AI in game development.
The event brought together 18 speakers, 7 partner companies, and 2 partner associations, with an estimated 213 tech companies and 77 game development companies participating. The PowerPlay Game Development Conference 2024 not only highlighted the regional talent and innovation but also emphasized the importance of collaboration in driving the industry forward.
