Game Marketing & Publishing Producer, Grindstone / Games Farm
After completing her studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and Faculty of Political Sciences, Adriana obtained a Master's degree in Documentary Film Research, marking the onset of her career in the creative industries. Initially involved in film and television projects, her foray into gaming commenced nine years ago when she joined the trailblazers of the regional SEE scene, Mad Head Games.
Since then, Adriana has honed her soft and hard skills across various domains including marketing operations, publishing and release management, broadcasting and video production, performance marketing, content creation, and product and brand marketing management. Presently, she is a member of Grindstone and Games Farm, a boutique video game production and publishing company. Adriana has a profound interest in research areas pertaining to creative entrepreneurship, video
game law and copyright, creativity and social engineering, and building online communities.
Curiously, she finds fascination in the discourse surrounding console wars. Despite her extensive involvement in gaming, Adriana still remains uncertain
whether her entry into the industry was by chance or with good reason.
Head of Brand & Publishing, Aurora Punks / Founder, PlayCap
Bibbi Wikman has an extensive background in publishing, marketing and branding and has spent the last five years in the games industry, specializing in brand development, publishing, and investments.
As Head of Brand & Publishing at Aurora Punks, she drives the company’s mission as a co-developer, co-publisher, and investor in game projects, helping
studios bring their games to market. She also plays a key role in spreading awareness of Aurora Punks’ support for developers.
In addition to her work at Aurora Punks, Bibbi is the founder of PlayCap, an international angel network with senior women in the games industry. PlayCap connects with early-stage game studios and game tech companies, providing not just funding but also hands-on expertise, mentorship, and business guidance to help them scale and succeed.
Co-founder & CEO, Chat3d
Félix is an AI enthusiast with an engineering background, coming from France. He has previously founded and worked in different startups, including one focused on machine learning for CNC machines and computer vision. In that project, users could draw, and the machine would cut around their designs, a concept developed with Fab Labs in mind.
That is where he met Glenn, his current co-founder, who is a machine learning engineer. Together, they share the vision that AI is not an end in itself but rather a tool that helps artists better execute their vision, possibly reducing their reliance on complex graphical interfaces.
Today, they advocate for more control over AI-generated content. They founded Chat3D in the summer of 2023 to bring this vision to life, simplifying the 3D modeling process for video games and animated films.
Independet Game Developer
Making games and game-making tools since the 8-bit era, Dragan is one of pioneers of the Serbian game industry. As Unreal Engine Developer, he worked on
MetaHuman Creator and MetaHuman Animator at 3Lateral/Epic Games, for which he got game credits on games like Marvel Spider-Man: Miles Morales, "Spider-Man 2, Avengers, Horizon II: Forbidden West, Resident Evil: Village, Outriders, The Dark Pictures Anthology and Fortnite. Before that he worked as Unity Expert
Developer at Tab Tale's Crazy Lab, Level Bit, Prelovac Media, and Emerging Dreams.
For the first few years of Metamorf Studio, he led the technology efforts around the game engine and tools for Genesis Rising: The Universal Crusade. Currently he is working on his own indie game, and designing an experimental engine for narrative simulations.
Head of Sales/Release Management, Untold Tales
Szymon Westfal, a lifelong RPG enthusiast turned gaming industry professional, has taken on many roles—from Producer and Project Scout to Level Designer, Release Manager, and now Head of Sales. With over a
decade of experience in project management, he has spent years helping studios bring their games to life through documentation, level design, and production management.
Now at Untold Tales, Szymon focuses on boosting sales and ensuring every game finds its players — because great games deserve more than just wishlists. A strategic
thinker, dealmaker, and RPG nerd at heart, he approaches both business and games with the same mindset: a well-planned quest leads to the best rewards.
Founder & CEO, MiTale / Turku Game Hub
Originally from Serbia, with a long-time base in Finland, Natasha is a hardcore nerd who happened to become an artist and not a physicist, now working in the gaming industry. She believes in hard work and have a stubborn mindset for ideas worth pursuing. As a doctoral candidate, university teacher and professional artist with degrees in classical and digital art production, her super-power is a multidisciplinary approach to every challenge that presents itself. Years of working experience in many
diverse projects have enabled her to provide any concepts needed with punctuality and proficiency in any desired media.
Natasha has been the driving force of numerous local, regional and global gaming ecosystem initiatives, including IGDA Finland, IGDA global, Neo Games, Turku Game Hub, Turku Game Lab, Turku Artists' Association and the University of Turku, to name a few.
She is also a proud Women in Games ambassador, as well as the driving force behind the We Love Games conference.
CPO & Co-Founder, Bright Gambit
Tim has been a passionate advocate of the video games industry for the past 26 years. Starting as a level designer, Tim worked his way up to Creative Director within the design discipline. He has worked at various companies including Activision/Blizzard/King, Ubisoft, Avalanche Studios and Codemasters. He has also worked on some well known games including 3 Assassin's Creed titles, the Candy Crush franchise, Operation Flashpoint and many more.
He now works as the CPO of Bright Gambit, a company he co-founded with some other like-minded industry veterans focusing on supporting indie developers break into the industry.
Founder, Kando Factory
Bobby has spent 15 years immersed in the gaming landscape, working across various roles and domains (QA, Production, Business Planning and A&R). During Bobby's time in the industry, he has worked at PlayStation, SEGA, Curve Games, Nocturne Games and founded Kando Factory.
Since 2016, Bobby's focus has been on finding and securing the most talented studios to investi into. Bobby has evaluated well over 20,000 game pitches in his time and has an extensive network within the indie gaming scene. During his career, Bobby has been credited on
over 60 game titles, having worked on many successful AAA titles such as Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bayonetta and has signed games such as Two
Point Hospital, Enshrouded and many more.
Executive Producer, Narwhal Accelerator
Vitalii Abramov is the executive producer of Narwhal Accelerator. He was originally the founder and producer of a game development company that became the target of M&A by a Silicon Valley unicorn. Two years ago, he changed his focus, joining the investment unit of Xsolla.
A passionate gamer, amateur tennis player and market expert, his current role at Narwhal encompasses game and team assessment, market validation, and team support. His favorite game genres include FPS, roguelikes, 4X, open-world action, and survival games.
Game Producer, Raw Fury
Juraj has been part of the video game industry for over a decade, beginning in events and media, and concluding this chapter as a Marketing Lead for Reboot, the most prominent industry professional event organizer in the CEE region.
Transitioning into game production and indie publishing was a significant step forward in his career. For the past three years, Juraj has been part of the publishing division at Raw Fury, working closely with some of today’s most successful indie developers to support titles such as American Arcadia, Call of the Sea, Dome Keeper, and more. He also thoroughly enjoys writing dull short bios
about himself to present himself in the best possible light.
CEO/Creative Director, Old Skull Games
A passionate entrepreneur and game designer (Activision, Ankama), Nicolas has been part of the video game industry for nearly two decades. As the co-founder of Old Skull Games, he has led the creation of numerous games and guided the studio’s growth to a 80-person team, establishing it as a key player in France. He has collaborated with Ubisoft, Apple, and Netflix on projects such as Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit and Cryptical Path.
Drawing from his entrepreneurial experience, he also supports young studios and specialized schools, helping creators structure their projects and anticipate market shifts. Convinced that the industry is undergoing profound transformations—from the rise of AI to new economic dynamics—he closely follows the changes shaping the future of gaming. His approach blends pragmatism with long-term vision, striving for sustainable and innovative models.
Business Development Manager, CD PROJEKT RED
Darek started his game-dev journey as a lawyer working for various IP departments in a few law firms and getting industry work only at special occasions. However, once he saw his first publishing contract - he knew his calling.
The story went pretty quickly afterwards. In 2019, he participated in an international game-dev moot court with his friend, and they won the 2nd place. Then, in 2020 he joined GOG as legal counsel responsible for everything legal, except for the taxes. It took him another two years to finally leave the law behind and in 2022 he's done an in-group move to CDPR's biz-dev team.
Head of Production, Anshar Studios
A game developer with over ten years of experience as a producer, Magdalena worked on adventure games such as Grim Legends series, Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love and a narrative RPG called Gamedec. Currently holding the position of Head of Production at Anshar Studios.
Doctor of Humanities with a thesis on dialogue structures in video games, game studies scholar and an educator. For over ten years she was a lecturer in the field of Game Design at the Jagiellonian University and Tischner European University (currently part of SWPS University) in Kraków. In the years 2019-2022 she was also serving as deputy dean and scientific coordinator of the Game Design program at Tischner European University.
Co-organizer of six international conferences in the field of Game Studies in Krakow and Katowice. Curator of the videogame section of the Ars Independent 2024 festival, member of the Digital Dragons Program Board and juror of the CEEGA competition for 5 years.
Creative Director, Onyx Studio
A proven creative, art and experience design leader with an extensive background in interactive entertainment, transmedia storytelling and digital product design.
With over 20 shipped titles across multiple PlayStation, XBOX and Nintendo consoles, Chad has the experience developing new IP and has also worked on renowned franchises from Disney, 20th Century, Cartoon Network and Microsoft - most recently on Halo. Throughout his 12+ years in the games industry, he's been focused on cultivating successful art and design teams while driving the high-level direction, workflows and creative culture necessary to realize best-in-class experiences that effectively serve our audience, story, brand, and product goals.
Outside of game development, he has built and led multi-disciplinary innovation teams that have crafted award-winning digital/physical experiences for global brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Philip Morris, Intel and Nintendo, along with regional APAC brands including ANA (Japan), Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Tiger Beer (Singapore). These projects range from out-of-home and event activations to branded game experiences and mobile lifestyle apps.
Product Marketing Manager, Outfit7
Tjaša turns in-game events into marketing magic, keeping the My Talking Tom & Friends universe fresh and full of surprises. She connects the dots between LiveOps, store events, and campaigns, making sure the updates players see are more than just updates.
Before jumping into mobile games, she was a creative lead in advertising and fintech-gaming, which explains her love for mixing strategy with storytelling. These days, she’s focused on helping games stay alive and relevant, without always needing a big launch.
Communications & Brand Partnerships Expert, 11 bit studios
Paweł Miechowski has been active in the gaming industry for over 25 years, primarily with the independent Polish studio 11 bit studios, where he has worked as a tester, writer, and currently serves as a communications & brand partnerships expert.
11 bit studios is the developer behind globally popular games such as This War of Mine and Frostpunk, and they publish titles like Children of Morta, Moonlighter, The Invincible and The Thaumaturge.
Thanks to Paweł Miechowski's contributions, the game This War of Mine has become part of high school curricula in Polish schools.
Senior Producer, New Tales
Elise is a Senior Producer with New Tales, and prior to that a Producer with Avalanche Studios as well as with Ghost Pattern on their title Wayward Strand.
In the past few years, she has spoken at schools and games events (eg. GCAP) about assorted topics, including STEM/STEAM, production techniques, communication & running a successful games booth. She was also working as a Producer at Samurai Punk, on Feather, Roombo: First Blood and more. She also previously worked as an Associate Producer at Big Ant Studios where she worked on various sports games including Big Bash Boom, AO Tennis, Ashes Cricket and others.
After completing a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment with a Major in Games Design, she worked as an Assistant manager at EB Games where she gained her initial management experience.
CORE TRACK
Production, art direction, studio management, leadership, publishing and many more topics – from indies, over AA all the way to AAA, beyond & back. News from major game engines, ex-dev and co-dev, inevitable AI, focus on the Polish game dev scene, and most importantly – how to overcome the state of the industry.
MOBILE TRACK
FTW! is a “best of both worlds“ experience and we strive to satisfy the needs of our entire ecosystem. Mobile dev makes around 40% of local games production, and for those peers we will offer inspiring and informative talks. Find out the latest trends in ad monetization, game design & more.
GAME SLICE
We are adding a special track this year dedicated to publishing. We’ll host several European publishers, follow their talks and have them review selected live pitches from studios from our region and provide valuable feedback. The open call for indie teams will come in early April, and is open to any team from anywhere in Europe!
STAKEHOLDER ROUNDTABLE
We keep our stakeholder program with the idea to think about developing resilient and amazing game dev ecosystem. This will be a closed and invite-only panel and working session for representatives of NTAs, accelerator programs, educators and decision makers. Get in touch if you’re interested to get involved!
SHIFT2GAMES TRACK
Yet again, we open a part of the program for free – to all juniors, beginners, students & professionals from other industries considering their own “shift2games”. We offer them some amazing talks, we let them get a taste of our dynamic industry, plus meet the people involved. Powered by our own shift2games.com platform.
AI IN GAME PRODUCTION
To all the ticket holders, we are offering a chance to take part in a masterclass which will shed light on some of the AI-based tools used in game production. The masterclass will take place a day before the main conference program and requires a separate signup – all details coming in April. Let’s find out what’s behind the buzzword!
EPIC GAMES | 3LATERAL | UNITY TECHNOLOGIES | OUTFIT7 | ROVIO | GOOGLE | SUPERCELL | WARGAMING | PLAYRIX | NORDEUS | SHOSHA GAMES | SPERASOFT | INTEL | MY.GAMES | FINGERSOFT | SOZAP | TWO DESPERADOS | SCHOENHERR | TRICOMAN STUDIOS | YBOGA | AURINKO | PLAYKOT | GAMEBIZ CONSULTING | FLEGA | POLISH INSTITUTE | THE GAMES FUND | SOZAP | MAD HEAD GAMES | UNTOLD GAMES | WEBELINX GAMES | PLAYSENSE | OOX LIMITED | ENTANGLED | DUCK ROCKETS | TWO DESPERADOS | POLYGON IMPACT | LIPSAR STUDIO | BRAVOCADO | WALGA | ALLCORRECT | PLAYKOT | VERTEXBEE | DREAMLINE ENTERTAINMENT | INGENIOUS STUDIOS | HORA GAMES | STUDIO OIO. | POINTER.HOW | CENTROID | PLAYSTUDIOS EUROPE | TINYBUILD | FLAT HILL GAMES | PERP GAMES |SOFIA GAME JAM | NACON STUDIO MILAN | EBB SOFTWARE | WEBMASTER.GM | BLACK BILE GAMES | RUDJI GAMES | OBRUZA INC | CRATER STUDIO | ALGEBRA | TESTRONIC LABS | PACKAGE DEVELOPMENT | LAV GAMES | CASE 3D | ELEPHANT GAMES | KIPI INTERACTIVE | DGI TECH GROUP | FORTUNA ESPORTS | BUNKER VFX | BOHEMIAN PULP | DEMAGOG STUDIO | ILBE STUDIOS | MATERRIYA TALENT DEVELOPMENT | EUCLIDEAN STUDIOS | WN MEDIA GROUP | SUPERGIANT GAMES | SEMENOV&PEVZNER | BIG BLUE BUBBLE | MONTE GAMES | SPACE TRACE | PUZZLE POINT | STRONG STUD GAMES | STP BELGRADE | TENDER TROUPE | MARBLE IT | RED INFO | AM-PM GAMES | WAVEFORM STUDIO | DIGITAL SERBIA INITIATIVE | GOOD GAME GLOBAL | KOOKABURE | NOVA ISKRA | DIGITAL SERBIA INITIATIVE | GOETHE INSTITUTE | INSTITUT FRANCAIS | SUPERSIDE | FOXY VOXEL | PHOBOS | CENTROID | THERA INTERACTIVE | UBISOFT BELGRADE | SHOSHA GAMES | KARANOVIC&PARTNERS | FRIED PICTURES | INCINERATION PRODUCTIONS | STUDIO BEDEM | ALBANIAN GAMING COMMUNITY | LENADOR STUDIOS | METAXILASIS | MATERRIYA TALENT DEVELOPMENT | IMPACT HUB BELGRADE | BABYBOTTLE STUDIO | SUPERSCALE | BLOOMBERG ADRIA | APPMAGIC | METAWORX | SIRIUS 3D | ABVH | DIGITSAL ASSET TAILORS | GOLIJAT CONSULTING | LIVEVIEW STUDIO | VRROOM | STORYTELLER369 | VEGA IT | BOOM CORP | DIGITAL KRAFT | SENDE | RED INFO | CRATER STUDIO | ADJUST | PEAKSEL | NOTHING2INSTALL | OPS.INC | DANUBE GAMES | NOOR GAMES | TEKNASYON | NEKKI | FISHING BOOKER | CAS AI | BUBADU | INNOVATION FUND OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA | CROATIAN GAME DEVELOPERS ASSOCIATION | MACEDONIAN GAMING INDUSTRY | EUROPEAN BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT | EPIC ASSISTANTS | OBRT TEAM | ARCHANGEL STUDIO | KINOA |
[in no particular order]
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many more freelancers, indies, startups, service providers and related professionals!
