Mill Games will actively engage with Romanian game developers, acting as an accelerator and angel investor in one. To its partner studios, Mill Games will provide the publishing services such as quality assurance, public relations, marketing as well as community management for the newly created games. The company will also offer studios business development services, including legal support, assistance in identifying new projects as well as accessing new projects and additional funding. The accelerator is open to companies and start-ups at any stage of development, even those that are currently just at the level of an idea. Mill Games also invites to collaborate already existing studios that are looking for new projects and ideas for games.

Mill Games will invest either in individual titles or directly in independent studios. All projects funded or co-funded by Mill Games projects will be published under the Movie Games label. Since its establishment in 2016 in Poland, Movie Games have published titles such as “Drug Dealer Simulator”, number 1 global top-seller on platform Steam, or critically acclaimed games “Lust for Darkness” or “Lust from Beyond’, which gained international recognition and following. Movie Games and its subsidiaries have established a number of prominent collaborations: with Discovery, Inc or star football player Robert Lewandowski.

Through the accelerator, Movie Games will provide Romanian independent developments with its industry know-how, cross-marketing opportunities, and external producer’s support. Mill Games plans to partner and invest in 10 Romanian studios in the first two years. The founders are, however, ready to provide additional financing as well as extend the size of the first cohort should there be interest.

The ambition of Mill Games is to develop Romanian game development studios that can list on the Bucharest or Warsaw Stock Exchange. INC will assist the companies in preparing for this step as it has active presence on both the Polish and Romanian capital market. As of September 2020, there were 49 gaming companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange with a total market capitalization of 11.6 billion euros. There is currently no gaming studio listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the IT&C sector is currently underrepresented on the Romanian capital market.

“We have been active on the Romanian capital market since 2014, and we have always been in awe of the Romanian tech entrepreneurs. We had an extremely successful collaboration with Bittnet, and we are now ready to partner up with local entrepreneurs from the gaming sector. Having played an important role in the development of the Polish gaming representation on the Warsaw Stock Exchange,

we want to help Romanian independent studios in reaching the capital market. Through Mill Games, a joint venture between INC and well-established Polish publisher Movie Games we plan to deploy not only our know-how but most importantly capital” said Paweł Śliwiński, President of the Board at INC.

In 2015, INC has invested in Romanian IT company Bittnet and has subsequently listed it on the AeRO market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Today, Bittnet is a landmark company on the Romanian capital market, having transferred to the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange in June 2020. INC has also established and listed on AeRO a venture capital fund, Carpathia Capital which is focused on investments in dynamic SMEs from the CEE region.

The post Mill Games in Romania appeared first on Dev.Play.

The third qualifier of the new and enhanced NGDC live pitch contest will be held at DevPlay 2018 in Bucharest, Romania on 5 October.

The Nordic Game Discovery Contest Season III has begun its tour through Europe, and the NGDC organizers are thrilled to announce DevPlay 2018 as the third stop.  

“We were in Bucharest last year, and that was the first time for the contest. It will be so good to be back!”, says NGDC host and Nordic Game CCO Jacob Riis. “DevPlay is a great and very professionally organized event, and we’re very excited to test our new contest format there. Fingers crossed that the contestants and audience will enjoy it!”

“‘We are very happy to welcome NGDC back to DevPlay.  It was a fun experience last year and the fact that the Dev.Play 2017 qualifier (Breadcrumbs Interactive with its folklore inspired game Yaga) went on to win the NGDC finale in Malmo this May 2018 is proof of the quality of games coming out lately from Romania and Eastern Europe.” Looking forward to sending great games to Malmo this year as well! ” adds Dev.Play event organizer Catalin Butnariu.

The winner of the third NGDC Season III qualifier at DevPlay will win a seat in the NGDC Grand Finals next year at Nordic Game 2019, 22-24 May in Malmö, Sweden.

Apply now!

Are you developing or have you already developed a game that deserves more attention than it’s received so far? And are you attending DevPlay? If so, submit your game and prepare to go on stage for the third qualifying round of NGDC Season III – and maybe all the way to the finals at NG19 next May.

Here’s the submission form for the NGDC Season III qualifier at DevPlay on 5 October in Bucharest, Romania:

https://goo.gl/forms/Zxc5WKJh6KThs9Lo2

Deadline for submissions is 21 September!

NGDC Season III is sponsored by Dolby, Steam, Nordic Game Ventures, Mail.ru, and Plan of Attack.

Interested in becoming an NGDC partner or sponsor? Contact Nordic Game BD director Teddy Florea (mailto:teddy@nordicgame.com) to learn about some great opportunities still available for the upcoming tour.

The post Nordic Game Discovery Contest Visits Bucharest Again appeared first on Dev.Play.

 DEV.PLAY ART CONTEST

– Your introduction to the game development world –

Dev.Play is calling on all young artists (between 16-25 years old)  from around Romania and Eastern Europe to showcase their talent and get introduced to the game development world, one of the most exciting and fascinating industries for an artist!

Be it 2D or 3D, art is instrumental in the development of a game and we want  you to learn more about what could be your place in this interactive world.

What is the theme of the art contest ?

The main theme chosen for the the first Dev.Play art contest is MYTHOLOGY.   Be it a simple character or a whole mystical universe, you can let your imagination go wherever it takes you! The good news is we want to let you decide which best you want to express your art and this means we welcome both 2D and 3D submissions from all young artists.

What do we wish to see?

Captivating artworks that convey a powerful message while representing mythological elements of different cultures and capturing certain aspects of civilization and folklore.

What do you need to do ? 

Submissions  are accepted between  22nd of August -20th of September. Read our rules and regulations to see if you are qualified to enter the competition and also see how to make your submission!  You will need to send your submission at info@dev-play.ro no later than 6PM on the 20th of September. Check the rules and regulations regarding your submission and follow the instructions carefully.

Download the  rules and regulations pdf in ENGLISH  HERE / ROMANIAN HERE.

On the 25th of September the 15 finalists that will have their art being exhibited  at the Dev.Play Conference (4-5th of October 2018)  will be announced.

Why do we think that this a great opportunity for young artist?

The game development industry in Romania needs more passionate people about digital art in order to give life to new ideas and develop remarkable projects. This is the perfect opportunity to:

• highlight your artistic talent by showcasing your artwork during Dev.Play, a B2B conference where your talent will be appreciated by like-minded peers and specialists in your field
• learn from some of the best artists in game development from around the world
• understand the game development industry – a lucrative industry were your talented could be nurtured and which gives your artworks a fantastic distribution outlet
• understand what would mean for you to become a 2D or 3D artist in this industry, meet game dev artists and learn from their shared stories.
• the 15 finalists will receive free access to the conference and will have the opportunity to take part in numerous workshops, talks and panels hosted by game developers from around the world and meet&interact with this amazing community.
• their work will be judged and reviewed by famous local and international art directors in the industry and  the best artwork in both categories, 2D and 3D will be awarded with special prizes.

More details about submissions and prizes can be found in the competition rules in English HERE / in  Romanian HERE.

The post Dev.Play Art Contest appeared first on Dev.Play.

Last year we had over 400 registered participants, hailing from 15 countries and representing over 100 companies. We had great lectures (you can find a complete play list here, by the way), pitching sessions and a bunch of other features. But the one we’re most proud of and the one that was arguably the most successful part of the event was the Indie Expo Area.

The Indie Expo surprised us through the amount and quality of the games present. We realized the local and regional community is bigger and more mature than we thought. The quality of the games was well appreciated by the international jury and the results followed: “Yaga”, a game developed in Cluj Romania and showcased at Dev.Play, has won the grand prize at the Nordic Game Discovery Contest final, earlier in May this year; “Second Hand: Frankie’s Revenge”, another exhibiting title and winner of Dev.Play 2016 pitching contest, made it all the way to the Nordic Game finals; other games present last year have gone further and won various awards and other international competitions.

What better proof for the potential of our region in game development? And of course, these results also validate Dev.Play’s potential as a launching platform and networking opportunity for our regional industry!

Indie Expo and the Dev.Play Awards are coming back this year, of course. On top of that, through our new partnership with Epic Games, we’ll have a dedicated section for developers using Unreal Engine. I can’t wait to see the results of the Dev.Play Awards and the next successful games which will have been first showcased at our event!

And we have tons more in store!

New for this third edition is the addition of a dedicated art track (something we were missing in past years) which features top speakers such as Chris Evans from Blizzard and Henry LaBounta from Ghost Games. Our business track is back and solid as ever, same for the tech track, featuring presentations by Epic Games and 11bit Studios, among others. And opening the event is none other than Rami Ismail, one of the most well known of today’s industry speakers.

There are many other great things to speak of, but I’ll let explore the website to discover them, and be sure to drop by on our social media – see links at the bottom.

So, we’ll see you in October! Early Bird tickets are still available until September 5^th, so make sure to grab one! ? Your presence honors us and we’ll do our best to show you a great time in Bucharest, at our event!

Best,

Catalin Butnariu

Founder & CEO | Dev.Play

President | Romanian Game Developers Association

Dev.Play Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/dev.play.conference

The post “Dev.Play – The Game Development Conference for Eastern Europe” returns in October for third and biggest edition yet! appeared first on Dev.Play.