The 14th edition of the 1GDC – The India Game Developer Conference that was held between the 3rd and 5th of November, 2022 witnessed over 4000 attendees. This event featured game developers. publishers, investors as well as gaming enthusiasts at the Hyderabad International Convention Center. This initiative with the tagline “by the industry, for the industry”, focused on empowering game developers with opportunities to network and upskill their craft. This event had 150 speakers featuring 80+ sessions ranging from workshops, talks and panels across games technology, art, design and production. The three-day event also featured CXOO panels that discussed the Indian gaming industry, investment trends and their predictions for the future. IGDC’s flagship networking initiative, the Investor- Publisher Connect saw the highest ever entries with around 75 startups, 28 investors and publishers conducting over 600 meetings in 2 days. The IGDC Awards also boasted a record number of 150+ game entries that featured a new category of popular choice. This quipped the interest of the audience and made it an engaging event. Lastly, the BYOG initiative (Build Your Own Game) also saw a record number of 700+ participants together making 170+ game submissions for the judges to evaluate.
Day 3 of the Conference saw a new initiative called IGDC Futures being launched with the sessions focussed on opportunities in the gaming industry with the intent of encouraging the next crop of talent into the gaming industry.
Commenting on the conference, Rajesh Rao, Convenor and Chairperson, IGDC, said, “IGDC 2022 has exceeded all expectations as we made our on-ground appearance for the first-time post pandemic. It was heartening to see the tremendous turnout and participation from all parts of the gaming ecosystem, people clearly wanted to meet in person and network. This year saw a record number of meetings between investors, publishers and startups. Key trends included seeing a number of upcoming games with Indian themes, with local cultural and social flavour. IGDC Awards saw a jump in overall quality of submissions. Wrapping up yet another buzzing year, we are confident that this edition’s success will yield greater achievements and contribute to the overall growth of the gaming industry.”
IGDC had strong support from across the Industry. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine was the Presenting Sponsor for this year’s conference, KRAFTON, Inc. the Platinum Sponsor, AWS as the Gold Sponsor, Rockstar Games & Kwalee partnering as Silver Sponsors; Games24x7 as Experience Partner; Microsoft, Xbox, Ventana Ventures, Arsht Rock, Winzo, Hyper Hippo, Hero Vired, Tezos as Bronze Sponsors; Nazara Technologies was the Awards Sponsor; London Stock Exchange Group, Payoneer, Loco and Hungama as Associate Sponsors. IGDC Futures was supported by Crazy Labs and PTW while Global Victoria was the Country Partner. Lakshya Digital and Yesgnome as the ecosystem partners.
-By Aaron and Rajesh
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