Ukraine Pavilion at Gamescom 2024: New Horizons of the Industry

At this year’s Gamescom, the Ukraine pavilion once again impressed the world by bringing together game development studios, event organizers, service companies, and innovative startups. Ukraine showcased its achievements in the gaming industry and its creative and business potential.

• “The Ukraine pavilion at Gamescom has become a key destination for both Ukrainian studios and developers, as well as international partners. Its main goal was to become a convenient space for meetings and business networking, and it worked 100%! While the global gaming industry is still recovering from the crisis, we saw signs of optimism among the participants. I hope that next year we’ll make the pavilion even larger and showcase more amazing projects from Ukraine,” shared Oleg Yavorsky, Development Director of VG Entertainment and co-organizer of the pavilion.

Alongside business meetings, there was a charity auction to support our country:

• “It has become a great tradition to bring together our industry friends and supporters of Ukraine at the annual networking reception and charity auction during Gamescom. I’m delighted to see that the interest in this event and the generosity of our community is not declining over the years, but otherwise, increasing. This time we were able to gather the record amount of EUR 20500 for Gamedev Under Bombs and I’m immensely grateful for that!” said Olena Lobova, co-founder and CBDO of GDBAY, and co-organizer of the pavilion.

Pavilion participants noted that the conference was a valuable platform for forging new contacts and partnerships:

• “Participating in the Ukrainian pavilion at Gamescom 2024 was an incredible experience. Despite the immense challenges we face, from the ongoing war to industry-wide crises, this event was a much-needed breath of fresh air. It was inspiring to see the global community engage with our project, which we believe brings something new and exciting to the genre. The resilience and creativity of the Ukrainian gaming industry were on full display, and I left feeling more connected and motivated to continue pushing boundaries. We’re eager to build on the relationships we’ve formed and look forward to future collaborations!” said Mike from Hologryph.

 

• Maksym from WMG International added: “Everything was great. On behalf of the entire team, I want to highlight the convenient location and the functionality of the space, which had several areas for meetings. Our partners also appreciated the design.”

• “The event was great and really fruitful in terms of business. Having our own Ukrainian booth helped a lot in organizing meetings in one area and also allowed us to exchange a lot of experiences between the teams present there. Thanks to the organizers, everything went smoothly; our company enjoyed being part of the event and the Ukraine booth,” also highlighted Olga from PlayToMax.

 

• “Our team did an after-action review after the tradeshow and spotted some areas where our preparation could have been more effective, but overall, we’re really happy with the outcomes. We got a lot of interest from companies whose titles we love and playI’d like to share a few things that worked for us:

  – Having a clear and concise description of ourselves and our company in our profiles. If you’re in B2B, it’s important to highlight which business metrics you improve and how. This really grabbed the attention of both indie studios and major companies who reached out to us.

  – Even if you didn’t manage to set up meetings through the app, just walk around the booths — sometimes you can even get into private ones.

  – Connecting with representatives at country stands was especially valuable. These stands are usually organized by government funds or business associations that actively support their participants and help with networking. They often offer funding programs if you incorporate or relocate, and they provide assistance with that too.

  – Look for the best side events where big company representatives gather. These often start with speed networking, where you can quickly meet many people, and then move to a more informal setting.” shared Vyacheslav from QPM.

For more details about the history of the Ukraine pavilion, the list of participants, as well as photos from Gamescom 2024 and the charity auction, please visit previous news on the Blog.