Games From Ukraine has concluded its participation at gamescom 2026 in Cologne, bringing together Ukrainian game development companies, independent studios, partners, and representatives of the international industry.
The Ukrainian pavilion was organized by VG Entertainment, Games Gathering and Burny Games. This year, Games From Ukraine was represented in two areas of gamescom:
- The B2B pavilion featured GSC Game World, Lobby9, Flexus, Mobihunter, Mind Studios Games, AB Games, PlayToMax and Ukrainian Fight Drone Simulator.
- The indie showcase featured projects from Palaye, Smokoko Ltd, SolidCore Games, Farom Studio and Atent Games Ltd.
Throughout gamescom, participants met with publishers, partners, investors, and media, presented their products, and established new international connections.
“This year’s gamescom once again demonstrated how important it is for the Ukrainian games industry to remain visible and represented at the world’s largest international events. The Ukrainian stand became a meeting point for our studios, partners, and people from around the world who are interested in Ukrainian games and want to work with Ukrainian teams,” says Olena Lobova, co-founder of Burny Games and co-organizer of Games From Ukraine.
Ukrainian Companies and Studios at gamescom
GSC Game World highlighted the importance of maintaining a strong Ukrainian presence at the event:
“We have been collaborating with Games from Ukraine for years now, and every time we are thrilled to see Ukrainian game dev represented in such a strong and vibrant way at gamescom. This August was incredibly event-filled for our entire industry and felt like a true celebration.
Thanks to the Ukrainian Pavilion, we managed to hold a series of meetings and interviews that served as a fantastic wrap-up to this summer. A huge thank you to the organizers and the whole team! It is extraordinarily valuable to have our very own home corner at the world’s largest gaming expo and to see Ukraine represented across all possible formats”.
AB Games showcased ABrush at gamescom 2026 – a tool for digital artists:
“Gamescom 2026 was an intense and genuinely valuable experience for us. We presented ABrush — a tool for digital artists that works right inside Photoshop — and spent three days straight talking with artists and studios from all over the world. Our booth had a steady queue the whole time, and the feedback was incredibly warm.
The most interesting discovery of this year’s participation was that creative control isn’t a concern only for individual artists — large studios care about it just as much. For us, it’s essential that the final creative call always stays with the artist.
We had a lot of meaningful conversations with people from various studios, and we’re returning with new contacts and ideas for the product”, said the AB Games team.
For Mobihunter, the key outcomes were new partnership opportunities.
“For the Mobihunter team, gamescom 2026 was a great opportunity to meet gaming industry representatives from different countries, discuss potential partnerships, and gain a better understanding of the market’s current needs. The most valuable parts were the new connections, meaningful B2B meetings, and the opportunity to showcase our mobile marketing expertise to an international audience. The Games from Ukraine pavilion created a strong sense of community and helped Ukrainian companies gain greater visibility at the event,” the team noted.
Lobby9 also used gamescom as an opportunity to receive direct feedback from users and studios.
“For us, the event was an opportunity to observe more than to showcase. When you watch people open the platform for the first time right next to a booth, you see what clicks intuitively and where users have hurdles understanding what to do next. This is the UX feedback that no A/B test at home can replace. The second important take away was the interest from game dev studios. We came to Gamescom not with a game, but with a tool around the player and managed to spark quite a few conversations. The focus of these talks was on understanding what happens with the player after purchase, without months of SDK-integration. We’re now in active talks with a several of dev-studios about pilot campaigns and other forms of cooperation.
As for impressions, the Games from Ukraine pavilion was very well organized. It’s clear that the organizers strive for concrete results. The Indie Area offers a completely different kind of exchange, which is more personal. For teams like ours, which brings not a title, but a product around the player to market, Cologne is first and foremost a question of the meeting calendar. And this year, that was a full one,” the company commented.
Mind Studios Games created a mini-game, Cossack Drift, specifically for the pavilion.
“This year was our first time being part of Games from Ukraine at Gamescom, and it was a great experience for us. For the Games from Ukraine booth, we wanted to do more than simply give away merch. That’s how Cossack Drift came to life — a mini-game developed by the Mind Studios Games team specifically as part of the booth activation. Visitors could play directly from their phones, receive an instant guaranteed prize, and compete for the grand prize on the leaderboard. Over three days, 244 players joined the competition — all of that in Gamescom’s business area.
It was really cool to see firsthand how a simple game mechanic can turn a standard giveaway into a full booth activation — giving people a reason to stop, play, compete, and remember the experience. And the competition for the Nintendo Switch 2 got much more serious by the end than we expected,” the team representatives said.
€19,000 Raised During the Games From Ukraine Charity Event
Ahead of gamescom, Burny Games, Games From Ukraine, and GameDev Under Bombs hosted a networking evening and charity auction in Cologne for the Ukrainian and international game development community.
“For us, it is important not only to talk about Ukrainian game development, but also to bring the international community together around it. That is why, for the fifth year in a row, we have hosted the Games From Ukraine Reception during gamescom.
This year, we raised €19,000 through the charity auction, bringing the total amount raised over three years of our events to €100,000. For me, this is a powerful example of how much we can achieve together when the industry unites around Ukraine,” shared pavilion co-organizer Olena Lobova.
After gamescom
Games From Ukraine continues its work to strengthen connections between Ukrainian teams and the international games industry.
Despite the full-scale war, Ukrainian studios continue to create new products, build international partnerships, and remain an active part of the global game development industry.
The organizers are therefore already planning the pavilion for next year — follow updates on the initiative’s website and social media, as well as on Games Gathering.
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