The next WN Conference has been officially announced. It will take place in Cyprus next month. The list of speakers includes Owlcat Games, Playkot, Tactile Games, Nexters, AWS, Google, Meta, and more. Here are all the details about the upcoming event.
About the event
This is the second WN Conference to be held in Cyprus at the Parklane Resort & Spa. The event’s organizer WN Media Group expects about 600 attendees. At least half of them will come from the MENA, APAC, NORAM, and LATAM regions to meet with representatives of the local games industry, known far beyond the island.
Last year’s WN Conference in Cyprus brought together over 550 games industry professionals from hundreds of companies.
Program
Attendees can expect about 30 talks of various formats: traditional presentations, public interviews, and round tables. Below are some examples from the WN Cyprus’23 program:
- Alexander Mishulin will detail the evolution of the combat system in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Currently the creative director at Owlcat Games, he was also responsible for game design of titles such as Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, Heroes of Might and Magic V, and Silent Storm;
- Eugen Sudak, former monetization manager at Wargaming Seattle and head of game design at Pixonic, will discuss the process of building a workplace culture in international distributed teams;
- Tiziano Giardini, program director at Quickload Gaming Accelerator, will talk about the development of gaming entrepreneurial ecosystems and how different entities such as accelerators, associations, and game studios can work together to create thriving local ecosystems.
In addition, there will be talks from Eschatology Entertainment, a studio formed by Wargaming veterans and Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov, and Playkot. A representative of Italian studio 34BigThings will share their experience of creating a business ecosystem for game developers. Google and Meta employees will also join the conference with their presentations.
On top of that, two additional tracks are expected this year. One will focus on marketing of non-gaming apps, and the other will be dedicated to the utilization of AI in game development. The latter will be presented by Amazon Web Services in collaboration with Nexters.
Expo zone and showcase
The location of WN Cyprus’23 will feature booths from the conference’s sponsors, such as Invest Cyprus, Dats Games, Gcore, Xsolla, Adjust, Google, Meta, AWS, and Appsflyer, as well as a special showcase for developers of 20 promising titles.
Devs can apply until September 3 at this link. Each team selected by WN Game Finder‘s producer will get one free ticket and a spot to showcase their game.
Main party
The main networking party will take place at La Isla Beach, a bar and restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Guests with premium status will enjoy dinner and unlimited drinks.
Tickets and meeting system
Tickets start at €299 for the standard access (without the main party). Premium tickets are slightly more expensive at €399. It is worth noting that these prices are valid until August 30. In September, each of them will cost €150 more.
Those who cannot attend WN Cyprus’23 in person but want to network with the participants can purchase the online pass for €99. This ticket grants access a the unique meeting system available through the WN Hub communication platform.
The meeting system will be operating from August 29 to September 27.