DevGAMM and the evolution of video game industry events - Maria Chyrvona Interview

Audio transcription

"Hi Gamereactor friends, this is the day 2 of DevGAMM in Lisbon 2025, and I'm here joined by its CEO, Maria, thank you so much for joining us.
You gave some welcome remarks yesterday and you shared a bunch of figures and also made some announcements, so we can talk several things here."

"This is the first DevGAMM Lisbon in Lisbon.
How do you feel about that? I know it's kind of an inner joke.
Yes, because for 2 years before we've been in Cascais, but still calling it DevGAMM Lisbon, because internationally Cascais is not as well known, but this year we're happy to bring our addition to the city itself."

"We are right now in the area very close to the airport, it's a very nice place by the river, so we still kept the water theme, where we want the venue to oversee the water, but we changed the venue, it now consists of 2 parts, we have a business area inside the hotel, there is also a bigger conference space, so we wanted, because DevGAMM grew in Portugal very quickly, and we felt like we outgrew the venue and the initial concept that we went for, just doing this business executive event for a small group of people, because the industry in Portugal is growing, and we felt like we needed a bigger venue, bigger presence, better connections, because we are very close to the train station as well, besides the airport, so all the trains that come from Porto, from Algarve, from a lot of different parts, will stop 10 minutes walking from here, so this is perfect for us to help the developers in all of the regions of Portugal to be here, to be present for sessions, for workshops, showcasing their game, so that was the reason why we decided to bring it to Lisbon, to make it more accessible, to make it more international, because of the airport connection, and to send the message that this is turning into a bigger international event, rather than that business-y kind of executive summit that we were trying, not summit, but conference, but still the vibe in Cascais was different."

"You also chose very interesting dates, last year it collided with Web Summit, which is going to happen right beneath that building over there, but now you're before that, which is also more accessible for people, so we can appreciate that as well."

"So you mentioned growth, and you mentioned summit, let me ask you about growth, how do you see the evolution of the event coming from last year? We know you since a year ago, Cascais, then we went to the event in Gdansk, and then this, and we can see that evolution, but from the inside, what can you tell us about being bigger, not just in terms of people attending, there's more than 1,000 people here these two days, but also in terms of relevance, and the messages that have been shared here, and as you say, becoming more and more relevant, and more of a reference in terms of industry events."

"Yes, we definitely grew in numbers, we grew in quality as well, because the quality of companies that are coming, we have platforms this year, we have Xbox, we have Nintendo, we have Epic Games Store, we have bigger companies joining us on developers' side, also bigger companies on publishing side, so we feel like the event, the quality of the event is growing, we had a crazy amount of meetings actually, I think over 2,000 meetings scheduled for this event, so I believe a lot of deals are going to go out of this event, and yes, for this year, we chose specifically the dates before Web Summit, as you mentioned, because we also added a new theme to the whole DevCon Portugal, as we are calling it, because yes, right now we're in Lisbon, for me it's the fifth day of the conference, running for a whole week, because we just came back from Madeira Game Summit, which happened for the first time, and this was for 110 people, very executive C-level, we had the most amount of CEOs we had ever had at the event, and that was also to bring attention to the ecosystems within Portugal that are not that represented, because Madeira is an island, it has a lot of developers there, we also have developers in Azores, we also have developers in other islands, so there is a lot of talent there, and we wanted to bring people to see how they can support, enjoy a nice island, nature, study nature, landscape, everything, and the experiences that we provided for them."

"It's all with the sole purpose of bringing attention to Portugal as an emerging market, bringing more attention to local devs, and bringing investment to the region, bringing publishing deals to the region, and overall people want to either move here, hire here, because there is a lot of talented students as well, for example, that joined our event, so the talent pool is growing in Portugal, I believe they are right now in the period where the next best thing will happen to them, like having a big developer or publisher opening up something, and it's a shared goal with us and the local associations from Madeira, with the Games Lab, and also with the APVP, that's what they are trying to bring through our event, more attention to Portugal, and more business investment to all of the regions."

"And some deals being made, I guess, in the summit, and some private conversations, so what can you tell me was the feedback from participants to Madeira?
And also, if you can share something they talked about, they tried to make better in the industry, what was the direction with the discussion topics?
Yeah, first of all, the feedback, you know, I'm bragging on camera, but it's kind of the feedback that we got, I think, for the first time ever doing events, because people usually complain about something, and everything that we get, like, perfect, flawless, the organization was top-notch, like, how do you go from there?
How do you grow from there when it's already perfect in people's mind?
But yeah, of course, there is always room to grow, always more people to bring, more conversations to start, and the overall theme of the summit was actually inspired by the landscape of Madeira, because Madeira is very hilly, it's up and down, so it was peaks and valleys, mastering scaling up and scaling down in games, so we touched both topics on how do you adjust, how do you do with sustainable growth, what do you do when you are downsizing, we discussed the global funding trends for the next couple of years, so there were a lot of, in general, we did roundtables, we did fireside chats, we did workshops, so it was not straightforward, you know, lectures or keynotes, it was more open discussion where everyone was involved, and yeah, trying to share their own problems, the solutions that the companies have, their kind of ways interacting with each other, their collaborations that can be made to help companies scale up, and yeah, the problems that the industry is facing, all of them we tried to bring to the summit, as I said, with the topic of scaling up and scaling down."

"Yeah, actually, scalability has been a topic here as well, with some of the speakers, so that kind of connects with the Madeira event.
Okay, and then you were wondering yourself, how do you grow up, how do you make it better, but now you have a triple sort of a hack trick of events next year that you will sort of tackle as a challenge as well."

"So, if I'm correct, Gdansk is not happening in February as last year, it's happening in the summer, you will keep the water theme to it, of course, this is the Tagus River and that's by the Baltic Sea, I think that's appropriate in terms of the weather, because it's a really, really cold city, I can tell you."

"Then, extremely or more comparatively warmer is Dubai, that's another stop in the spring.
Yes, in spring, yes.
And then, of course, Lisbon is going to happen again, and the awards, which we are going to mention later."

"So, what can you tell me about this expansion?
What can we expect?
Because I really enjoyed the different coloring there was to the Gdansk event in February, I liked both the developers and the speakers gathered there, they were different to both your stop in Lisbon, but also to other industry events we usually go."

"So, what can you tell me about this?
I asked a lot of things now.
Yes, a lot of things, where do I start?
Yes, for next year we are planning one new edition in Dubai, we are expanding to MENA, that's very strategic because we already have Eastern Europe covered with Poland, we have Western Europe covered with Portugal, we are kind of tapping into US as well with Portugal, because it's a very nice connection between US and Portugal, but then we felt like for our business model to be sustainable, for our business to grow and to reach new markets, we felt like MENA would be a good start."

"Dubai is, I would say it's a safe choice for us, because we've never done anything in that region, we're kind of starting now to learn who the people are, what the companies are, what they're looking for, what we learned from the research we've done this year, they need a developer-focused event, which we are, they have a lot of talent as well, they have some studios on mobile side, but as well on PC and console, you would be surprised, I was surprised because I thought Dubai and Emirates were predominantly mobile, but we want to bring the light to the developers in that region as well, and for us to build the bridge between Europe, MENA and Asia, because Asia is a very hot market right now, and everyone's interested in building those networking, networking Asia, getting the companies, so we are connecting with Japan, with China, with Pakistan, like with a lot of companies within the MENA and the Asia, so to bring them to Dubai, we expect a very small addition, so we are aiming at like 300, 400 people from the start, it's a test run, let's say, and see like what's gonna, what's the position and how we can help, because our main idea is, okay, we're bringing an event, what's the value we are bringing to the market?
Right now, talking to people, to companies and to local government, there is a value that we can bring with what we are already doing, and yeah, we'll do it in spring, we haven't announced the dates yet, it's gonna be announced in December, because we're still booking the venues and everything, but the overall concept of what we do, we already planned, developer focused, publishers, maybe some like services on top, but it will be developer, publishers, maybe some external development or something like that, some talks as well and conference?
Yes, it's gonna be a regular DevGAM, so everything that you expect, but maybe on a smaller scale, so it's gonna be talks, showcase, there will be no awards, maybe the best game of the showcase or something like that, but still the career thing, networking, everything included, so it's not a summit, it's a conference in Dubai."

"Then, yes, you mentioned that we are moving to summer finally, because I lived in Latvia for many years, I know how miserable Baltics is in winter, and I know how lovely it is, because June is my favorite month."

"I went to the beach in February.
It's an experience, if there is snow, it's kind of a very different experience, but now we're aiming for the beach party, and I'm looking forward, and I feel like we're drawing to water, but in Gdansk we are near the water, but we just can't show it."

"Not in Dubai though.
But Dubai has water, everywhere we're drawing to water, very nice locations.
In Gdansk, we are aiming for a bigger edition as well."

"Same venue?
Same venue.
At the same time, because we have a longer preparation period, because we usually had just three months."

"It would be around the corner already.
Now we have more time to prepare, so we're looking at a better program, more keynotes, more outreach within Poland and outside."

"We already see how all of our editions connect to each other.
The audience is different as you mentioned.
You meet completely different developers in Poland and here, but right now we see that overlap helps us, because we drive the attention to Eastern Europe with this show, and the same Polish developers come here, they share their knowledge with the Portuguese, and I really like how the collaboration happens."

"But the audience is, I think for all three shows, it's going to be very different.
Because of the focus, because of different business interests."

"Yes, and coming back to Portugal, we are planning to do Madeira edition next year as well.
We're right now looking at dates, and one of the ideas that we're working on right now may be doing Madeira separately from Lisbon, because it was a really hard week."

"We don't want to do that again.
I guess it's also hard for some of the...
The idea was for the speakers and participants to come here directly, but it was hard on them."

"Yes, but actually a lot of people came, a lot of people did the combo ticket, and they are here, and we feel like we're best friends, because we spent a whole week together, traveling and sharing the experiences."

"So this was nice, and a lot of people actually told us that this is great that we can do it too, but everyone is tired.
By tonight, everyone is tired."

"And we want to also create two moments where people can come to Portugal for different occasions, because there's so much to offer, and so much that we can do right here, that we need those separate moments."

"So we're thinking that May might be the dates for Madeira Game Summit.
So it's going to be very packed, like spring for us.
And then like this, like fall (autumn) for Lisbon and Awards."

"Fall (autumn) for Lisbon and Awards.
We're still waiting for Web Summit dates.
I don't know if they're already announced.
We're happy that we moved before."

"It's actually helping us a lot from the government support perspective, everything, because everyone's so focused on Web Summit, they cannot focus on the small event for the gaming industry compared to that."

"But this year, it's easier.
It's actually easier for everyone to be here, and companies come to us and then join Web Summit.
So it's an interesting combination, and I think we'll try to do it before next year as well."

"And for next year, Lisbon is going to be bigger because the growth has been like 600 people, 800 people, 1,000 people.
So we expect even more next year."

"So like the goal would be 1,200 or more.
Depends, you know, on many factors, on how the industry is.
It's usually like we grow with the industry."

"You will release, you will celebrate the event when GTA 6 is releasing?
Yes.
Because it was announced just yesterday that it's going to be delayed once again, so perhaps nobody will come."

"They will be playing.
Yeah, so that's why I checked the dates.
I think they mentioned it was on the 19th of November.
So it's like, let's do 17-18."

"That would be the last date, and then we'll all go somewhere and just play the game.
It's a meme already.
Yeah, so like everyone else."

"But it's still November, and it would be nice to get guys from Rockstar to do it, but I think they will only be available until the release."

"Yeah, they will be tired.
Okay, let me ask you about the awards.
The awards are going to happen in an hour's time here.
We enjoyed them last year as well."

"What do you think they mean to all that you just explained, like to the different stops and to the DevGAMM project?
Is this the icing on the cake?
Is this something that you also want to grow bigger?
Is this something that tries to compete with other awards?
We kind of want Europe to have more awards because we have the Game Awards in the US, and that's been the thing."

"But we also appreciate when more and more awards are happening here in Europe.
Back in the day, we had Financiers in Bilbao.
Of course, we have BAFTA."

"What role do you think you play into all this?
A lot of the awards that you mentioned right now, they are covering broadly the industry.
A lot of AAA, of course AA."

"Our focus is slightly different because we want to find our awards goal.
I would say it would be discovery rather than just the awards and to provide."

"It's the discovery.
It's to help developers.
It's within our core.
The awards are a core project because we are developers first."

"We're a developers conference.
When we can find new creative projects for publishers or for investors to sign or when we can do good with getting sponsors' money and to sharing them with the developers."

"Even 3,000 dollars for one category is enough to help the studio survive another month while they look for funding or something like that.
It's the core."

"It's not a commercial project for us.
It's a project mostly to drive that core audience.
Because we see today and yesterday the showcase area, it is huge."

"It's growing.
You see the showcase getting bigger and bigger.
It's so international because we are keeping the free submissions and everyone is open to submit."

"We had over 600 projects this year.
And the level is fantastic this year.
Yes, a lot of publishers started submitting their games for the awards."

"It's already turning from we want to help out the developers into this is like, I wouldn't say vanity thing but into something that is a competition."

"But if it helps to drive the quality and the creativity in the industry and everyone is looking right now for more affordable projects like creative ideas, quick to launch, easy to fund, with smaller fundings that would better pay off rather than doing next huge thing."

"It's kind of impossible to start right now with a new huge venture.
So I believe that the smaller devs are not the future but they will help the industry grab the attention of new players that are kind of looking what's the fresh idea or fresh genre."

"Because in this awards we had so many mixed genres.
So many, the mix of genres, ideas, concepts, themes."

"It's so crazy.
We had over 150 judges and the feedback we got was wow, we didn't know so many great games exist across the world."

"So I wish a lot more developers could travel but we understand.
Me too, I would like to have them all here.
Yes, but 600 will be a lot."

"It will be basically a conference.
At the same time we do feel like every year they can travel more and more but it's also not mandatory for us."

"They can get money from us every year.
So they have a representative or something like that.
The awards will happen next year as well."

"We are working with a lot of sponsors to bring bigger budgets but it's for the prize fund not to support the conference.
It's mostly the prize fund money because we want more developers to get help, to be published, to be released, not even published."

"A lot of them are self-publishing actually and we want to do more of that.
And every edition, I think Portugal is becoming our major edition because it's the biggest, the fastest growing and we wanted more presence in Eastern Europe, in Poland where we are originally from."

"To grow that bigger as well.
Yes, to grow that bigger as well and if we can help with all of the other editions that would be great."

"And overall we'll keep to our values and everything that happens on the stage you probably don't know but the sort of the hilarious touch to it specifically in Gdansk was fantastic."

"And now that you mentioned your values and your core, let me ask you one last thing which is about Ukraine and how you guys are helping out and the different initiatives that you've had in the past year."

"So what can you tell me about that?
It is very important to us.
I'm traveling to Ukraine several times a year.
My mother is back and forth because she doesn't want to move for some reason and my city where I live is on the front line so the front line is getting very close."

"We have a colleague there, Sergei, our finance director, he's in Lviv still so he's helping out doing a lot of volunteer work so he basically has some days that we can do."

"We do charity.
You've seen across the event that we promote please don't forget to donate because it's still ongoing, the war hasn't stopped yet."

"We do help out with donations.
Some companies donate through us, help us out.
If we have profits we try to donate what we can."

"Doing charity work, sometimes it's on the background helping to get someone or something like that.
It's a lot of things that we don't share publicly because I don't feel like we need to do that because we are very focused on just doing it and helping."

"Because of our team, I think half of it is Ukrainian and everyone cares very deeply about what happens because the family, the roots, everyone wants to come back at some point and at the core doing an event in Kiev someday would be amazing."

"I would love to go back there and do the event just like the old times.
That's the wish for the future.
Fantastic Maria."

"The sun is setting, you cannot see it because it's over there but we have this beautiful view of the Tagus River."

"Thank you so much for your time.
Let's head to the awards.
Thank you."