The success of Czech games in San Francisco
30.03.2022 / 23:22 | Aktualizováno: 31.03.2022 / 20:10
(This article expired 30.03.2023 / 14:24.)
The turnover of the Czech game development industry reached 300 million US dollars last year, making gaming the largest sector of our creative industry in financial terms. With the United States being one of the biggest markets for Czech games, Czech studios must keep up with the industry's newest trends and learn from the best. This year's participation of six-game studios reaffirmed our belief that our game industry has a lot to offer the American customer. We established significant partnerships during the week-long program, attracted several investors, and further opened the Czech gaming market to foreign interests and professionals. The presentation of individual studios at the "Czech Game showcase," which we organized at the national booth with the participation of the Consul General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles, Mr. Jaroslav Olša, Jr., attracted several dozen conference participants. Undoubtedly the most significant success was the board game "Codenames" by CGE Digital, which the game studio plans to convert into digital form this year.
The gaming industry's largest conference and trade show took place in San Francisco, California, last week (March 21st to the 25th). After a two-year break, the Game Developers Conference, also known as GDC (www.gdconf.com), was returning to an in-person event, and the representatives of the Czech gaming industry were there!
Czech game development studios presented themselves at last year's GDC through the virtual Czech booth for the first time in history. This year was also a year of historic firsts as the Czech national booth was there to physically represent some of the best in the Czech GameDev community!
The national stand "Czech Games," dominated by a Czech lion, was created thanks to the support of the economic diplomacy projects of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, with the help of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and in close cooperation with the Association of Czech Game Developers, the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles and the CzechInvest Agency in San Francisco. The booth was located in the main hall of the Moscone Center in the section of national booths, among which exhibited representatives of the game industry from Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Poland, the Baltic States, Canada, France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.
Among representatives of the Czech companies were Madfinger Games - a studio known for creating mobile games such as Shadowgun, which is now preparing a yet unannounced PC title, About Fun - creators of mobile games War Friends as well as Tiny Miners, CGE Digital - authors of mobile and PC titles based on board games such as Codenames and Through the Ages from their parent company Czech Games Edition. Other featured studios were startups Rendlike and Fireball, who are still developing their debut titles and presenting them publicly for the first time at GDC. The line-up of representatives was represented by outsourcing studio Plan A Collective, one of the tops in its field, working with world-leading players such as Xbox Game Studios, EA DICE, Epic, and Capcom.
GDC 2022
The five-day program offered meetings with leading technology companies such as Amazon, Intel, Nvidia, Oculus, and Microsoft. Game studios had the opportunity to learn about future trends in computer game development, get inspired by new techniques, and discover new creative approaches. GDC also allowed companies to share their products and services with game professionals looking for new tools and techniques to create successful games. Attending the conference also allowed them to identify business opportunities and partners and learn new marketing strategies.
Supporting the Czech creative industry, whether it is film, animation, or computer games, is one of the main goals of the Consulate General in Los Angeles. Considering that this is a financially demanding project, we are pleased to be able to help selected game studios establish themselves in the challenging American market through economic diplomacy projects. The interest in Czech games thus confirmed the excellence of our companies in this sector. Consulate General in Los Angeles will continue with the already established tradition of our participation in the GDC also in the future.
Jana Přikrylová, Commercial Counsellor, Czech Consulate General, Los Angeles
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