A month later, the tenth anniversary business conference for developers and publishers of White Nights games will start in St. Petersburg.
The first White Nights in 2012 was devoted exclusively to mobile projects, however, gradually the conference began to discuss the development and promotion of games on all platforms. In February of this year, at White Nights in Helsinki, the organizers announced that the conference was also officially open to developers of games for PC, consoles and VR.
However, you can guess this by looking at the St. Petersburg White Nights program – such giants as Remedy and Paradox will come to Russia for the first time.
The target audience of the event is the same. These are game developers and publishers who are interested not only in creating a high-quality project, but also in its successful launch, operation, distribution in different markets.
“White Nights is a business conference. It is not for novice indie developers – it is for those who make a good product and know how to make money on it. This explains the distribution of content: more than 40% of speeches are devoted to the peculiarities of various markets and strategies for entering them, interaction with platforms. 22% of the reports are about game design. About 10% of the presentations will be devoted to monetization,” commented Yulia Lebedeva, head of the organizing committee.
Within two days, more than 40 performances from the world’s leading companies will take place within the framework of three streams. Representatives of King, Goodgame Studios, Rovio, NetEase Games will also perform, My.com , Creative Mobile, Game Insight, Wargaming, Pixonic, Lazy Bear Games, Appodeal, as well as, Unity and Epic Games.
It will not be limited to reports alone – this time several new formats will be tried at White Nights. On the first day, “three people, not counting the hookah” will gather on the stage: Leonid Sirotin, Alexander Vashchenko and Sergey Babayev. They promise to lay out the whole truth about game development, without “water”, but with smoke.
On the second day, the hall for master classes for two hours will be given over to the Deconstruction Workshop. A group of recognized experts will “sort out” five games in real time. They will express their opinions about game design, monetization, game mechanics and cycles, as well as social aspects. Three games will be selected from applications submitted for the Indie Game Cup, and two from well-known projects.
Developers who are looking for publishers will be able to find them all in one place or leave their business card: a separate pavilion will be organized for publishers in the main exhibition hall.
As usual, a large developer exhibition will be held at White Nights. More than 70 teams will show their projects. By the way, you can still take part in it if you pass the selection. The application can be made before June 1 here. Each participating team will receive a cool mini-stand and one premium ticket for free.
The awarding of the games will traditionally take place within the framework of the Indie Game Cup championship. Applications for participation in it are also accepted until June 1 (we will tell you more about the championship in a separate publication).
And, of course, the best party of the gaming industry awaits visitors: after the first business day, 600+ people will gather at the pirate restaurant-ship “Flying Dutchman”. Guests will be offered dinner, non-stop drinks until morning, a cover band performance and the opportunity to have a quiet chat on the terrace. And Captain Jack Sparrow himself promised to come to the ship!
It is expected that the summer session of “White Nights” will gather under its roof more than 1300 participants from all over the world. The cost of tickets for developers starts from €150.
It will be possible to start communicating with industry leaders on June 27 at a pre-party sponsored by Unreal Engine. The conference itself will be held on June 28 and 29 at the Baltic House Theater.