DevGAMM Moscow-2021. How it was
Let’s talk about our trip to the main gaming conference — DevGAMM-2021. Briefly, it was informative, exciting, fun, noisy, tasty, and satisfying! Almost 3 days of continuous communication on professional and not only topics. A massive charge of approving and inspiration!
Now let’s get down to the details.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
Ticket sales for offline, real, warm, and tube DevGAMM are opening. So long-awaited! We make a survey of employees, 100% of colleagues answer «YES!»
Thursday, July 22, 2021.
We buy tickets for DevGAMM for each employee and plane tickets for those who do not live in Moscow, but most of them are. We book a hotel. Everything, ready, ahead of 1.5 months of anticipation and anxious waiting.
Monday, August 30, 2021.
One of the employees is quarantined for COVID-19. We understand that he does not get to DevGAMM with us in any way. We turn to the organizers of DevGAMM for a ticket refund, slightly unexpectedly for ourselves, we receive a positive answer! Thank you, Sergey Chernobrivets, for your help, and what a prompt one! You are super!
August 30, 2021 — September 4, 2021.
We are sad that our colleague is not coming with us, but we promise him to have fun with all our hearts and for him (the promise, by the way, was fulfilled)!
Sunday, September 4, 2021.
Lena Foygel flies to Moscow first. Nikita Kirilyuk and Dima Stroev, having made a PCR test on the way, arrive at the hotel a couple of hours later. Ilya Paev, who had come from Kaliningrad, was already waiting here. Alexander Fedoseev had already been in Moscow for a couple of days. Maria Shtefan, our QA, joined us soon. We leave for the Pravda club for the pre-party.
There we meet many familiar faces: our beloved partners from Versus.Legal, Alexandra and Alina, Olga Wagner and Alla from HunTeam, friends from Herocraft, and many, many others!
We had a great time! We had a lot of conversations. It was a healthy combination of circumstances and the best spontaneous decision — on the very first evening to get to know each other after a party to spend extra time at a restaurant at a common table, exciting conversations, and funny jokes.
Monday, September 6, 2021.
We wake up, get ready, have a quick breakfast, go to a corporate photo session. We were filmed by photographer Victoria Brovkina and made a short individual photoset for each, and then — shots of the whole team! Now we will have something to share on social media and on our website. Then — a detailed study of stands, showcases, visiting reports.
Dmitry Stroev and Nikita noted for themselves the lecture «CI / CD at Playrix: How to Assemble Thousands of Builds per Day for Different Platforms»: be helpful. »
Lena Foygel, interested in promotion and PR, as well as remembering her childhood, visited «FIRESIDE CHAT: DENDY and creation of new reality.» It was fantastic to learn the whole truth about the rise of one of the most famous companies among children in the 90s.
Maria Shtefan visited How to build a studio with your first indie game to understand «what a studio is and what it is eaten with.»
Ilya Paev arranged a real merch-hunting, met many familiar people, even those with whom he studied together at GUKIT, in general. Ilya fulfilled his childhood dream — to attend a game conference, which is exactly what he wanted when he leafed through specialized magazines and read reviews. Impressions are rapidly positive!
Evgeny Fedoseev singled out for himself an exciting lecture by Anton Volkov «Win the market without selling a soul.» There he once again confirmed the correctness of his own thoughts: in pursuit of KPIs, we must not forget why we came to gamedev — to make terrific games, to give the world something cool and new!
Among the showcases, the guys singled out for themselves a game about a protein Squirrels Rush, a card mobile phone Argy Bargy Craft, a VR game Hard Bullet.
We got acquainted with our excellent suppliers of merch — «Firm» Niko «and our excellent manager Ilona, met with potential partners.
After studying, meeting, communicating with the entire staff, together with Ilya Khurani and Dmitry Panteleev, our freelance artist, who joined us, we went to the Main Party at AFLoft.
Honestly? We liked! We met new people there, laughed, talked, danced, partied, and got incredible pleasure from this enchanting gamedev party! It was a fantastic day and an equally excellent ending! At the hotel, we were satisfied, happy, tired!
Tuesday, September 7, 2021.
We woke up in the morning not as vigorously as in the previous days. However, on this day we had a birthday boy — Dmitry Stroyev, it was impossible to sleep! In the morning, they congratulated him, presented him with a dream gift! Dima, happy Birthday! Stay the same super fun and cheerful! Be happy! Hugs!
Of course, we made one more final «round» of the conference, looked at what we did not have time for on Monday. There was not much time for this; it was the day of departure. Before the transfer to the airport, we discussed our impressions and thoughts about the past two days.
Our feelings and emotions coincided. Those who attended DevGAMM, not for the first time, noted that the atmosphere and continuity were preserved — just as friendly, explosive, and fun. Those who came for the first time experienced the wow effect! Unique, unforgettable! We will definitely «leave you again,» DevGAMM! Thanks!
