Beer & Mingle DLC

SGA General 03.12.2024.
Time 6 PM - 9 PM
Language English
Location Prostor Miljenko Dereta
Price FREE

Beer & Mingle DLC

Ctrl+Alt+Slav: Community Merge 2.0

You’ve asked for another meetup like this as soon as possible. We’ve heard you! Let’s see whose Slavic squat is better 🙂

Nothing better than good old meeting in person. That’s why we prepared another community merge meetup. The goal is for the local community to meet new colleagues who came from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. To exchange experiences, connect and explore new opportunities for cooperation. We really put the emphasis on networking this time, so eight ultra-short presentations await you through which we will meet new players on the scene, and after that, there will be enough time to talk with everyone and refresh ourselves with a cold beer.

While we await details on the presentations, these are the companies and teams we’ll meet on stage:

  1. Studio Bedem: Swords and Hexes

    Uroš Panić will present a turn-based, adventurous, multiplayer role-playing game in which a poor servant and a dog become too important in a twistedly silly world obsessed with hexagons;

  2. Ingenious Studio: Chasing the indie dream

    Stefan Tešić will show us how the team grew into an independent studio and you will learn more about Shopenkraft’s Magic Goods, their first fully independent game;

  3. Webelinx Games: We are Webelinx Games!

    Bojan Matić will cover how Webelinx Games came to be from its predecessor Weblinx, their main projects since then, current team and two games the studio is currently working on. You will get inside info about what it is like to run and maintain a small independent studio in southern Serbia;

  4. Ubisoft Belgrade: Our Path to Game Dev

    Pavle, Anđela and Jovan Vladimir will depict three different approaches to starting their careers in the industry: via formal education and workshops, informal networking and a hectic career path with game dev as a goal;

  5. Playkot: How We Turbocharged Time-to-Market for Age of Magic

    Anton Khotulev will tell you how they reduced the time-to-market for Age of Magic from 19 days to 1 day, improving the quality and simplifying the work;

  6. Watt Studio: Watt Studio 2.0

    Marina Simkina (COO) will show us two new projects the studio has in development and new rounds of changes;

  7. HeroCraft: The State of Indie Games Publishing

    Sergey Ulankin will talk broadly and concisely about what it’s like to publish an indie game today and what we can all do about it;

  8. OwlCat Games: Who Is a CCC Designer and Why You Need One

    Leonid Rastorguev will help you understanding the role of a CCC (Character, Camera, Controls) Designer and show what it is they do and why they are essential for your project.

Come and slowly say goodbye to 2024.

 

Uroš Panić,
Studio BEDEM, Co-Founder, Lead Developer
About the lecturer

Uroš Panić is a multi-and-interdisciplinary artist that also kinda does programming. A musician and violist, he was a student at the prestigious MDW Faculty in Vienna. He started playing music at the age of seven, which opened the door for him to discover other types of art, including video game design. At the end of 2019, he co-founded a studio called Mad Mage Games together with his close friends and began writing a book, which was be successfully supported on Kickstarter in the following year, and eventually published in 2021. While working on the book, the team got a job designing a game for Hasbro, and then they realized that they had the desire to continue creating video games and software solutions. Uroš is now the Co-founder of Studio BEDEM, and from the role of Chief Game Designer and Composer he had in the previous studio, he moved to the role of Lead Developer.

Stefan Tešić,
Ingenious Studios, Community Manager
About the lecturer

Stefan is the Community Manager at Ingenious Studios. As the voice behind the studio’s online presence, Stefan ensures the community is informed and engaged while building relationships at events the studio hosts or attends.

Outside of work, Stefan is a graphic design graduate, a passionate gamer and the proud owner of a mischievous pug named Noah. He’s also a huge fan of Coca-Cola, which he considers his ultimate creative fuel.

Bojan Matić,
Webelinx Games, Head of Production
About the lecturer

Bojan began his gaming career in 2010 at Nordeus during the era of social gaming that paved the way for mobile gaming. With a technical background and expertise in programming and QA, he brings a well-rounded perspective to game production. His philosophy is simple yet profound: production is the vessel that carries creativity to its promised land. Passionate about making things happen, Bojan specializes in designing systems that ensure teams achieve their goals effectively. He finds immense joy in seeing players enjoy games he’s helped bring to life. Bojan always likes to explore new areas that gaming covers and thrives on collaborating with like-minded enthusiasts, drawing inspiration from the diverse individuals he works with. Living his dream, he proudly calls playing games “work.”

Pavle Nikolić,
Ubisoft Belgrade, Level Designer
About the lecturer

As a BA Architect and Furniture Designer, Pavle transitioned his expertise and passion for meticulous spatial organization from the physical to the digital world. Currently, he works as a Level Designer at Ubisoft on an exciting, yet-to-be-announced project. This role allows him to blend architecture with level design, crafting functional and engaging environments and activities in video games.

Anđela Jovanović,
Ubisoft Belgrade, Level Artist
About the lecturer

Architectural engineer with a master’s degree in architectural visualization, who acquired her knowledge, sense of composition, proportions, framing and lighting through formal
education, freelance work and experience in a startup gaming company. Anđela is currently working as a Junior Level Artist at Ubisoft’s Belgrade, where she uses her experience, skills and sense of beauty to create vivid levels, with a desire to share them with everyone.

Jovan Vladimir Milovanović,
Ubisoft Belgrade, Level Designer
About the lecturer

Jovan Vladimir began his journey in the game dev world through workshops at the Metropolitan University. It was then that he realized a career in the game dev industry was not only
possible but also a realistic and attainable goal. By actively participating in numerous workshops and courses, he met many industry professionals, including some of his future
colleagues. After finishing high school, he had the opportunity to join the young local studio Altfuture, where he started his professional path. He now works as a Level Designer at Ubisoft’s Belgrade office, where he cherishes moment of his creative work as part of a fantastic team.

Anton Khotulev,
Playkot, Software Architect, Backend Team Lead
About the lecturer

Anton Khotulev is a Software Architect and Backend Team Lead for Age of Magic at Playkot. He leads the design and development of backend features, infrastructure and tools that power the game. Prior to joining Playkot, Anton held various development and leadership roles at Kaspersky Lab, where he focused on billing services, IT solutions and infrastructure development for testing environments.

Marina Simkina,
Watt Studio, COO
About the lecturer

Produced more than 50 CG and animation projects, three PC games and several internal developments. Drove 150 people in production teams and knows how to build a pleasant workflow for every participant.

Her career path from VFX coordinator to COO of the indie game studio was full of challenges and setbacks. But she learned how to pitch a project to investors, how to make everybody happy with a short budget and even write all the dialogues in the game in three days.

All her experience made her a better team player and helped her grow her strong sides – tolerance, team leading and ability to get things done.

Sergey Ulankin,
HeroCraft PC, CEO
About the lecturer

Sergey is the Head of HeroCraft PC, which is a publisher and occasional developer of brave indie games. He comes from the marketing background but also knows a few things about production and management. He has over seven years experience in the gaming industry across startups, media and game dev and has worked on more than ten games.

Leonid Rastorguev,
OwlCat Games, Lead Game Designer
About the lecturer

Leonid started his career as an indie developer 16 years ago. In 2015, he joined My.Games, where he worked on several major mid-core mobile titles as Lead Game Designer and Creative Director. In 2022, he released the PC/console metroidvania Blast Brigade across all platforms. Since March 2022, he’s been leading the game design team at Owlcat Games, working on the studio’s most ambitious project yet—an AAA Action RPG that will soon be announced.