This month, an exciting 8-month journey through the world of video game development ends for 31 participants and creatives from the entire region (Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania), who were selected from more than 150 registered candidates, and taken on this path by the French Institute and the Goethe-Institut in Serbia, together with the SGA.

The first international program in which SGA participates this year was held for the second time, and was dedicated to the development of ideas into game concepts, with special attention to socially engaged topics under the framework theme of Tainted Nowness.

This entire process will be like last year, rounded off on November 25th with a special pitching event at the Grafički kolektiv gallery starting at 6 PM, where eight teams that have been working together since May will present their projects through short 6-minute presentations, before international jury. In addition, a special guest from France, game designer Baptiste Portefaix, will give a short lecture entitled A game that feels like a picture book.

All of this takes place within the framework of the November Numerique event, as well as the Playing Narratives x A Maze. exhibition, which is an integral part of this year’s program, and which presents 10 arthouse games works and installations from around the world to the domestic audience, actualizing the creative and experimental approach to video game design.

During the past eight months, a series of lecturers from Serbian, as well as German and French gaming companies and organizations worked continuously with our participants, who covered numerous topics – from game and narrative design, through art topics, all the way to marketing in gaming, presentation skills , sound design, production pipeline, communication skills, team culture, publishing… In addition, they had the opportunity to step into domestic gaming companies and get to know their way of working, and their future colleagues from the industry.

Some of them will be part of the international jury that will select the best project: Baptiste Portefaix as a special guest/expert from France, Nikola Stojanović (Associate UI Art Director, Ubisoft Belgrade), Svetlana Spasić (Art Director, Webelinx Games) and Adam Kovač in front 3Lateral/Epic Games. The best and most motivated ones will have the opportunity to continue developing their projects from the spring of 2023 as part of the educational/mentoring program that the 3Lateral company will start within the Science and Technology Park Novi Sad.

Such a program would not be possible without the support of numerous partners from the industry, and above all Unreal Engine as the main sponsor, i.e. the company 3Lateral / Epic Games. Ubisoft Belgrade, Webelinx Games from Niš, and the A Maze. / Berlin platform also made a significant contribution and support in their expertise, as well as Mad Head Games and the French association of gaming companies SNJV, and the entire project is supported by the German-French Cultural Fund.