Winter Meetup (powered by Matryoshka)

SGA General 03.12.2025.
Time 18:00-21:00
Language English
Location Svemirski ranč (BG)
Price Free
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Winter Meetup (powered by Matryoshka)

It's the last SGA gaming meetup of the year, so we've tried our best to give you excellent speakers and current topics. Whatever you do in our industry, we promise that the lectures will be useful. And, of course, an opportunity to greet familiar and meet new colleagues. Maybe a muffin... :) And a few drinks at our expense.

We would like to thank our members from the Matryoshka team, who made this gathering possible! They are a 50-person company that develops and publishes mobile cooking games. They have a loyal base of tens of millions of players.

Here’s what awaits you!

Alena Maksimenka, Project Manager, Matryoshka Games

From Tech Talk to Business Talk (and Back Again)

Understanding between developers and external partners is very important at all stages of game development. Technical teams often use “tech-speak,” while publishers and producers use business language. This can lead to confusion, delays and stress. This presentation shows how to explain technical ideas in simple words and how to turn business requests into clear tasks for the team. It is useful for project managers and teams who work with publishers, producers, or other partners.

Mateja Stanković, Senior Game Designer, Abstraction

Apocalypse Express, a Development Journey

Mateja will be talking about the development of Apocalypse Express, from its inception to its Early Access release. Covering various facets: design, planning, team, marketing,.. He hopes to bring the whole process closer and share the learnings that they’ve gained.

Vladimir Tolmachev, Producer and Director of tinyBuild Serbia, tinyBuild

From Game Jam to 300k Sales: The Story of The King is Watching

 jam idea turned into 300K+ copies sold — but only after pivots, tough calls, and constant balance between design and publishing strategy.From the publisher’s perspective, we dissect the success of The King is Watching, which was made in Serbia. This talk will show a publisher can be a partner, not just a funder.

Nikola Šobajić, Engine Programmer, Supergiant Games

The Best Game You Can Make Is A Shipped Game

We’ll talk about good production practices that increase the chance that the game will actually be finished and published. This is spoken by a well-known face of the local gaming scene, Šobaja (Engine Developer of Hades games!).

Alena Maksimenka,
Project Manager, Matryoshka Games
About the lecturer

I’m Alena Maksimenka — a Project Manager at Matryoshka Games, working on popular mobile cooking games such as Cooking Craze and Royal Cooking. I collaborate daily with international publishers and producers, helping bridge the technical and business sides of game development. Before joining Matryoshka, I worked with partners and technical teams from the USA, Europe, India, and China on IBM projects at IBA Group. This experience also gave me the chance to work with people from different cultures and understand their own ways of communicating and working.

Mateja Stanković,
Senior Game Designer, Abstraction
About the lecturer

Ja sam Mateja. U industriji sam preko 9 godina. Profesionalno sam Senior Game Designer, radio sam na raznim AAA projektima sa fokusom na dizajn mehanika i sistema za igre kao što su Ghost Recon i Lords of the Fallen. U međuvremenu sam osnovao svoj indi studio, gde sam skoro izbacio Apocalypse Express!

Vladimir Tolmachev,
Producer, TinyBuild
About the lecturer

I have 13 years of experience in gaming industry in different roles, mainly connected with customer experience, project and people management. I’m always eager to learn new things and grow professionally, working hard on achieving the best results possible. Having a degree in engineering, deep knowledge of management techniques and noticeable track of creating effective processes in international companies helps me to promptly set up productive communications and collaborative environment for the team, thus helping us to succeed together.

Nikola Šobajić,
Engine Programmer, Supergiant Games
About the lecturer

My name is Nikola Šobajić and I’ve been working as an engine programmer at Supergiant Games on Hades and Hades II. My main contributions to these games have been to the Switch, Playstation and macOS ports, memory and CPU optimizations, as well as upgrading and maintaining the buildfarm. Previously, I’ve worked at Ubisoft on Ghost Recon and Riders Republic game franchises as an engine programmer and a lead programmer.

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