Speakers 2025

Elizabeth Howard

Midwest Games
Chief Advisor

Elizabeth Howard brings 20+ years of experience leading publishing, production, and strategic operations at Bungie, 2K, and Aspyr. She has managed portfolios generating over $500M annually and led teams across platform partnerships, business development, sales, marketing and production. Now a consultant and advisor, she helps developers and publishers scale, structure deals, and align creative ambition with commercial goals. She also serves as Chief Advisor – Services at Midwest Games and their Shadow Publishing vertical which offers for-hire publishing services. Elizabeth is passionate about helping teams bringing clarity to the intersection of creativity and business.

 

 

 

Martijn van Zwieten

Independent Game Business Coach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrice Désilets

Panache Digital Games
President and Creative Director

Patrice Désilets is the Cofounder, President and Creative Director of Panache Digital Games, a Montreal based indie studio that aims to create fun and innovative games.

The studio’s first title Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey has sold over 2 million copies and continues to be praised for its uniqueness and immersive gameplay.

With over 27 years of experience, Patrice is also known for his work on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and as the creative director behind Assassin’s Creed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel Lucic

Devolver Digital
Senior Marketing Manager

Daniel Lucic is a seasoned expert with a rich background in the games industry, having spent a decade in games media before transitioning into marketing and communications. Now with the indie publishing veterans Devolver Digital, he’s leveraging his strategic thinking to help promote some of the industry’s most innovative and beloved games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommy Palm

Resolution Games
CEO

While he’s known for shepherding Candy Crush Saga to mobile – and so helping to bankroll King’s $7 billion IPO in 2014 – Tommy Palm’s success story stretches back to the 1980s, when he began programming games for the Commodore 64. Between then and the dizzying success of King’s bestseller, Palm founded five companies including this latest venture, Resolution Games, a development studio with an eye on creating virtual reality and augmented reality game experiences everyone can enjoy. The studio’s concept is already proving successful, as its mobile VR fishing game, Bait!, is known as one of the most popular VR titles of all time. The team also ushered the Angry Birds into VR and mobile AR with the launches of Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs and Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, and is set to bring adventures steeped in the world and lore of Dungeons & Dragons to PC, console and XR devices with its upcoming game Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tracey McGarrigan

Ansible Comms
CEO / Founder

With gaming, tech, and festivals in her DNA, Tracey is who C-suites call when they need a straight talking, smart thinking ally to solve problems and get work done. Her mission is to hunt down and corral only the very best partners and friends from around the world to advise and deliver winning technical and marketing strategies for companies like Epic Games, Class VR, Games London, Nilo, Jeco, Pitchify, Sci-Fi-London, Green Man Gaming, and more. Listed as one of Games Industry Biz’sTop 100 Influential Women, she is also a BAFTA member, an Into Games Video Game Ambassador, and is a former trustee now Ambassador of the UK’s game industry charity GamesAid. Her ambition for 2025 is to break through the 75,000G Xbox Gamerscore mark.

 

 

 

 

 

Yves LE YAOUANQ

Focus Entertainment
Chief Content Officer

Yves started his career over 30 years ago in the games industry, first on MUDs and MMORPGs, to then join Ubisoft for 11 years in strategic positions to help expanding the PC and Online expertise, while building bridges with external developers. In 2021, Yves joined Focus Entertainment as Chief Content Officer, to lead the Publishing and Acquisition Portfolio transformation, welcoming new games, talents and studios from across the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hind Toufga

Dashy Studios
Business Developer

Hind Toufga is a Business Developer with a background in game localization, QA, production, UI/UX, and marketing. Active across the EMEA region, she blends biz-dev with PR and community strategies to drive growth. As a Women in Games Ambassador, she advocates for inclusion and Corporate Social & Digital Responsibility, using her industry insight to foster representation and build strong community ties.

Kristina Jankovic Obucina

Serbian Games Association
Senior Ecosystem Manager

In charge of young talents, non-formal education programs and initiatives, issues of diversity and inclusiveness, preparation of the annual report and organization of events. Plays on PS5 and a Steam Deck. She is always in the mood to talk about gaming and find a way to support young creatives and new projects. She has been with the SGA almost since the foundation of the association, where she dedicatedly works on developing the local gaming industry and the visibility of our teams, companies and games locally, but also globally.

 

 

 

Brad Hendricks

Blind Squirrel Entertainment Inc.
CEO

CEO and Founder of Blind Squirrel Entertainment (aka Blind Squirrel Games), multinational AAA game studios that creates original content and provides full game development services to various publishers and developers. BSE has quickly become the top collaborator for industry leading titles such as Bioshock, God of War, Borderlands, Mafia III, Avowed, Delta Force: Blackhawk Down, Mass Effect, New World, SIMS, XCOM, Disney Infinity, Sonic, and Evolve and many more.​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis Fong

GGWP
CEO

Dennis Fong is the co-founder and CEO of GGWP and gaming rewards platform, Forge. He is a successful serial entrepreneur with ~$1B in exits of companies he’s founded and a Venture Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures. Dennis is also the world champion gamer known as “Thresh” and has been called the “Michael Jordan of video games” by the Wall Street Journal, was inducted in the Esports Hall of Fame in 2016, and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s first professional gamer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tabbie Lawson

Silver Script Games
Artist

A relative newcomer to the Games Industry, Tabbie has blazed her way into indie game development as a 3D Artist for the past 2 years after graduating from Falmouth University. She considers her position as one of the artists at Silver Script Games akin to being part of a family and oozes passion for her work, burning the midnight oil by spending her time 3D modelling for their upcoming game, The Quiet Things. Other than making art, you’ll find Tabbie gaming on the PC she and her partner built together or out walking their two pet ferrets.

Jake Kulkowski

Guillotine
Founder & Company Director

Jake Kulkowski is one of the Europe’s most experienced Influencer Relations specialists, with nearly a decade of experience in his role. He and his team have helped launch over 200+ games, from Disco Elysium to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Based in North Wales, Jake speaks regularly at industry events around the world, including running workshops for creators at TwitchCon and hosting panels at PAX East.

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Sweeney

Interactive Entertainment Law Group
Attorney

Patrick is one of the longest-tenured Game attorneys in the industry. Starting in the industry in 1999, he has been behind many of the major deals and franchises that drive our business over the last quarter century. He has negotiated approximately 2,500 publishing deals, hundreds of licenses for movies, talent, sports and comic books rights to be made into games as well as innumerable other industry-specific transactions. His firm, the Interactive Entertainment Law Group is a proud supporter of Reboot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Reisenegger

Future Friends Games
Co-founder and director

Thomas co-founded the indie games promotion agency Future Friends Games to work on cool games such as Vampire Survivors, Content Warning, Thronefall, Maestro & Clone Drone in the Hyperdome. Since then Future Friends has also become a publisher, signing games like Summerhouse, The Cabin Factory, and Exo One. Best known for his popular GDC talks and guides, Thomas dreams of one day becoming a full time TikTok creator to shed light on important topics like, “is it okay to cut pizza with scissors?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazmin Cano

Owlchemy Labs
Senior UX Research Specialist

Jazmin Cano is a Senior UX Research Specialist at Owlchemy Labs, passionate about making VR accessible for everyone. With a decade of experience in the VR industry, Jazmin’s expertise guides the development of accessible solutions in cutting-edge VR games. She is currently focused on ensuring the accessibility of the studio’s latest title, Dimensional Double Shift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Laurent

Squido Studio
Marketing Director

With over 5 years of experience in the VR gaming landscape, Eric has successfully launched both premium and free-to-play GaaS titles. At Squido Studio, Eric is at the forefront of marketing innovation, adeptly navigating the fast-evolving VR space to connect players with transformative gaming experiences. Known for his ability to anticipate industry trends and lead impactful campaigns, Eric ensures that VR titles shine in an increasingly dynamic and competitive market.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lukasz Hacura

Anshar Studios
CEO

CEO and Head of Studio at Anshar Studios. Experienced manager leading development teams from a few up to over 100 people. Skilled in Production Management, Programming, Business Development, and Game Design. Passionate “gamedev or die” professional with deep knowledge and understanding of the gaming Industry which he has worked in since 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug North Cook

Creature
CEO & Creative Director

Doug North Cook the founder and Creative Director of Creature. Creature is a studio and a label focused on releasing projects that are pushing the boundaries of design, storytelling, and technology. Creature’s first studio project, Starship Home, won a DICE Award and was nominated for the IGF Nuovo Award, No Prescinium VR Award, and more. Creature’s label also released Maestro (2024 Meta Quest App of the Year) and THRASHER (winner of Apple’s 2024 inaugural Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year) all in 2024. Creature represents a collective of 12 studios releasing projects across most major platforms. Doug is also collaborating with Regine Gilbert, faculty at NYU, on a book titled Human Spatial Computing that is being published by Oxford University Press in 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Browne

Blue Moon Production Company
Director

Richard began his career in writing games back in 1987 on a BBC Micro. He went on to run internal and external development groups for Domark, Psygnosis, Philips Media, Microprose, Universal Interactive and THQ. More recently he founded and ran the external publishing group of Digital Extremes, growing a 30+ team to develop and publish independent projects including Wayfinder in 2023. He now acts as a consultant to development studios and publishers across the globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richie de Wit

Bear Knuckle / Raw Fury
Founder / Senior Partner Manager

Richie de Wit is the founder of Bear Knuckle and Senior Partner Manager at Raw Fury.

Through Bear Knuckle, he helps developers self-publish by supporting them with business development, strategic planning, and sales.

At Raw Fury, he drives sales and pitching strategies for multiple titles and platforms, building lasting relationships.

Whether working with indies or a publisher, Richie is passionate about connecting people and opportunities to help great games succeed.

 

 

 

 

 

Aleksandar Gavrilović

Summer Eternal
Producer

Aleksandar has worked as managing director of Gamechuck, the first unionised company in the region, also with a first collective agreement in effect for all workers, equal pay and 6-hour work-day provisions. He was also a general secretary of CGDA for four years and is now a producer at Summer Eternal, a worker-owned co-operative founded by ex-members of Za/Um. In his free time, Aleksandar is developing a videogame based on the beloved 1960s Yugoslav cartoon character, Professor Balthazar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Willans

Sumo Newcastle
Studio Design Director

Over the past 17 years Andrew has been part of developing a range of AAA titles while designing at companies such as 2K, Ubisoft, CCP, and Sumo Digital. With a proven career in delivering high quality games on consoles, PC, and VR, Andrew applies player-focused design methodologies to bring out the best in every project whether large or small. Andrew have worked on predominantly larger scale AAA projects (Driver San Francisco, Watch_Dogs, The Crew, Tom Clancy’s: The Division, EVE: Valkyrie, Hood: Outlaws and Legends, Deathsprint 66) with the exception of Grow Home which was Bafta Nominated for Game Design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Browne

Bright Gambit
CPO

Tim has been a passionate advocate for the video game industry for 26 years, starting as a level designer and rising to Creative Director. He has worked with companies like Activision/Blizzard/King, Ubisoft, Avalanche Studios, and Codemasters on notable titles such as 3 Assassin’s Creed games, Candy Crush, and Operation Flashpoint. Tim is now the CPO of Bright Gambit, a company he co-founded with other like minded industry veterans to support indie developers in breaking into the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Gilbert

Wadjet Eye Games
Founder / CEO

Dave has been interested in adventure games ever since 1986, when his mother made the mistake of buying him a copy of Infocom’s Wishbringer. Fifteen years later, he discovered the Adventure Game Studio engine and began making his own. In 2006, he decided that making games was too much fun to do anything else for a living, and formed Wadjet Eye Games to do just that. In the 19 years since, Wadjet Eye has developed and/or published over 20 games; some of which include the Blackwell series, Unavowed, and The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

René Habermann

Bippinbits
Director

René followed his passion in 2022 and started to make games full time with his company Bippinbits. Before that he studied computer science and worked many years in IT, developing an increasing aversion to corporate insanity. René’s approach to making games was shaped by game jams – swift iteration, smart scope, trusting teams, quick validation and a closeness to the players.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Lewin

Wiggin
Partner

Peter is a partner in the interactive entertainment team at Wiggin in London. He advises on the legal and business aspects of running digital entertainment businesses, with a particular focus on negotiation of complex deals, regulation and exploitation of IP.

He works exclusively within the interactive entertainment industry, and is exceptionally lucky to work with a wide range of incredible clients spanning developers, publishers, distributors, tech providers and esports businesses. This, together with the fact that his practice includes clients of all sizes spread around the work, gives him a hugely valuable cross-industry and cross-jurisdictional perspective on industry development, challenges and market practices.

 

 

 

 

 

Fawzi Mesmar

Ubisoft
Vice President, Global Creative

Fawzi Mesmar is an award-winning Game designer, leader, author, and public speaker who has been in the gaming industry for over two decades in a career that spanned the Middle East, New Zealand, Japan, and Europe working for companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision Blizzard, Gameloft and Atlus to name a few. He has worked on over 20 titles that have been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide including entries in franchises like Star Wars, Mario, Battlefield, Persona and Others. He is also the author of “Al-Khallab in the art of game design” the first Arabic language textbook on game design and 3rd guy on the Habibis podcast. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maeva Sponbergs

Beyond Frames Entertainment
CMO and Head of Publishing

Maeva Sponbergs, with 20+ years in game sales, marketing, and business development, is the CMO and Head of Publishing at Beyond Frames Entertainment. The company houses two internal studios and has published over 10 XR titles, including Ghosts of Tabor. Before Beyond Frames, Maeva held executive roles for 7 years at Starbreeze (makers of Payday), leading operations, business, communications, and investor relations.

 

 

 

 

 

Sam Magnolia

Aesthetician Labs
Producer & Studio Manager

Sam is a co-founder, producer, and studio manager at Aesthetician Labs – a worker owned games cooperative based out of the US. For nearly 7 years, Sam has managed AeLa’s projects, team, business development, and more. Professionally, they’re passionate about facilitation and the intentional development of company culture.

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Plant

Glowmade
Community Manager

Elizabeth is Community Manager at indie studio Glowmade by day, and professional videogame voice actress by night. She’s a staunch believer in the power of play, interactive storytelling, and in gaming as a key means of human connection. With a love of marrying every audiovisual medium at her disposal, Liz strives to always create spaces and stories that empower, engage and unite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Parker

Ground Shatter
Head of Studio

James Parker is Head of Studio and Game Director at Ground Shatter, the BAFTA nominated studio behind Fights in Tight Spaces and its audaciously named sequel Knights in Tight Spaces. He is co-director of the Bristol Games Hub, has 25 years experience making games, and if all goes to plan, by the time the conference rolls around he will have a 210 day streak on the LinkedIn game Queens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thierry Baujard

Spielfabrique UG
Co Founder

Expert in financing in the creative industries and co founder of pan- European Game ecosystem catalyst Spielfabrique based in Germany. Also CEO of Media Deals, a pan European investment network focused on Game, Audiovisual and Music. MBA from Bocconi and UCLA.

 

 

 

 

 

Ismael Jorge Soler

Yodo1 Games
IP Licensing BD Lead

Ismael is the IP Licensing BD Lead at Yodo1, where he oversees all global deals and partnerships with licensors and studios worldwide. He began his career at Yodo1 in the monetization department, helping studios strengthen their in-game economies while ensuring a seamless and enjoyable player experience.

His understanding of the gaming market and IP landscape led him to transition into the IP Licensing team, where he now leads efforts to connect studios with the right IPs and create win-win collaborations. Ismael works closely with partners to ensure the IP matchmaking process is efficient, strategic, and beneficial for both sides.

He is also responsible for developing proposals for limited-time event collaborations designed to boost player engagement and increase revenue. Over the years, Ismael has built strong relationships with a wide range of licensors, woking on collaborations from iconic gaming IPs like Shovel Knight in Idle Slayer, to major Japanese anime collaborations such as Attack on Titan, and family-friendly IPs like Lucas the Spider.

 

 

 

 

 

Jörg Tittel

RapidEyeMovers
CEO / Creative Director

Jörg is a director, writer and producer. Games include the star-studded The Last Worker, Playdate spin-off SKEW and RapidEyeMovers’ debut C-Smash VRS, which earned a Golden Joystick nom and was named Digital Foundry’s VR Game of the Year. Now out on PS5, it’s getting a hybrid physical release from Limited Run Games. REM has several new titles in dev including a game based on a beloved Hollywood IP and an original title which will bring AAA value and scope on a AA budget thanks to revolutionary new techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louis Rene Auclair

RocketRide Games inc
CEO

With 20+ years experience in video games industry, Louis has garnered expertise in studio development, game production, deal making and publishing. Now the CEO of RocketRide Games, a video games agency with 14 video games experts working with 80 studios, Louis puts his expertise in leading the team to provide guidance on many facets important to achieving success in the game industry such as; pitching, creative direction, production, publishing and fundraising.

 

 

 

 

 

Aidan Markham

Aesthetician Labs
Lead Artist

Aidan is a co-founder and the lead artist at Aesthetician Labs – a worker owned games cooperative based out of the US. He creates nearly all of AeLa’s distinct visual style and oversees much of the design of the team’s internal IP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melissa 'Mj' Lewis

Kepler Interactive
Producer

Mj started working in games publishing and production in 2021. Formerly Head of Production at PQube and Firestoke, she’s now a Producer at Kepler Interactive. Passionate about ethical and sustainable game dev, she’s a Safe In Our World Ambassador, a volunteer with ManyCats’ Impact project, and an admin for the UKGI Slack.

 

 

 

 

 

Justin Stolzenberg

Metica
Co-Founder

Justin Stolzenberg is a seasoned entrepreneur and gaming industry veteran with over 22 years of experience. His career includes co-founding and scaling companies like Flaregames and Phoenix Games, where he served as CMO. Justin’s expertise lies in using analytics to grow monetization and user acquisition, contributing to the success of hits like Shakes & Fidget, Nonstop Knight, Royal Revolt 2, and over 40 other games.

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Kolcun

Pixel Federation
Senior Tech Artist

As a Senior Technical Artist at Pixel Federation, Martin has played a pivotal role in shaping the creative and technical workflows. Beginning in the R&D team and contributing to nearly every major project — including early development on TrainStation 3 — they’ve carved out a role at the intersection of art, engineering, and forward-thinking strategy.

Martin led the studio-wide transition to Blender and architected an internal ecosystem for artists, including a centralized asset library and a suite of custom tools designed to streamline, scale, and future-proof creative workflows.

Now part of Pixel Federation’s dedicated AI department— recognized as a core innovation engine within the company — Martin is pioneering the integration of generative AI across departments. Their work spans IP-aligned image generation, AI-assisted localization, and the deployment of large language models into day-to-day workflows for designers, finance, and beyond.

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander Pankov

Owlcat Games
Publishing producer

With over 20 years of experience in the game industry, I’ve built a diverse career, progressing from Game Designer to roles like Creative Director, Principal Designer, Product Director, and now Publishing Producer. My work spans multiple genres and platforms, including Singleplayer story-driven games, MMORPGs, Mobile, GaaS, and indie games. Alongside expertise in narrative, art, and music, I bring a strong background in marketing. For a decade, I’ve also contributed to academia as a university lecturer and curator of the Game Design Faculty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Owen Higley

Perella Weinberg Partners
Partner

David Higley is a Partner in Perella Weinberg’s Advisory business. Based in Los Angeles, Mr. Higley is Global Head of the Firm’s Media & Entertainment Group, providing strategic advice to clients globally in the media, entertainment and technology sectors. During his career, he has completed over 100 transactions for interactive entertainment companies.

Mr. Higley joined Perella Weinberg from Lazard Freres & Co, where he served as a Managing Director and the Global Head of the Interactive Media and Technologies Group. Prior to joining Lazard, Mr. Higley was the Founder and Managing Partner of Bond Lane Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on digital media and interactive entertainment. Previously, Mr. Higley was a Managing Director and the Global Head of Digital Media at UBS Investment Bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tadej Gregorcic

Motiviti / coherence
CTO / Co-Founder

Tadej is a creative technologist with over 20 years in the industry.
In his native Slovenia, he co-founded the games and co-dev studio Motiviti, and helped grow the local developer ecosystem by co-running the Slovenia Games Conference for several years.
In his current home Sweden, he co-founded the multiplayer technology company coherence, where he’s been heading up tech and product, making solid multiplayer netcode accessible to any game developer or designer.
Originally a programmer with roots in the demoscene, he feels most comfortable at the intersection of code, design, narrative, music and art.
A huge fan of story-rich games, his latest project is Motiviti’s adventure game Elroy and the Aliens, which he wrote, designed and directed.
Tadej loves sauna, sci-fi, language and photography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Thomas

HeyDanThomas Ltd
Mess maker

Dan does lots of *stuff* in games. He is a games business advisor, fractional COO at Apparance Procedural Generation, co-director of Limit Break Mentorship CIC, supports growth at IMPRESS indie game marketing toolkit and previously founded and exited games-focused digital agency, Etch Play. He has worked with the likes of Supermassive Games, Hello Games, Media Molecule, Guerrilla, Sumo, Deep Silver and many others. His current mission is to help 100 people start or grow their games business, in the hopes of instilling a healthier and more stable growth mindset for themselves and their teams. He also lives in a van and is trying to convert an old barn in Wales into a home (with next to no relevant skills or experience…).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca Lautner

Landfall
CBO

Rebecca is Chief Business Officer at Landfall, an indie studio based in Stockholm, Sweden and the dev behind games such as Clustertruck, Stickfight, TABS, ROUNDS, Content Warning and most recently Haste. She is responsible for everything related to brand-building and business development. Landfall also functions as an investor for external indie games.

Before joining Landfall she was heading an initiative funded by the European Union that focused on building a global network for the industry and nurturing business opportunities across borders.

 

 

 

Bruno Urbain

Fishing Cactus
CEO

Studio Manager and founder at Fishing Cactus, Bruno brings over 20 years of experience in the videogame industry, with a versatile background in game design, project management, and production. Today, he leads a talented team of 36, focusing on people management, financial oversight, and operational strategy to ensure the studio’s success with one motto: “Smart Games with Soul” where talents are at the center of creative decisions.

Highly engaged in production, Bruno works closely with his teams, fostering a shared vision and a collaborative environment. He drives Fishing Cactus around human-sized highly autonomous teams with the goal of delivering high quality games. Fishing Cactus has delivered over 60 projects, with budgets ranging from €100K to €2M.

Bruno is also founder and president of WALGA, the Wallonia Games Association representing over 200 people in the sector.

Specialties:

– Studio Operations & Project Management
– Vision and processes
– Team leadership: managing creative and production teams
– HR
– Financial & production planning

 

 

 

 

 

Maarten de Koning

SeaFire Ventures
Founder

With a lifelong passion for the games industry, he brings a diverse background as an investor, entrepreneur, broker, and advisor. Maarten’s career has been driven by the belief that great ideas deserve the right partners and opportunities. After founding and merging his agency with DDM in 2013, he became a Partner and helped build global bridges between developers, publishers, and investors—most notably through launching DDM’s Investment Services. He thrives on scaling businesses, guiding strategic growth, and creating value across the interactive entertainment ecosystem. Alongside his advisory work at DDM, he advises startups, funds, and industry events, and remain active through his family’s investment firm, Mardelli and SeaFire Ventures.

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Hammond

Gcore
Territory Manager, UK & Nordics

Sean leads the UK & Nordics region for Gcore, bringing over 20 years of experience in media and broadcast infrastructure. With a deep understanding of the demands of high-volume, high-traffic events, he now applies his CDN, cloud services, and AI expertise to the gaming industry. When he’s not helping customers, you’ll find Sean reminiscing about Manchester United’s glory days, or trying unsuccessfully to beat his teenage daughter at Hollow Knight.

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Przybylski

Interactive Studio Management
Senior Business Developer

For more than 13 years, Robert has worked as a Business Developer in the video games industry, beginning at GOG.com where he soon became Head of the Bizdev department, responsible for both expanding and overseeing the games portfolio. Subsequently, he relocated to Stockholm to join Paradox Interactive, focusing on Portfolio Business Development. Since 2020, he has been with ISM, assisting game development studios in achieving their goals.

 

 

 

 

 

Vladimir Gersl

Cyber Sail Consulting
CEO

Vlad, an experienced executive in the game industry (Activision, Sony, PLAION), leads one of the most influential consulting firms, Cyber Sail Consulting. This agency assists game publishers and studios worldwide in finding publishing opportunities for their projects or in identifying interesting games for different publishers’ portfolios. Cyber Sail also provides support with acquisitions, investments, restructurings, and portfolio curation.

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Johnson

Playstack
Head of Discovery

Patrick is the Head of Discovery at Playstack, an award winning publisher with a mission to embrace the diversity of brilliant ideas. Playstack publishes fearless, delightful games to their fullest potential with dedication, expertise and extensive planning. Patrick’s first two signed games for Playstack were Balatro and Abiotic Factor – he combines his previous experience in freelance journalism with his deep knowledge of indie games in order to seek out and support potential development partners. When not chatting with devs he can usually be found playing PS1-era JRPGs.

 

 

 

Hrvoje Mitic

Croatian Game Developers Alliance
General Secretary

Hrvoje is the new General Secretary of the Croatian Game Developers Alliance.
He has been working in production, consulting and biz dev roles in the games industry for over a decade, helping finance, produce and publish various award-winning independent games, like Replaced, Luna Abyss, Worldless, QUBE 2, Lost Words, etc.
He has experience consulting funding and investment firms on game industry opportunities, as well as film and animation studios about cross and trans-media projects.
He recently completed a two year mandate as the Cultural Advisor for Videogames for the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, managing a preproduction grant programme that supported over 50 independent games.

 

 

 

Youri Loedts

Flemish Audiovisual Fund
Head of Games Fund

Youri Loedts has been the first Head of the Games Fund at the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) since 2018. With a background as a games journalist and marketing specialist, he is dedicated to strengthening the Flemish game industry and supporting talented developers.

 

 

 

Dora Klindžić

SUMMER ETERNAL
agitator

Dora Klindžić is a physicist, writer and one of the firestarters at Summer Eternal.

 

 

 

 

Antonio Pasalic

Artefact
Founder

Antonio Pasalic has an extensive experience in event organization, esports, and business development. His career began in China, where he played a key role in organizing large-scale gaming conferences that brought together thousands of industry professionals. Over the years, he has expanded his expertise across global markets, managing high-profile events and fostering partnerships across Asia, Europe, and beyond.

In addition to his work in gaming conferences, Antonio has been actively involved in the esports sector, overseeing operations, collaborating with major telecom companies, and working with internationally recognized brands.

Antonio is also the founder of Artefact, a consulting agency specializing in business strategy, marketing, and event management within the gaming and technology sectors.

 

 

 

 

Pierre André

Double Jack
CEO

19 years in the industry as designer, producer and creative director in multiple studios across Europe and China, sticking fingers in design and production topics, and in his darkest hours, accounting.

 

 

 

Gerinda Meijerink

Raw Fury
Senior Partner Manager

Gerinda is senior partner manager and sales team lead at boutique indie publisher Raw Fury and has worked on titles like Kingdom Two Crowns, Moonstone Island and Blue Prince. She is passionate about commercial strategies, bringing exciting opportunities to help developers succeed and fostering a positive company culture.

 

 

 

Ana Krstajic

Petrushka Chord
Composer

Since graduating from Berklee in 2018, Ana has built a thriving career as a composer, blending her love for classical music with scoring for visual media. Based in Serbia, she works on international projects, including film, TV, theater, and video games, such as Apple TV’s animated shorts and Heroic Magic Duel for Nordeus. Ana is also the lead composer for Rue Valley and a collaborative game project in Poland.

An Artist in Residence at Kolarac Concert Hall, Ana promotes incidental music in Serbia, educates young composers, and founded a competition for aspiring talents in memory of Andrija Cikic. She pioneered high-standard video game concerts in Serbia, organizing a groundbreaking 2024 performance featuring Austin Wintory.

In 2024, Ana received the Musika Klasika Award for Best Media Composer and became a Universal Music Artist with her soundtrack A Cross in the Desert. Her debut album, Mountain Eyes, highlights Balkan musicians and includes visually stunning music videos filmed in Montenegro’s landscapes, capturing the essence of her artistic vision.

 

 

 

Kirsty Gillmore

Freelance
Voice & Performance Director, Casting Director

Kirsty Gillmore (she/her) is an acclaimed freelance Voice & Performance Director, Casting Director and Dialogue Producer. She has directed and cast over 50 game titles and animation projects. Game credits include The First Descendant, Valorant, Baldur’s Gate 3, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Call of Duty and The Quiet Things; animation includes Shasha & Milo and the upcoming Netflix series Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. She was selected for the prestigious BAFTA Breakthrough UK programme in 202

 

 

 

John Kavanagh

Aethir
SVP Business Development

With over 20 years of executive leadership in Licensing, Business Development, Sales, Studio Management for Mobile, PC, Console, Web3 gaming, John has a proven track record of delivering results and value for both established and emerging brands.

John has successfully represented leading companies such as Transperfect, BBC Studios, Eidos and Paramount Pictures, licensing their IP, platforms and technologies for console, mobile, PC, Web2/3, and Blockchain applications.

He has also invented, developed, and successfully floated his company on AIM for the Toy of the Year award-winning Bubble, a groundbreaking interactive console using DVD. Additionally, he has authored multiple patents and white papers, and managed teams and studios in the U.S., EU and APAC.

John is passionate about driving growth and innovation in the games and interactive technology sector, and empowering his clients and colleagues with cutting-edge solutions and services

 

 

 

Sanja Zugic

Playstudios
Head Of Studio Operations

Sanja Zugic is the Head of Studio Operations at Playstudios Europe, bringing over a decade of experience in the gaming industry. A dedicated community builder and event organizer, she actively shapes the regional gaming landscape as a board member of the Serbian Games Association. Passionate about people development, Sanja also enjoys pottery and cooking in her free time.

 

 

 

Daniel Pearson

Local Dialect
Communications consultant

After a decade as a consumer and B2B journalist, Dan decided he wanted to get a real job. Ten years after that, he’s not so sure.

Now running a one-man comms, PR and marketing consultancy, Dan is retraining as a psychotherapist, with the intention of providing mental health support to the industry, specialising in Neurodivergence.

Do not feed after midnight, he’ll get terrible indigestion and he won’t shut up about it.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Sorrell

Safe in Our World
Charity Director

Sarah is the Charity Director for Safe In Our World. She has extensive experience in the third sector for which she has worked for over 20 years as a Fundraiser, Marketeer and Communicator. Prior to Safe In Our World she worked in the sports sector where she developed mental wellbeing initiatives for young people to help them build mental toughness. She has always been an advocate for mental health and wellbeing, and truly understands how important it is to take mental health as seriously as physical health, especially in the workplace.

 

 

 

 

 

Charles Cecil

Revolution Software
Founder / CEO

Charles Cecil, awarded ‘Industry Legend’ status by Develop, has been a key figure in video games development for 40 years. In 1990 he founded Revolution, today one of the world’s leading adventure game companies which created the Broken Sword and Beyond/Beneath a Steel Sky series. Charles has additionally designed titles as diverse as The Da Vinci Code for Sony Pictures and Doctor Who for the BBC for which he won a BAFTA award. In 2011 Charles was awarded an MBE for services to the computer games industry, and in 2019 was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rami Ismail

Indie Games Developer / Industry Ambassador

Rami Ismail is a Dutch-Egyptian industry ambassador & independent games developer with over 20 titles across PC, console, web, and mobile. His development of tools like the industry-standard dopresskit.com, his prolific & popular public speaking, and highly-regarded consultancy and insights have helped shape industry opportunities for game communities & independent game developers of any kind, in any situation, and anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Branislav Trajkovic

EMOTION SPARK STUDIO
CEO

Branislav Trajković is the co-founder and CEO of Emotion Spark Studio, where, together with his team, he oversees both the business and development aspects of their game Rue Valley. With over 10 years of experience in the gaming industry, Branislav plays a key role in making strategic business decisions while actively contributing to the development process. The studio is currently focused solely on Rue Valley, a game that explores themes of self-reflection and inner struggles within a fantastic world. As a speaker at the conference in Dubrovnik, Branislav will share his experiences in leading the studio, navigating business challenges, and the approach to developing a unique game aimed at creating a deeper connection with players. He will also discuss the relationship between the development team and the publisher, highlighting the dynamics and collaboration that contribute to the success of the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pavol Buday

Freelancer

After more than a decade playing games and spending way too much time reviewing them, Pavol started paying attention to individuals and teams helping them to connect and finding the correct audience and partners by organising meet-ups, public events and conferences in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia and Canada (Reboot Develop, Fest Anca and Game Days to name a few). Pavol co-founded Slovak Game Developers Association, was instrumental in setting up a public fund in Slovakia, is creator and curator for Game Conference Guide, your events calendar. During Reboot he is going to host painting mini figures evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damir Durovic

Reboot
CEO

Through 25 years of combined experience in running huge games industry events, games media and working within marketing/PR in the industry Damir has seen empires rise and fall, and through all those years has finally grown an awesome beard. For last 11 years together with an incredible and small but super agile team has been running REBOOT brand consisting of both media and events sub-labels, featuring among others one of the biggest consumer game shows in Europe while also throughout a full decade of its existence building the world famous Reboot Develop Blue and Red, two games industry conferences that have redefined the worldwide games industry event landscape while conceptualizing the true meaning of the boutique games industry conferences. Damir also has vast experience in consulting on both marketing and PR matters within the industry as well as taking part in various M&A efforts worldwide. He is an avid extreme hiking challenges fanatic.