gamescom dev 2026 has received its first major program outlines. This year's edition of the conference will take place from August 23 to 25, 2026, at the Confex Center in Cologne, and will be opened by Amir Satvat with a lecture dedicated to the future of the video game industry.
Satvat is the Business Development Director at Tencent Games, as well as the founder of a large free network supporting careers in the video game industry, known as ASGC, or Always Supporting the Games Community. His keynote lecture is titled “The Games Industry Reset: What Happened and What Comes Next?”, and will address the changes that have marked the industry from 2022 to the present.
The focus of the lecture will be the labor market, changes in employment, project financing, changes in player habits, regional development, and new opportunities arising after one of the more challenging periods for the video game industry.
The organizers emphasize that gamescom dev continues to grow as one of the more important professional gatherings in the industry. Last year's edition gathered over 5,400 participants from 89 countries, with 390 speakers and 220 lectures.
Among the first announced program highlights is a lecture by Seth Rosen, known for his work on the game Pacific Drive. In the lecture “‘Pacific Drive’ Under the Hood: Survival Fundamentals, Systems Design, and Speeding Past Tropes,” he will discuss the design philosophy, development challenges, and systems that shaped one of the more notable survival titles in recent years.
The first wave of confirmed speakers includes names such as Fleur Marty from Gearbox, Kim Belair from Sweet Baby Inc., Fiona Cherbak from Rocket Game Talent, Nikky Armstrong from Perfect Garbage, as well as representatives from Riot Games Mia Ginaé Watkins, Noor Amin, and Emi Nguyen.
This year's gamescom dev also brings several specially curated thematic tracks. For the first time, the Level Design Track will be presented, curated by Blake Rebouche from Guerrilla Games, Miles Tost from CD PROJEKT RED, and Seth Marinello from Double Fine. This part of the program will focus on world-building, player guidance, environmental storytelling, and contemporary level design practices.
Among the announced speakers for this track are Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Magnus Brauckhoff from KING Art Games, Alexandre Zenga from Rogue Factor, Donald Barrett from Insomniac Games, as well as representatives from Pearl Abyss, who is working on Crimson Desert, and Infold Games, known for Infinity Nikki.
The Animation Track is being created in collaboration with Mike Jungbluth, Animation Director at Compulsion Games. This part of the program will deal with character performance, animation processes, technical workflows, and production challenges. Alongside Jungbluth, representatives from Fumi Games, Julius Gierbig from CD PROJEKT RED, Gethin Aldous, Kevin Boyer from Rogue Factor, and Ramin Safarpour from Ubisoft Mainz are also announced.
Special attention will also be drawn to the AI Track, which will focus on artificial intelligence in gameplay and production. This program track is curated by the team behind the AI and Games channel, led by Tommy Thompson, Shraddha Gupta, Duygu Cakmak, Dr. Gabriel Robert, and Matthias Siemonsmeier. The program will feature representatives from companies such as Tencent Games, Electronic Arts, Wargaming, JetBrains, Room 8 Group, and Katapult Ridge.
In addition to lectures and thematic tracks, gamescom dev 2026 will also feature a series of networking events. The program includes meetings for speakers and VIP guests, a leadership summit, business mixers, a CTO lunch, a pitch it! mixer, community night, and the gamescom dev awards ceremony.
Additional speakers, lectures, and program updates will be announced in the coming weeks.
