Wound cables thump into brightly coloured plastic crates, promotional stickers scatter like confetti, and tired developers tuck into branded bottles of beer; this is the end of another year’s Digital Dragons, an event that brings together and showcases the Polish game development scene.
In 2026, Digital Dragons feels more at home with itself than ever before, bringing the Polish development community together, while attracting some of the most knowledgeable and influential speakers from around the world, from storyboard artists like the enigmatic Klaus Scherwinski, to musical designer Elvira Björkman alongside key leaders from Sony, Microsoft and Steam.
It’s one of my favourite conferences. Like GDC in San Francisco, this is a business conference, but one that feels at ease with the camaraderie and expertise that being surrounded by like-minded individuals brings. It is not Gamescom – the halls don’t heave, the air doesn’t become thick, there isn’t a Baggins-esque trip to the toilet.
The ICE Krakow is bright and mostly made of glass. You can see from the top to the bottom, which is quite beautiful, if you’re not fighting off the vertigo from the towering glass-panelled set of stairs you’re descending. The main auditorium is huge, making it the perfect venue for the yearly Digital Dragons Awards, while there’s a puzzle game’s worth of side doors and lecture halls to learn more about composition, art, or how to port a game to the Switch 2.
I always find development conferences hugely inspiring. I’m a musician, a songwriter, but I remain in awe of the way music producers tailor sound and music for games, evolving, changing and adapting to the player’s actions. Techland, showcasing their work on Dying Light: The Beast, have to be amongst the best in the business at this, and it’s clear that Poland plays home to a wealth of incredibly talented devs, whether its iconic leaders like CD Projekt Red, or indie teams like SoftCrunch Games.
Meanwhile, the business area, and the newest edition of the scheduling app, made planning my way through Digital Dragons suspiciously straightforward, and when you’re always on time, and the publisher or PR rep is there already, you have to hope that this will be the way of all gaming conferences in the future.
This is still an industry of relationships. Lockdowns half a decade ago hastened the shift towards using Zoom, Discord and even, at a push, Microsoft Teams for remote presentations, and streaming solutions for going hands on, but you can’t beat physically playing a game with the developer, talking about the country they’re from, their family, and their team. There’s a buzz of deals being made, contracts being drawn up, and insider tales to be told, adding both vibrancy and gravitas to every moment.
There are, of course, parties which are inevitably followed by after parties, and it’s fair to say that developers crunch through their beverages with the same vigour they show to programming and 3D modelling. I may be showing my age, but I mostly enjoyed the quiet conversation of a back room, while the admittedly excellent singer fired through an operatic ‘Toss A Coin To Your Witcher’ – this is Poland, after all. But, when you know that these teams pour their heart and soul into the games we play, they deserve the downtime.
It’s clear that this is a transitional year for the Polish development scene. You can see that in the Digital Dragons Awards, with Cronos: The New Dawn and 11-Bit Studios hoovering up the majority of the awards – literal dragon eggs – and the feeling that there’s slightly less depth here, while the industry here and abroad holds its collective breath for The Witcher 4. Much like GTA 6, it’s hovering on the edge of everyone’s minds, and its eventual release will undoubtedly then unleash a wave of attention, expertise and knowledge back out into the Polish games industry.
That, in turn, will further strengthen Digital Dragons in 2027. The drive and the dedication to make Poland a gaming powerhouse remains especially strong, while also seeking to become a hub for nearby neighbours like Slovenia, Croatia and Ukraine. Poland is a country that understands and aspires to be a global leader in gaming, and with events like Digital Dragons and GIC, they’re strengthening and tightening that community every year.
