Digital Entertainment Cluster at Casual Connect in San Francisco

Held on 30th July and 1st August in San Francisco was Casual Connect USA, the world’s best-known conference devoted to community and casual games. Present at the conference were representatives of the Digital Entertainment Cluster (DEC), who participated in a study visit organised by the Kraków Technology Park (KTP) and Małopolska Region.

The DEC team included representatives of Artifex Mundi, Ganymede, GRY-Online, Incuvo, Nimbi Studios, Tap IT Games, Teyon, and Tribity. As part of the visit, besides participating in the conference, members of the cluster participated in meetings with American businesses. Partners in the talks included Gameloft, glu mobile, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Yeti Zen – a gaming projects incubator.

“This year, our company makes a debut in mobile markets, and the Casual Connect fair is one of the most important events for the sector. We have made numerous contacts that will let us more fully monetise the F2P games we intend to release this and next year. They will also be helpful for the development of our publishing department in Japan”, said Mateusz Makowiec, CMO at Teyon.

The most interesting “Polish accent” at this year’s Casual Connect USA was the presence of Incuvo, an independent developer presenting Createrria – a “game for making games”: an absolutely unique solution on mobile platforms – as part of the so-called Indie Showcase.

“We give the user an opportunity to create, in a simple and addictive manner, marvellously looking games, sharing them with friends, and last but not least, playing the projects that others developed. Createrria is designed for gamers and not developers. Building own games requires no special skills and is done directly on your device: a tablet or smartphone. You can make your games available to friends through community websites or Facebook. You can also make a recording of the play and publish it on YouTube”, explained Jakub Duda, co-founder of Incuvo.

Createrria won a warm welcome at San Francisco’s Indie Prize Showcase. The business meetings were highly fruitful, and the project is supported by the prime players in the sector.

“The application is already available in Australia and Canada. The full version for iPhone and iPad is planned for early September. An Android version will be available later this year. Soon, Createrria will be available on other platforms as well. Those interested in the game include Microsoft and Nintendo”, Duda added.

Devoting a fair share of program to the questions related to social casino gameswas a novelty of this year’s Casual Connect USA. The subject gathered more than 40 experts in the sector, and the halls that housed the lectures could hardly accommodate all those interested. Most interested in the lectures were representatives of Ganymede, Poland’s largest business active in the area.

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