It has finally begun – one of the most prominent B2B event for the game dev industry in a whole Europe launched on Sunday. The first day of Digital Dragons Conference 2025 was dedicated to two thematic events: Game Design Summit powered by Anshar Studios & Fool’s Theory and Legal Summit powered by Rymarz Zdort Maruta. Although Sunday’s activities served mostly as a warm-up before two extremely productive days, we obviously couldn’t miss the things that were happening in Q Hotel Plus in Cracow.
It’s kind of incredible that you can come to Poland basically at any time of the year and there’s still a chance that you’ll get caught in a rain. What under usual conditions would be a lazy Sunday without setting foot outside this time turned into an exciting day defined by one single goal: to enter the world of gaming. And where would be a better place to do that if not at the panels and workshops opening this year’s edition of Digital Dragons Conference?
Espresso, mocca and latte – it’s safe to say that the whole day revolved around them. And in this case I don’t mean different kinds of coffee (which nevertheless was necessary to keep everyone awake given the gloomy weather), but rather the names of the venues where we could gain valuable insight into the gaming industry.
Coconuts, Peaches, and AI
We started off strong with panels from Legal Summit held in espresso venue. Just like this intense and concentrated coffee, the discussions energized the participants and encouraged them to speak up in given topics. We could observe this during the first panel, which explored the topic of AI in creative industries. The difference between creativity and code, grey zones in legal acts and ethical dilemmas made the whole debate more challenging and raised questions about the future of creative works such as video games.
While the main focus was on legal perspective, the speakers took the opportunity to also include their reflections on the AI’s influence on everyday life. The best summary of the whole topic would be one of theirs quote: “AI is like gravity – it won’t go away and we have to deal with it somehow.”
Since we’re speaking of comparisons, the second discussion panel did an outstanding job at describing ordinary terms in quite peculiar manner. This time the point of discussion was related to the process of engaging foreigners in dev teams – especially to cultural differences becoming legal trouble. We learned that recruitment resembles dating (choosing carefully is key) and that Polish culture is like a coconut: tough exterior, soft inside.
These vivid analogies clarified the essentials of international cooperation, from giving effective feedback and conducting cultural onboarding to ensuring a safe workplace for all. Ultimately, whether you’re from a “coconut” or “peach” culture, we’re all part of one big fruit family.
Blending Law, Design, and Creativity in Gaming
The last event from Legal Summit we visited was titled “Country Updates for Gamedev”, which essentially was a trip across European countries and their gaming scenes. Speakers from France, Germany, Italy and the UK shared their thoughts on the consumer protection and privacy situation in their countries, which was then followed by a discussion about copyrights laws. Whilst each of the experts had their own unique experiences and opinions, everyone agreed that people from gaming community have to be more vocal if they want to make changes in entertainment industry.
Even though we couldn’t participate in Game Design Summit, we still got a chance to catch a glimpse of the workshops happening there. We managed to balance our intense espresso experiences by visiting latte venue and its lighter (but equally fascinating) events like designing vertical progression mechanics, planning the system of emergent gameplay or creating prototype jam using random board game components.
Since we already made an interesting mix of gaming perspectives, it was the time to add some sweetness by checking the workshops in mocca hall. There we could see the process of writing an engaging scene, creating a level layout, redesigning a piece of narrative and employing cognitive science in games.
Our first day at Digital Dragons Conference 2025 was filled with many learning opportunities. Both Legal Summit and Game Design Summit provided us with useful informations and fresh perspectives regarding the world of video games. With that, we continued our adventure for the next two days at the event, wondering what else will await us in the dragon’s lair.
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