People Make Games

Chris hosted a session at Gamescom about game developers in Ukraine (Patreon)

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2022-08-29 12:46:04

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2026-06

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Hey patrons!

Last week I was invited to take part in Gamescom Congress, a small conference bolted onto the absolutely gigantic games show that takes over Cologne, Germany each August.

After our recent video about Frogwares, the Ukrainian games studio that's now having to adapt and survive in a country currently under siege, we were contacted by Gamescom asking if I'd like to give a talk about the story we'd just told at this year's conference

Rather than speak on behalf of those living through Putin's brutality, we instead asked if it'd be possible for one or two Frogwares employees to join me on stage for a live interview instead. Thankfully this was able to happen, although as you'll hear in the video above, the journey certainly wasn't easy for either Iryna and Nika.

I'm extremely grateful to them both for having made it all the same, in order to share their stories and continue to remind the video games industry that Ukraine needs our help.

Please give it a watch, if you can.

Files

Development, War and Solidarity: Game Creation in Ukraine, the 2022 Edition

As Russian forces entered Ukraine in late February, the team at Frogwares faced a reality that few of us can imagine. Best known for its long-running Sherlock Holmes series, the Ukrainian studio was suddenly forced to take on a much greater responsibility: keeping its employees safe as they lived through one of Europe’s greatest humanitarian crises in decades. In this session, People Make Games’ Chris Bratt will be interviewing two members of the Frogwares team, Irina Belous and Nika Avayan, about their own personal experiences during the last six months. Irina and Nika have travelled to Köln from their homes in Kyiv, a region that continues to be devastated by Russian missiles even in recent weeks, in order to share their stories today. As Gamescom attendees enjoy the show this week, meeting friends old and new, this conversation serves to remind us all that many of our Ukrainian colleagues and peers aren’t here with us today and that they continue to desperately need our support, in whatever ways we can offer it.