Here be Dragons

What does Poland's key game dev conference have in store?

- 

When the Digital Dragons event debuted in 2012, Poland’s place in the global game development pecking order was very different to where it is today. The talent was there, but the game that changed everything for the country’s development scene, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, was still years from launch. Now, though, the country is producing a host of high-profile titles, including more than a few Edge cover stars of recent years – and the makers of most of them are present in one form or another at this year’s event, taking place in Kraków on May 19–21.

It’s overly simplistic to credit the region’s success to a single studio, but it’s notable how many Polish developers emerging today can trace their origins back to CD Projekt. We wrote about one, The Thaumaturge creator Fool’s Theory, in E394’s Studio Profile, and CEO Jakub Rokosz will be on a panel at Digital Dragons to discuss the realities of running an indie studio in Poland, alongside representatives who’ve followed other paths.

As for CD Projekt, if you’ve been wondering just how it rescued Cyberpunk 2077’s reputation with last year’s Phantom Liberty expansion, then developers from the studio are practically queueing up to tell you. The conference includes no fewer than