The 15th annual India Game Developer Conference (IGDC) 2023 closed its three-day run on the 4th of November 2023. Starting on the 2nd of November, the event featured gaming professionals and experts from around the world gathered at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre. From the first day, the event witnessed a massive response from game developers, investors, publishers, design institutes, etc. IGDC worked as a platform for all of the participants and visitors to explore opportunities. Let us look in depth at what the IGDC 2023 Final Day presented.
Sridhar Muppidi, Director of IGDC, said, “IGDC today has become one of the top five Game Developer Conferences in the world. Considered South Asia’s biggest developer conference, we have been consistently attracting large-scale international participants who are keen on understanding the Indian gaming market and partnering with Indian developers.”
IGDC 2023 Final Day Highlights
Investor – Publisher Meets and Expo showcasing offerings
The event was crowded with over 4000+ gaming enthusiasts from across the globe. 1500+ Companies including Gaming Studios, Design Institutes, Game Developers, and 125 Hyperactive Sessions took place. Besides, 70+ investors and publishers meet with 130+ applicants and more than a hundred gaming companies showcased their products. Special sessions by conference partners run throughout the whole event.
With over 200+ gaming expert speakers from across 20 countries, the three-day conference saw about 125+ hyperactive sessions that included panel discussions, talks, and workshops across gaming technology, design, and production.
Also on focus were various Round Tables between industry, government representatives, academia, and other policymakers put together by Industry bodies such as Invest India, Start-up India, AIGDF, Primus Partners, and MESC.
IGDC Awards 2023: Complete list of all the winners into different categories
The IGDC Awards honored game developers and studios across 10 categories including Mobile Game of the Year, PC / Console Game of the Year, Visual Art, Game Play, AR / VR Game of the Year, Indie Game of the Year, etc. This year saw a record number of 300+ entries for the awards.
Bloom wins the highest number of awards while the Indus wins the most popular game award. The list of the winners is as follows.
| Award | Winner |
|---|---|
| Mobile Game of the Year | Bloom |
| PC / Console Game of the Year | 1971: Indian Naval Front |
| AR/ VR Game of the Year | Down and Out |
| Upcoming Game of the Year | Sojourn Past |
| Student Game of the Year | Laser Tanks: Pixel RPG |
| Jury Award for Game with a Climate Conscience | Climate And Sin |
| Best Game Play | Carrom Cricket: Premier League |
| Best Visual Art | Bloom |
| Indie Game of the Year | Artifice: War Tactics and Bloom |
| Popular Game Award | Indus |
The Investor-Publisher Connect
The Investor-Publisher Connect, IGDC’s flagship networking initiative experienced a huge response. More than 130 applicants and 1800+ curated meetings between Gaming Studios and Startups with Investors and Publishers in one-to-one and Speed-dating formats took place. A record number of 700+ participants was also spotted at the BYOG (Build Your Own Game) initiative.
The IGDC this year had nine parallel sessions, solo talks, workshops, and round tables. These dived deep into AI, Web3, Art and Design, Technology, Production, Business and Product Management, Applied games covering games for good, Emerging trends, and Career opportunities.
The Lumikai State of India Gaming Report
The Indian gaming market is becoming one of the largest gaming markets in the world. The Lumikai State of India Gaming Report published at IGDC 2023 gave everyone a huge surprise. It stated that women represent an impressive 41% of the total gaming community. More surprisingly, 66% of gamers hail from non-metro regions, underscoring the democratization of gaming experiences across the country.
Before the events on the final day came to an end, the IGDC 2023 kicked off with the launch of ‘Lumikai State of India Gaming report F723,’ a collaboration with Google, which highlighted the Indian gaming market to hit the $7.5B valuation mark by FY28.
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