Gamedev Student Conference Summary

The Gamedev Student Conference, organized by the Digital Painting and Concept Art Scientific Circle at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Gdansk, took place June 6-7, 2024. The event attracted many participants, both university students and outsiders interested in gamedev and digital art.

The conference began with a lecture by Eric Szczygiel, Associate Art Director at Share Creators, who discussed aspects of freelancing for concept artists. His lecture was very popular, especially among students of New Media Art. This was followed by the opening of the "Paradise of Villains" exhibition and a showcase of games by PJATK Gdansk students, which allowed visitors to see the circle's work and play games created by students of the Computer Science Department.

The next lecture, given by Tomasz Chistowski, Senior Concept Artist at Critical Force, was about avoiding mistakes in the concept art process. His talk provided participants with practical tips for artistic work. The first day ended at around 5pm.

The second day of the conference began with a continuation of the exhibition, and at 3:00 pm Marta Leydy-Odrzywolska, Concept Art Coordinator at Fool's Theory, compared working at large AAA studios and smaller indie teams, sharing personal experiences. The panel discussion titled. "Using AI in Game Development" attracted a large audience and raised many interesting issues related to AI in gamedev. The conference ended with an afterparty, which was an excellent networking opportunity.

The Gamedev Student Conference was the first event of its kind at PJATK Gdansk and was a success. Participants expressed their desire to participate in future editions, which proves the high interest and the need to organize similar initiatives in the future.