The first week of December featured three important games industry events: Immersive Tech Week, DGG Network Lunch and Rotterdam Gaming Connect. GameLab staff and students visited all three. Attending events like these keeps us connected to the Dutch games industry.
DGG Network Lunch
The networking lunch at Dutch Game Garden is a monthly event that can be considered the heartbeat of the Dutch games industry. It is invariably full, which means around 120 people.
This occasion was even more important than usual because Dutch Game Garden is closing. Extra room was therefore made for an even larger turnout. Fortunately for those present, it could be announced that the Dutch Games Association (DGA) will take over organising the networking lunch. From February 2025, it will be called the DGA Network Lunch and run at the same location in the same format. Everyone welcomed this news.
Naturally, as always, there was plenty of time and space to play games and network.
Immersive Tech Week
Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam focuses specifically on XR/VR/AR applications, for anyone wanting to see the latest developments in that field. Games are an important driving force behind this technology.
Over the past semester, Robin van Taarling of Unsane Interactive worked on his VR game Final Arena. For him, this was a great opportunity to make industry connections.
Immersive Tech Week
Rotterdam Gaming Connect is another Rotterdam event, aiming to show that video games and gaming are among today's most compelling forms of visual culture. Visual culture is the cultural discipline centred on the interaction between creator, product and audience.
All kinds of cultural forms come together in video games: crossovers between animation, music and play. Gamers watch streams of other gamers or create their own User Generated Content within games. And the social connections that emerge bring value to many lives.