They say that all good things must come to an end, so our adventure is no exception. By Tuesday we have already experienced the incredible energy and atmosphere of this event, however the last day managed to surprise us with some big names and captivating games. Let’s take a look at our final moments at Digital Dragons Conference 2025.
Why not start with meeting someone legendary? Like for example Mike Pondsmith – you know, a designer behind projects such as Mekton, Castle Falkenstein and Cyberpunk. The latter was frequently mentioned during his lecture about franchises, which showed the perspective of the creator. We had a chance to learn basic components of handling the franchise (like financial value, cultural visibility and information bandwith – a.k.a. the infamous “triangles of death”) and ask ourselves truly essential questions like: “Could Chris Pratt play in Cyberpunk?”
Indie Zone Had Plenty to Show
After the lecture we decided to explore more games from Indie Zone. Needless to say, we ended up experiencing all kinds of emotions in just few hours. My first pick was a cosmic challenge with exploration and survival elements found in Cosminers. From sci-fi setting I quickly switched to the world defined by Slavic mythology and fairy tales, which was presented in Vranygrai. Some alternations of reality appeared also in Turbo Liar: Rust & Fast, a racing game set in the 1970s and 1980s Poland.
Next I wanted to try something really challenging, so I chose… A Difficult Game About Letters (not easy 2D platformer.) The following title, AbstractPunk, was also quite demanding – after all, it’s a soulslike game with a collage-style graphics. Then my attention was drawn to Sheeple, an autobattler with roguelike and deck-building elements, as well as a lot of sheep. My exploration ended at the booth with Be My Horde, a 2D survival roguelite centered around a formidable necromancess. In short, Indie Zone had a good reason to be fully packed at all times.
For a change, the next event we attended was related to psychology in marketing. The lecture “Game of Choice: How to Help Players Make Decisions?” conducted by a game marketing consultant Marta Matyjewicz, explored the topic of players decisions while they engage with a game. Apparently it’s true that there are two wolves inside each of us: one that is responsible for logical analysis, and the second one that falls for prompts like “Wishlist now!” “Play the Demo!” or “Press F to interact!”
Cyberpunk, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2., The Thaumaturge
Next lecture took a different approach than the ones we attended before – it focused on using alt-history setting in modern storytelling, which was shown on the example of The Thaumaturge. Katarzyna Władyka, a principal quest designer at Fool’s Theory, showed how history, culture, and imagination should fit into storytelling that resonates with the audience. It’s worth to note that fantastical elements like supernatural powers and beings should be used for enhancing the story, and not replacing it.
Our last activity at the conference was a talk about artifacts in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Yegor Ostapenko, a game designer from GSC Game World, talked about his experience of working on that particular feature of the game. Not only we could learn about the background and production pipeline of these iconic artifacts, but also gain insight into team management and challenges that had to be addressed in the process of their delivery.
Just like that, Digital Dragons Conference 2025 has already come to an end. Our first time at this event was full of opportunities, surprises and interesting meetings with people representing different parts of gaming industry. We are really happy that we could be a part of this incredible event, which gave us a lot of valuable experience and precious memories, but also hope for continuing our adventure also on different occasions. Although the rest of gaming dragons has already returned to their homes, we will stay in Cracow with the legendary dragon and look out for ways to ignite the passion for video games.
Until next time!
Hrvatski 
English (UK)