December 13, 2018. – Representatives of game development associations from nine Central and Eastern Europe countries are tightening cooperation. During Game Dev Session in Prague, a memorandum of understanding and cooperation was signed forming a group of already 11 countries. The goal of this formal agreement is to strengthen the ties between European game developers, promote the exchange of information, improve the image of the region and competitiveness in the global game development market.

“Central and Eastern Europe is quite a big and important part of the global industry. However, it’s still underappreciated by the Western media, investors, and publishers. If we look at the countries to cooperate under this memorandum, we unite more than 1,000 studios and 25,000 game developers. Each year our region offers culturally interesting games, almost every country has its own success story, while games developed here cover a wide range of diversity in technology and genres”, said Indie Games Poland co-founder and board member Jakub Marszalkowski.

The initial version of this memorandum was signed last year in Poznan, Poland. Initiated by Indie Games Poland fund, the first agreement was signed by the representatives of game development associations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, and Poland. This year the signing ceremony was held in Prague by invitation from the Czech Game Developers Association and Game Developers Session conference. The memorandum was signed by additional representatives of Lithuania, Belarus, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria. All signatory countries are also contributing to organizing CEEGA – the annual awards for game development in the region.

“When we visit events, we notice that the international game development community knows successful Lithuanian titles, such as “Murder in the Alps” or “Human: Fall Flat”, but at the same time they don’t associate those games with our region. I believe it’s important to promote our region and our game development traditions. This agreement will also help us share experience and resources with countries which have advanced infrastructure for independent game development, such as Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and others”, said Šarūnas Ledas, Chairman of the Board of the Lithuanian Game Developers Association.  

The signing ceremony and meeting of industry representatives was supported by Czech Invest, a government agency. One of the closest goals of the group is to bring more debate with government representatives on the industry, its strengths, needs, and possible public support.