Chairman of the Jury
Jakub Bukała, PhD
CEO, project leader, producer, programmer and game designer at Serious Sim. PhD in computational mechanics, but left academia to make video games and teach academic students in that field. Wrote his first game in a Polish programming language, Zdzich, in 2004. Has been developing games in Unity since 2015. Lead developer of Radio Commander and Heading Out, as well as a dozen smaller projects. Lecturer in game development at the Warsaw Film School.
Qualification Jury
Michał Mochocki, PhD
Associate Professor at the University of Gdansk, game writer at False Prophet, educator for games edu-programmes since 2013. His unhealthy passion for historical settings and cultural heritage makes him say: "In games, history has a future".
Rafał Szrajber, PhD
Lodz native, architect, designer, and professor at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź and Lodz University of Technology. His research focuses on architecture in video games, game design as a creative process, and the use of local heritage in new media as a way to build local value and identity. In the virtual realm, he explores the relationship between space and the human being, documenting his virtual expeditions in the project PHOTOmodeBOOK. An ambassador for game industry education and inter-university collaboration, evangelist and co-organizer of the ZTGK Challenge, and creator of the artistic track Game Graphics Contest. Explorer of the underground world of Steam Rift. Co-creator of the concept for the EC1 Comics and Interactive Narrative Center in Łódź. Founder of GAMETOBER – an October showcase of video games and game-related artistic creations in art galleries.
Marta Fijak
Making games since 2013. With a master’s in experimental biology and an engineering degree in computer science, she decided to dedicate her life to games instead. Tried every form of game development, from basement indie with 20 players to a BAFTA-nominated game with ~2 million players, to F2P with ~10 million players. Has been a gameplay programmer, system and technical designer, and eventually a lead designer and a creative director. Currently, she's a Lead Game Designer at Techland and teaches game design at the Warsaw Film School. She's the co-author of "How and Why We Make Games: The Creative Confusion" .
Szymon Makuch, PhD
Academic teacher, game researcher; member of the Association GameUP, Chief Financial Officer in Astrolabe Stories. Interested in economic and legal aspects of video games. Big fan of old point and click games like "Syberia" and "The Longest Journey"
Jakub Wójcik
Founder of better. gaming agency – a company that supports developers, publishers, and distributors with PR, marketing, consulting, and business development. Previously, responsible for business development and project selection at Star Drifters – a video game developer, publisher, and incubator for independent creators. In 2017, he was honored with the Special Recognition Award of the Year for his contributions to the growth of the gaming industry. He also created 1ndie World, the largest Polish portal focused on indie games. He’s been involved in the video game industry for many years. Back in 2013, He launched Games Rage, the first Polish “pay what you want” indie game bundle. He’s one of the founders and the Executive Chairman of the Indie Games Poland Foundation, which was established to support Polish game developers. The Foundation helps creators gain industry knowledge, build their brands, and promote and sell their games.
Maciej Miąsik
One of the pioneers of the Polish video game industry. Game designer, programmer, producer, sound designer. Co-creator of Electro Body (aka Electro Man), the first Polish commercial game for PCs. He worked on the first Polish game - Fire Fight - for the entertainment giant Electronic Arts. At the turn of the century, he created a popular series of adventure games featuring live actors, which gained popularity across multiple continents. He was Head of Production for the first game in The Witcher series. Currently, he creates smaller-scale projects. Actively involved in industry education, he has been teaching at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology and Warsaw Film School since 2012, co-creating the Video Game Development course. Member of the program committees of the most important national industry conferences - GIC and Digital Dragons. A longtime independent expert for the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels. Active in the Indie Games Poland Foundation.
Adrianna Bielak
Jędrzej Juszczak
Started his career just like one of you - a student obsessed with games. Annoying to professors, to stop bothering them, he got offer for his first job in game development while still in college. His experience in QA at Vile Monarch didn’t quite satisfy his technical and creative passion for giving players new experiences. Moving to CD Projekt RED allowed him to combine those ambitions, blending complex technical implementations with the creation of emotions, taking on the role of Technical Designer. Now, he continues in that role at Elsewhere Entertainment (Activision), where he’s an expert in the field. With this expert eye on games, he was sharing his knowledge, sparking the fire for games in new generations of game creators as a high school teacher and university professor. Now is working with his own students on biggest titles world has seen. You might know him from Cyberpunk, The Witcher 3, both Gwent games, or other smaller titles.
Final Jury
Przemysław Marszał
President of the 11 bit studios Management Board and Head of Art.
A graduate of the University of Ecology and Management, Faculty of Architecture. From 2005 to 2009, he served as a board member of Metropolis Software. He began his career in the video game industry as a graphic artist. As Head of Art, he is responsible for the final visual appearance of all 11 bit studios S.A. games — from the first sketch to the release day. He designed the entire “charcoal drawing” aesthetic, which became one of the most distinctive features of This War of Mine. He was also one of the key creators of Frostpunk. As a member of the company’s Management Board, he is responsible for strategy and planning, and oversees the T&C (Team & Culture) division. His hobby is collecting game consoles, with a special focus on classic systems.
Ričardas Jaščemskas
Partnerships Coordinator at European Games Developer Federation. Ricardas has been working in the games industry for more than 20 years. As a journalist, he was heading several games magazines and later joined the development industry as a communications manager for several gamedev studios in Lithuania. Currently, Ricardas is responsible for coordinating partnerships at the European Games Developer Federation and community-building activities at the Lithuanian Game Developers Association.
Maroš Brojo
Executive Director of the Slovak Game Developers Association. He also served as a curator of the multimedia collection at the Slovak Design Museum. In the museum sphere, he focused on research, archiving, and the preservation of digital games – he curated the exhibitions "8Bit" and "Pirates and Pioneers," dedicated to the history of Slovak game development in the 1980s. He has long collaborated with CEE Animation and contributes to initiatives such as AnimationHub and CEE Experience. In the past, he held the position of Program Director of the Fest Anča International Animation Festival.