Editor’s Note: The dates for the Game Wave Festival have changed since this article was originally written, with the event being moved to November. Please check out this new news item for the current dates of the show.
The Game Wave Festival is an international event taking place for the second year in a row from September 27th to October 2nd in Tallinn, Estonia at Tallink Spa and Conference Hotel. The first three days of six-day-event are dedicated to the game jam.
The Game Wave Festival is a business, education and entertainment event for the gaming industry professionals. It first took place with great success in September 2021 in Jūrmala, Latvia attracting participants from 25 countries.
“Game Wave Festival is an expressive way to celebrate glorious game development heritage, culture and traditions, meet new and old faces, and have fun. It is professional, oriented to have serious business talks, and cozy, to make friends with almost all attendees. I am happy to welcome all of you to the 2nd Game Wave Festival!” — Ints Viksna, Chairman of Board at Latvian Technological center.
The festival is mainly B2B, however, it is designed to avoid the “stiffness” these types of events sometimes have. Game Wave Festival attempts to capture the fun and relaxed ambiance we’ve experienced in other global and regional game events. GWF is large enough to get an overview of the main tendencies in the Nordic and Baltic region, and small enough to make friends with all participants – The friendships you will make in GWF, will follow you all your life.
Main event and B2Match
• 30.09. – 02.10. The Main Event: Conference, workshops, expo, pitching competitions, business meetings and game jam final presentation.
• The conference and interactive events are divided into 5 tracks: General, Art (visual, audial, haptics), Unreal Engine, XR and Board Games.
• The online matchmaking platform is available for all participants all 6 days, and the meetings can also be booked on-site. Registered members of the matchmaking will be able to participate both on-site and online.
• GWF uses the B2Match meeting and event management platform that works both on web browsers and mobile devices. This platform also handles video calls and conference streaming, so all functionality needed by the participants is neatly in one place.
• There will be a private Business area for business ticket holders in Tallink’s Fidel Bar with a nice view of the old town.
The first three days of the six-day-event are dedicated to the game jam
Awesome game jam runs from September 27th to 29th. The game jam’s theme and diversifiers of the jam will be decided by the jam sponsors. However, the game jam does not end on the 3rd day, instead, the final ceremony is on the 6th day of GWF. This is by design so that the teams can improve their games by attending workshops and even pitch them in and get feedback in our “Early stage games mentor pitch.”