Gamescom Dev Event For 2026 Begins to Take Shape

Somehow, August is already just around the corner. And while that means a lot of things, like the dog days of summer winding down, and American football coming back soon on the horizon, in Germany, it means something else. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. It's just about time for the world's largest gaming convention to convene in Cologne. Gamescom 2026 is nigh.

But for anyone unaware, just before all the crazy reveals at Opening Night Live, hosted by everyone's favorite emcee, Geoff Keighley, the festivities get started a little bit earlier. ONL and Gamescom itself are the events attended by most media and the general public, but for a few days leading up to this, Gamescom Dev takes place.

This is specifically an event for developers and those on the business/creation side of the gaming industry. And while I know that limits the audience of this article a bit, I also know there are others of you out there that dabble in game development, or have already created full-fledged games yourself. Here's what you need to know about Gamescom Dev, an event that seems very beneficial to attend in many ways for those interested.

Taking place in Cologne, Germany, just like Gamescom proper, Gamescom Dev runs prior to the main event from August 23rd to 25th this year. Of all the developer-focused conferences like this in the world, Gamescom Dev is the largest in Europe, which hosted over 5,400 people in 2025, including 390 different speakers at the event.

As you can tell, an event of this size and with this many speakers all focused around the finer details of the gaming industry and game development in general could be a huge learning experience and ultimately an asset for those that choose to attend.

If you're on the gaming side of the world of LinkedIn, you probably know Amir Satvat, Business Development Director at Tencent. He is the keynote speaker at Gamescom Dev this year, which is a pretty big deal if you know just how popular and prevalent Amir has become recently on game dev social media.

Gamescom Dev will also feature multiple speaker/conversation "tracks" for anyone to attend. Here are the tracks this year:

• Level Design Track
• Animation Track
• AI in Gameplay and AI in Production Track

All in all, these three conversation/seminar tracks will feature speakers from some truly huge companies and teams, such as:

• Blake Rebouche (Guerrilla Games)
• Miles Tost (CD PROJEKT RED)
• Seth Marinello (Double Fine)
• Konstantinos Dimopoulos (Zero Parades: For Dead Spies)
• Magnus Brauckhoff (KING Art Games)
• Alexandre Zenga (Rogue Factor)
• Donald Barrett (Insomniac Games)
• Pearl Abyss (Crimson Desert)
• Infold Games (Infinity Nikki)
• Mike Jungbluth (Animation Director at Compulsion Games)
• Fumi Games (MOUSE: P.I. For Hire)
• Julius Gierbig (CD PROJEKT RED)
• Gethin Aldous
• Kevin Boyer (Rogue Factor)
• Ramin Safarpour (Ubisoft Mainz)
• Tommy Thompson
• Shraddha Gupta
• Duygu Cakmak
• Dr. Gabriel Robert
• Matthias Siemonsmeier
• Tencent Games
• Electronic Arts
• Wargaming
• JetBrains
• Room 8 Group
• Katapult Ridge

Phew. That's not even an exhaustive list yet, as Gamescom Dev still has a ton more to announce before the actual show in August.

Clearly, if you're into video game creation and development, want to learn more about the industry, and also have amazing opportunities to network, Gamescom Dev is the place to be before the rest of the show kicks off after Opening Night Live.