GDC, the largest gathering of game developers on the planet, will take place in San Francisco from March 17 to 21. Together with Flanders Investment & Trade, we’ve got a few incentives for you to cross the ocean and make this event worthwhile. With a brand-new meeting hub and a showcase event on offer, you can choose what fits your business purpose/schedule best.
Flanders will have a united presence close to Moscone with a Meeting Hub powered by Representing Games. If you are a Flemish game company looking to reach out to publishers, investors or other business contacts in a relaxed and professional set-up, this is by far the best offer you’ll get. Claim your spot alongside companies such as Xsolla, Humble games and publishers Kwalee, United Label & VPublishing; to name a few.
Meeting spot at the Representing Games Meeting hub: €500,-
Your own meeting space with a table, chairs, Wifi and electricity.
Location: 431 Tehama Street, San Francisco; 2 blocks from Moscone
5 days access: 17th-21st of March
All logistics are taken care of. You just have to show up to do your business.
Essentials to beat that jetlag, such as (good) coffee and drinks, are provided for.
Access to the Meet2Match tool to schedule meetings upfront.
As usual, Flanders Investment & Trade also secured some free showcase spots at Courage XL, the most informal and friendly Indie Showcase, happening just before GDC kicks off. Over 50 indie developers will present their work at the Great Northern in San Francisco on Sunday evening March 16th, the perfect place to break the ice for a week full of networking, mingling, and partying.
Showcase spot at Courage XL: free
Your own showcase table with Wifi and electricity.
Location: 119 Utah Street, San Francisco
March 16th, 7-11.30 PM
Concept: Play a game, get a beer. You’ll get a few drink tokens to hand out to your contacts/players.
Previous years, the event welcomed over 1000 professionals
We’re well aware that the trip across the Atlantic is expensive and that San Francisco isn’t the cheapest place on earth to spend the night, but keep in mind that Flanders Investment & Trade can offer you a refund up to 50% of your travel & accommodation costs. Please make sure to fill outthe necessary paperwork (link in Dutch) in advance to do so.
The presence of the #FlemishGamesIndustry at GDC25 wouldn’t be possible without the effort of FIT. Thank you!
VAF|GAME announced the results of the final funding call for this year for Artistic, Entertainment, Educational and Serious games. Anxious to submit your next game? The first submission deadline for next year is January 14th.
Artistic Games
Prototype Support
Seafarer Films secured €20.000,- to sketch out the title Plantlife.
Promotional Support
Rabotica was able to secure €67.638,- for Curiosmos.
Entertainment Games
Prototype Support
AlterEyes was able to secure €25.000- to sketch out Beyond Repair.
Studio Kabouterwill be able to prototype their game Draai with a support of €10.000.
Volcaban Studio can start prototyping Echoes of Emperors with €12.000 of funding.
Wall Town Wonders by Cyborn receives €60.000,- for promotional support.
Serious and Educational Games
Dexr secured €17.500,- to sketch out the prototype of Dexr Stage.
Die Keure receives €90.203,4- of vertical slice support for Labo.
Realm Architect takes home €94.000,- for developing a vertical slice of Realm Architect.
Congrats to everyone who succeeded their submission and received valuable support. The calendar of all VAF|GAME submission calls in 2025 is online here. Keep an eye on our socials so you don’t miss out on anything.
Game development never stops. And neither does VAF|GAME in supporting game developers and their wonderful projects. These are the dates to keep in mind if you want to submit a project for VAF|GAME funding in 2025.
January 14th, 12 PM
Artistic, Entertainment, Serious & Educational Games
On the evening of October 18, the Belgian games industry gathered to celebrate the very best our country has to offer. The Belgian Game Awards, organized by FLEGA and BelgianGames with support from various partners of the Belgian game ecosystem, are excited to announce the results for this year’s show! In presence of the brand new Flemish Minister of Media, in charge of video games Cieltje Van Achter, over 500 people from the gamesector gathered to celebrate video games made in Belgium.
Without further ado, let’s get to the list of winners:
XR Game of the Year
GAZZLERS by Bolt Blaster Games
Breachers by Triangle Factory
BAM by I-Illusions
What the jury had to say: “GAZZLERS is a game with universal appeal that makes losing feel like fun. The game is very intuitive and makes good use of the VR medium. It makes you want to come back for more. The Art direction is remarkable, the game is well polished and the voice acting is sublime.”
Best Applied Game
Please, Touch The Artwork 2 by Thomas Waterzooi
Kadet by Die Keure
The Man Came Around by Pipette Inc
What the jury had to say: “Please, Touch The Artwork 2 is easily accessible and can be used anywhere: from the kitchen to the museum or in schools. It brings the big C of Culture to anyone using the medium of a game”
Best Narrative
Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios
The Man Came Around by Pipette Inc
Gangs of Sherwood by Appeal Studios
What the jury had to say: “Baldur’s Gate 3 is in a league of its own. The game stayed true to the studio’s DNA while thriving on a huge and impressive IP. The communities that arose around the game’s characters, such as Astarion, have never been seen before. There is an enormous amount of effort and content put in the narrative lines. The storylines and characters became real for many players; which makes this game unique.”
Best Audio
Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios
Swarm Survivor by Megaloh! Games
Verses of Enchantment by Nachtvlam
What the jury had to say: “A lot of the emotions and immersion in Baldur’s Gate 3 come to the player through the music. The music is even used in other media to set the atmosphere of a scene (e.g. De Mol). The voice acting is sublime and the game single-handedly launched the career of its voice actors. Goosebumps all over every time we start-up it up and the first score starts.”
Best Visual Art
The Man Came Around by Pipette Inc
Waking Tides by AirshipFX
Please, Touch The Artwork 2 by Thomas Waterzooi
What the jury had to say: “Developed by a single person, The Man Came Around managed to set a very strong identity. If you see a screenshot of this game, you immediately recognize the art style. A simple style that works and doesn’t follow the 2D trends.”
Best Game Design
Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios
GAZZLERS by Bolt Blaster Games
Slapshot Rebound by Oddshot Games
What the jury had to say: “Even if you hate turned-base-combat, you’ll still love Baldur’s Gate 3 as it made the Dungeons & Dragons rules less boring. Every detail is just right; the difficulty levels are well balanced and there is an undeniable Larian touch in the way the toy box elements have been perfected.”
Best Multiplayer
Breachers by Triangle Factory
Slapshot Rebound by Oddshot Games
Kraken Island by VEX Solutions
What the jury had to say: “If Counterstrike and Rainbow 6 would have a love-child in VR, Breacherswould be it! With a huge player community – and some practice to get the hang of it – once you’re in, you are hooked.”
Student Game of the Year
Nebelmer by Haute École Albert Jacquard students
Don’t Forget by Howest DAE students
A Postman’s Journey by LUCA School of Arts students
What the jury had to say: “Nebelmer offers an incredible experience and is so well polished for a student game. Please finish it and put it on the market!”
Most Anticipated Release
Laser Dance by Studio Vanbo
Koira by Studio Tolima
Glommy Eyes – The Game by Fishing Cactus
What the jury had to say: “Laser Dance is the perfect Mixed Reality game to showcase to people who don’t grasp the concept yet. Any room in your house can be turned into a unique level and the possibilities are endless. Brilliant concept with a flawless execution, we can’t wait to play more of it!”
Best Tech Provider
Demute
Briganti
Cybernetic Walrus
What the jury had to say: “Demute has an impressive track record working on scopes ranging from big AAA titles to humble indie games. They have worked on over 20 Belgian games and remain an important element for our Belgian games ecosystem. But they have big news to share: in January 2025, they will open a new branch in Montreal to better serve their North American clients whil still offering advice, audio services, tools and shared knowledge to Belgian studios.”
Changemaker of the Year
Demute
Briganti
Cybernetic Walrus
What the jury had to say: “Demute has an impressive track record working on scopes ranging from big AAA titles to humble indie games. They have worked on over 20 Belgian games and remain an important element for our Belgian games ecosystem. But they have big news to share: in January 2025, they will open a new branch in Montreal to better serve their North American clients whil still offering advice, audio services, tools and shared knowledge to Belgian studios.”
Most Promising Start-up
Maracas Studio
Clever Trickster
Tovenaar
What the jury had to say: “Maracas is a young studio with a very holistic view. They know where they come from, who they are, and where they are going. The studio works on a diverse portfolio of games and carefully adjusts which projects to invest in, while also giving back to the local community through their recurring Game Dev Afterwork meet-ups.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 wins Game of the Year + Audience Award!
What the jury had to say: “Maracas is a young studio with a very holistic view. They know where they come from, who they are, and where they are going. The studio works on a diverse portfolio of games and carefully adjusts which projects to invest in, while also giving back to the local community through their recurring Game Dev Afterwork meet-ups.”
So there you have it! The winners of the Belgian Game Awards 2024 are known, and we’ll celebrate their legacy forever!
Did you miss the show LIVE? Don’t worry, you can watch the video on youtube.
The upward trend we’ve been seeing in the market data of our beloved #belgiangamesindustry is steady. The Belgian game sector in 2023 shows solid growth in terms of number of companies. Turnover and employment, however, are down slightly, a sign that the sector is being curtailed in its growth. Grab the main takeaways of the survey below or download the full report right here.
With an increase of 20%, the Flemish game sector grouped 133 companies in 2023 and has never been bigger. These companies accounted for a turnover of €58,7 million and employed 565 people. In “full-time equivalent” (FTE) terms, employment was 27% lower than in 2022. Revenue was down 16% from 2022, when it was EUR 70 million.
Declining trend in turnover figures
The explanation for the declining sales figures can be found in an adjusted methodology. Not surprisingly, Larian Studios has a major impact on the sales figures for Flanders. For the 2023 report, only the revenue for the Larian studio in Ghent was included (as disclosed in the 2023 financial statements), where in previous reports our total revenue also included the worldwide estimated revenue of the parent company behind Larian. For one thing, Larian itself shared neither clear sales figures of Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023 nor sales figures of the parent company, and for another, it is methodologically more correct to include only the Ghent studio’s sales figures and not those of the Dublin parent company, since the latter is not Belgian.
This new methodology brings to light an important conclusion: once a Flemish company grows and begins to realise significant turnover, it is more fiscally attractive to move away (in part) from Belgium. Despite the large talent pool in Flanders and the close-knit ecosystem, companies are stunted in their growth by our complex tax system. While the recently granted tax shelter offers oxygen to young and midsized game companies to attract investments, this system brings little solace to companies that already show substantial growth. It demonstrates the challenge facing the future federal government: creating a fiscally advantageous climate for game companies that contribute a lot to employment and the economy of our region. Only in this way will Flanders soon be able to reap all the benefits of its intensive game policy.
Interesting take-aways on Belgian scale
For Flanders: impressive increase of 20% to 113 companies compared to 2022, when 90 companies were active. This represents 69% of all Belgian game companies in 2023.
With 27 companies, Wallonia is stagnating and Brussels is growing exponentially with 23 companies (coming from 15 companies in 2022).
For the fourth time in a row East Flanders remains province with most game companies. Each Flemish province sees its number of game companies rising from 2022.
In Wallonia Hainaut remains in the lead with 10 game companies.
The Belgian Game Awards 2024 are back with a dazzling show on October 18th in Brussels Expo. And we’re happy to give you a sneak peek on what to expect. The nominees in the 7 categories of Released Games are known as are those in the Student Game category. This year, we’re going Olympic with games winning a Gold, Silver or Bronze award.
These are not the only awards of course! The jury is still hard at work playing the unreleased games which all have a shot at being nominated for the Most AnticipatedGame award, the Audience Award voting will open soon so players at home can vote for their favourite title and one game will take home the much coveted Belgian Game of the Year trophy! And let’s not forget about studio jury selecting as we speak who will bring home one of the Studio Awards: Most Promising Start-Up Studio, Changemaker of the Year and Best Tech Provider.
Find out below which titles have made the cut in the Released Game categories. Congratulations to all people involved!
Grab your ticket for the Belgian Game Awards Show to witness first-hand who wins Gold, Silver or Bronze during a live show (with afterparty of course;-)
Grab your ticket for the Belgian Game Awards Show to witness first-hand who wins Gold, Silver or Bronze during a live show. Show starts at 9PM and ends with drinks and loads of #belgiangamedev peeps cheering for this amazing industry we work for.
The Belgian Game Awards 2024 are organised by FLEGA for BelgianGames and could never have been possible without the valuable support from our dearest partners at Departement Media, Kabinet Media, VAF Game, VRT, Pirate PR, Hub Brussels, Games Brussels, Walga, Wallimage, RTBF, Creative Europe, VGFB, Gameforce/ComicCon/Heroes.
Natascha Rommens 
08/01/2025
