For the third time in a row the best of the #belgiangamesindustry gathers at UNWRAP, exploring technologies, trends and applications that will shape the future of games and entertainment. Mark your calendars: October 12-13th, Kortrijk. Let us walk you through the program and get you some member discount codes as well!
UNWRAP is the first event in Belgium to bring together all entertainment industries (video games, music, film and media) in order to build bridges between them. From internationally renowned keynote speakers and local heroes over panels and pitches to networking opportunities and a Career fair for the entire entertainment industry,this is an event you don’t want to miss.
All you need to know about UNWRAP
Various tracks on 3 nearby locations in Kortrijk:
Conference
Speakers, panels
Thursday & Friday, all day
Ticket: One-day Experience (Thu or Fri) or Two-Day Experience
Super Early Bird discount ends June 21st
Career Fair
Register for a booth to recruit interns or your next employee
Thursday & Friday, 9AM – 1PM
Order your booth here (One or Two-Day). Your booth includes access to the Conference
Discount for FLEGA members. Contact us to grab your discount.
Ow boy. What a party that was 🤩 A great celebration of games, game developers and everyone who has been part of our journey (and yours!).
We kicked off the day with a general assembly and appointed our new Board of Directors. This is the FLEGA team that will have your back the coming year 💥BAM💥
(upper left to lower left) Mike Coeck, Robin Gielis, Dirk Van Welden, Juda-Ben Gordier, Timothy Vanherberghen, Dries Deryckere, Jeroen Janssen, Kevin Haelterman, David Verbruggen, Wim Wouters, Natascha Rommens, Bernard François, Rik Leenknegt, Jill Vanparys.Picture: Johannes Vande Voorde
The golden hour seemed to last all night with drinks on the terrace and familiar faces everywhere (all pictures by Johannes Vande Voorde).
And while the sun set, the dance floor filled up with dancing (yes dancing!) gamedevs.
Thank you for celebrating our 10th anniversary with us. For smiling all night long, cooking up new ideas and giving FLEGA the confidence to boost the Flemish games sector for at least another 10 years to come.
(We heard you. We’re already planning for next year’s party. Don’t you worry ;-))
It’s time to shine a spotlight on our new partner Amplo. So what is it they do?
Amplo operates as an HR partner for individuals working in the creative sector, and that obviously includes the games industry! Artists, writers, developers… they can all enjoy the freedom of a freelancer while still being protected as an employee.
The primary focus of Amplo’s business is payrolling, which includes offering both short-term and long-term employment contracts to match the needs of each assignment. Clients, both freelancers and hiring organizations, have access to a dedicated point of contact who is highly knowledgeable and easily accessible. It makes dealing with the paperwork a lot easier for everyone involved.
In addition, Amplo offers HelloAmplo, an online dashboard for digital work. The company’s recruiters are responsible for following up on job vacancies. Their personalized services include tailored advice to meet each client’s specific needs.
How do they help recruiting game studios?
They follow up on client vacancies through AmploJobs, look for suitable profiles within their own database of 12,000 active freelancers in the creative sector and post the jobs on LinkedIn.
Their contracts are also Tax Shelter eligible, which, may we remind you: is now also available for the game sector since the beginning of this year. We’re proud to have members such as Cyborn and Possibly Pixels who have already taken advantage of these services.
How do they help job-hunting game developers?
Game developers can work as self-employed individuals and use the Amplo network to find jobs, while they take care of the paperwork. In addition to their own network, Amplo works with Crewbooking, an online matchmaking platform for the audiovisual- and event sector, creating a profile there will allow jobhunters to find international employers.
Or, Amplo can act as an in-between employer, so developers can have all the benefits of being self-employed, without all the administrative worries: Amplo covers social security, pension, tax, sick & vacation pay while the gamedevs receive their net salary.
Want to talk to them in person?
Amplo has sponsored quite a few local game events like the Belgian Game Awards, Unwrap, Global Game Jam, Game Max and others, so you can usually bump into them there or at one of their many talks at schools like DAE Howest or Luca School of Arts. But a sure-fire moment to hit them up for a chat is on June 8, at our 10-years Flega Party!
How is your #BelgianGamesIndustry company doing? This is a question we unleash each year to get a good grip on the dazzling evolution of our beloved local videogames ecosystem. To keep track of where we’re headed as a sector, we’d like you to give us an update before June 30th.
If you’ve done this before, you certainly know what questions to expect. How many people do you work with? What type of business do you run? Pretty basic stuff. To get a better idea of how our local business is evolving, we’d also like to know some financials. You’ll be asked to provide an email address and company name. Rest assured: personal and company specific information is treated strictly confidential and anonymous.
This survey is only intendedfor Flemish, Brussels or Walloon companies and organizations currently active in our local development ecosystem. This includes game development studios, local publishers and platforms, portals, service providers, educational institutions that offer dedicated game degree programs and research departments that study games.
We admit, it’s a sturdy survey and filling it out will require some of your precious time. However, your input is the only way of knowing where we’re heading as a sector and the results of this survey will inform policy makers and stakeholders in their decisions about our ecosystem.
We’re at gamescom this year, so based on this survey you can expect an updated and accurate state of the #BelgianGamesIndustry by the end of August. The more data we’re able to gather, the better our facts and figures will be, so we appreciate your valuable time. Thank you very much!
Welcome to the very first blog version of the Game for Thought series (GFT). For those of you who aren’t familiar with it yet: Game For Thought (GFT) is a livestream series launched by Howest – Digital Arts and Entertainment (DAE) in collaboration with local medialab Quindo and sponsored by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), it tackles ethically-relevant topics in the games industry and explores the impact & implications of industry developments.
Reason enough for us, here at FLEGA, to communicate these topics and challenges as widely as possible. In this blog recap of the livestream, we’ll break down the most important talking points of the panel, but for those who prefer to watch the entire video, you can find the video below.
When we use the term “inclusive” in recruitment, what does it really mean and involve? How can we promote diversity in recruitment, and what are the most effective approaches and challenges? We explore various topics related to inclusive recruitment, such as how to balance competence and identity in the hiring process, the effects of inclusive practices on content creation, recruitment in the education sector, and other related issues.
For the panel, Jennifer Lufau, Kyra Chan, Eyram Tawia, and Ola Gardner were invited to share their insights. It also marks the first time Game For Thought has had panellists joining from 3 different continents!
Check out the full video here:
Why should you want to have a diverse and inclusive team?
Jennifer Lufau: We have to consider that games are played by all kinds of people all over the world, people from all genders, people of colour, people with a disability, people from LGBTQIA+, and it’s important that they get representation in the games being made and as such also through the people making them.
Kyra Chan: It’s important to distinguish the difference between diversity and inclusion. Because they are often used as synonyms, but they’re really not the same thing. You want diverse employees, you want diversity in thought, and you want diverse backgrounds and experiences. There’s a Forbes study saying that diverse teams are better performing, they make better decisions, and they’re more profitable. So having diversity just makes good business sense.
Whereas inclusion is how you get there. If your recruitment process is inclusive, it benefits everyone. It’s important to have people believe in it and recognise the benefits it brings, so you need to have people who are committed to it from the very top of the organisation. It’s important to identify what’s not inclusive, where the unconscious bias is, and what needs to change.
Ola Gardner: In the United States, Women and minorities together are 20-25% of the total gaming and entertainment industry. That tells me that we may not be believing in it. The numbers stay the same, so that tells me we’re not doing a good job.
How can we get more inclusivity in games?
Eyram Tawia: At Leti Arts, we try to tell stories that include more people of colour and specifically the female gender into our games. One of our games features a superhero character with a disability and she was thought of by our female developer who has cerebral palsy herself. This was very much a conscious decision to have more inclusivity and to give people suffering from the condition someone to connect with. One of the other studios we work with is developing a game about people with albinism.
Another effort we are making comes from the esports scene, where we have tournaments for women playing FIFA or Call of Duty for example. And we are conscious about who we hire, letting them know that the games industry is welcoming and accepts everyone.
The same goes for our games, if you see a character line-up, and it’s “man – man – man”, maybe you should shuffle it around and instruct your artists to draw more women.
What if you can’t find the people you need within the minority groups?
Eyram Tawia: Intentionally putting characters with diverse backgrounds into your games is a first step; hiring them is another, but it can be challenging. In Ghana, we had put out an advertisement to try and hire more women to make games, but 90% of the people applying for the job were male.
Many women may fear that it is already a male-dominated environment and they do not even dare to apply for the job. We need to make it clear that we don’t recruit skill alone, we recruit personalities and people who have a creative mindset.
We try to motivate the local game development studios to hire women. As an example, we hired four female interns who aspire to become narrative writers. They come up with ideas the existing team could have never thought of. One of them now offered to do public speaking and has built up enough confidence in her own skills to help empower other women.
It’s also important to include this into the recruitment procedure. Even if you do not end up hiring a person, you should let them leave with a sense of fulfilment, so they remain bold enough to try again.
Ola Gardner: I’m a game design lecturer but I’m the only woman in the department. I’m surrounded by men and there is a constant pressure for me to be the best example of being a woman in this industry. I can’t mess up and feel I have to be on point every day. It’s exhausting and rewarding at the same time.
I don’t like talking to crowds, but I understand the importance of standing up and saying something. What you say has power and impact. Most of us gamers are pretty introverted, but it’s a responsibility for us women to try and talk more and engage more.
Kyra Chan: There is a problem with the applicant funnel, and the lack of representation. I do outreach to schools because to some people, like those from a low-income family, don’t see games as a viable career path. There are female students, students that are POC, it’s naïve to say we don’t have these people.
You can’t just say “not enough women are applying” without asking yourself what we are doing, or rather not doing, that could help remedy the issue. Do you offer better than statutory family leave? And if you do, is that on your website? Do you have a picture on your website where everyone looks the same and is celebrating with beers? Then that might put off Muslim applicants. Do you already have under-represented groups in your game? Because that would help come across as a safe place to work.
If you’re not the CEO. How do you handle getting more inclusive recruiting done in your company from the bottom up?
Jennifer Lufau: First of all, show them the facts. If you can show them a picture of the team, and there is no diversity within the group of people on the picture, it can already be a barrier of entry for people considering to apply for a job there.
Secondly, tell them how you feel. This can even be done by people who don’t belong to a minority themselves. Explain how a more diverse team could benefit the company and how it’s not good for the company image if there is no existing diversity.
The last suggestion is to come up with solutions yourself. Show how other studios are handling it and show your own company how they can do better, and talk about it to your colleagues. If your group of people who feel the same grows, it may be easier to bring it up to the top.
Is inclusive recruiting a double-edged sword?
Jennifer Lufau: In France, there was a study that says men are 10 times more likely to apply for a job, even if they feel like they don’t check all the boxes. When women feel like even one or two boxes are unchecked, they don’t apply for the job.
If studios don’t manage to get more women to apply, they are simply not doing enough to advertise the inclusive recruiting process. If your job offer is inclusive, it’s not going to repulse men from applying for the role, but it will increase the odds for women to do so.
But if you’re a recruiter, and you’re presented with two candidates who are both great, but one of them is a white cis male, then that person will probably have a chance of getting hired anywhere. And for the other who is from a minority, this may be their only shot. It’s not about favouring the second person, it’s about seeing their chances of being hired at another company.
How do you deal with the exhaustion of always fighting for the rights of minorities within your organisation?
Ola Gardner: I play a Game. *Laughs*
Kyra Chan: It can be frustrating. Especially because of how there may be some efforts to be inclusive, but those positions tend to be at the bottom of the corporate ladder. When you move up, people… start to look more the same.
It’s important to promote the efforts and results, rather than the length of service or how many games they worked on or whether they come from a AAA background or not.
Jennifer Lufau: Don’t let anyone bring you down, and believe in yourself. Networking is also very important and opens doors. Try and participate in gaming gatherings, connect with influential people, who might be in the same boat as you. You’re never truly alone.
About Game For Thought
Game For Thought (GFT) is a livestream series launched by Howest – Digital Arts and Entertainment (DAE) in collaboration with local medialab Quindo and sponsored by Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF), it tackles ethically-relevant topics in the games industry and explores the impact & implications of industry developments. Each broadcast, Allie Weis, ethics coordinator at Howest DAE, invites a selection of industry experts to discuss the topic at hand.
Be sure to join us for the next Game for Thought panel on the 17th of May, at 8PM CEST! And be sure to follow the LinkedIn account for any updates.
The co-production model that is quite common in films and series has not really been adopted within the game industry. Last year, the Flemish VAF/Gamefund and the Dutch Creative Industries Fund joined forces to change this by bringing game developers from Flanders and the Netherlands closer together. This year, we literally bring developers interested in co-development together at INDIGO.
INDIGO
On 21 June, a group of Flemish developers will travel to Utrecht for the Dutch game business event INDIGO. During the day, the Flemish devs can network extensively with Dutch developers. In the evening of the 21st, the delegation will travel to Utrecht city centre for a networking dinner with Dutch developers that are interested in co-development with Flemish developers.
INDIGO is a game business event organised by Dutch Game Garden. The event consists of three parts: the Discover showcase is a curated showcase of (Dutch) games. There is the Talks programme to learn everything you want to know about game design, -business, -tech, -art, -marketing, and serious games. Via the MeetToMatch platform, you can plan meetings with other INDIGO participants.
At reduced cost
The costs for transport, accommodation and INDIGO tickets are partly funded by VAF and the Stimulation Fund. So you’ll participate at a greatly reduced rate. The networking dinner in the evening of 21 June is at the invitation of VAF and the Dutch Creative Industries Fund, and therefore completely free of charge.
Program
21/06 in the morning: travel to Utrecht
21/06 in the daytime: INDIGO
21/6 in the evening: networking dinner in Utrecht city centre
22/6 in the morning: travel to Belgium
How to join
If you want to join the INDIGO trip on 21 June to meet potential Dutch co-development partners, contact project manager Alessandra van Otterlo for more information and registration. The available places are limited, so if you are interested, don’t wait too long.