Play, Promote, Publish

Ruth Lemmen, based in Berlin, Germany, works as a systemic coach, curator, consultant for teams, companies and individuals, as a project manager and as an expert for the European Commission for various European funding programs (Horizon 2020, Creative Europe). She is co-founder and ambassador of Womenize! (https://www.womenize.net/) - a platform that promotes diversity in the fields of tech, games and within the digital economy. At present she curates a number of different events, training and workshop programs, that are all catering the video games industry and supporting young talents and indie game developing studios. Ruth Lemmen is an enthusiastic networker, she focuses on the digital economy, tech, games, film, VR/AR and artificial intelligence industries and deals with the topics of innovation management, serious games & gamification, start-ups, media literacy, as well as national and European funding. From 2006-2013, Ruth Lemmen worked for the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware e. V. (BIU), the German Games Industry Association now called „game". There she was responsible for the project management division and, among other things, for the strategic development and overall management of gamescom, the world's largest Trade Fair Show for interactive entertainment. Originally, when having successfully studied in Berlin, Paris and Mexico-City, she started her career in the film business while working as an event and training manager in a post-production house for visual effects for film and TV located on the Babelsberg film studio site.

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André Bernhardt has been a part of the German games industry for over 20 years, working on online, offline, mobile, and console titles. At the beginning of his career, he was involved in the traditional boxed console and PC games business with the release of the PlayStation at Sony Computer Entertainment. Later, he worked in various roles focusing on “next-gen” console publishing and business development.

In 2009, he joined the F2P revolution, working for Travian Games in Munich. Driven by his passion for innovative indie games, he left Travian in 2012 to become a freelance agent under the name Indie Advisor. In 2019, he transformed Indie Advisor into a limited company, Indie Advisor & Company, which he sold in 2024.

Currently, he offers external business development and funding support while also curating indie expos at events like devcom in Cologne. Additionally, he is a guest lecturer at various universities, including FH Salzburg.

Michael Liebe is CEO and founder of Booster Space, Director of Development for TALES of Us, and Outreach Games Europe lead for Kickstarter. In the times before Booster Space he co-initiated the indie games and art festival, A MAZE., the Digital Games Research Centre of the University of Potsdam (DIGAREC) as well as the Computer Games Collection of European Media Studies at the University of Potsdam, the European Masters program, Ludic Interfaces and the games:net berlinbrandenburg. Until 2012 he was Advisor – New Media at the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and responsible for marketing and networking for the “New Media” industry in the German capital region. He holds an M.A. in European Media Studies, is advisor and jury member and works as university lecturer.

Riad Djemili is the co-founder of Berlin indie game company Maschinen-Mensch, which was founded in 2014. Their debut titles Curious Expedition 1 and 2, games about fictitious 19th century expeditions, were released in 2015 and 2021 on Steam and consoles and have sold over 500,000 units in total. The team now consists of 15 people working on a new exciting project. Since 2019 Riad is also the CEO of Codecks.io, which works on a playful project management tool dedicated to game developers. Riad is also the co-founder of the game development collective and co-working space Saftladen, which hosts 48 Berlin indie game developers. Riad started working in the game industry in 2005 and worked for seven years at Berlin game company YAGER, where he worked on titles like Spec Ops: The Line and Dead Island 2.

Professional experience includes: - Freelance Video Game Marketing Consultant - TORPOR GAMES - Marketing Director - HAPPY BROCCOLI GAMES - Marketing, Scripting and Level Design, Writing Support - MEDIANET - Head of BerlinBalticNordic - ALTAGRAM - Business Development Manager

Philomena Schwab is a game developer and marketing professional from Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her master thesis about “Community Building for Indie Developers” and went on to co-found the indie game studio Stray Fawn which recently expanded into publishing. Philomena was named a Forbes 30 under 30 and currently serves in the selection committee of the WINGS game fund. As a co-founder and board member of the Swiss Game Hub, a co-working space and incubator for game devs, she supports the growth of the Swiss games industry.

Game industry veteran of 16 years, indie for most of these.

Cassia Curran (she/they) is the founder of Curran Games Agency, a business consulting agency for indie game developers in the XR space. She specializes in sourcing and negotiating partnerships and investment, as well as providing strategic advice and market analysis. Cassia is also an active angel investor and board member of indie publisher Raw Fury. Previously, Cassia served in lead investment and business development roles at games companies such as WINGS, Jagex and NetEase.

Joni is the Technical Director and Co-owner of Happy Broccoli Games. With a decade of experience in indie games development, he has expertise with the publishing, production, & porting of self-published games to all major platforms.

Tim is a trained media designer and marketing all-rounder with 15+ years of total experience, 7+ of which in video games. He leads the marketing team as the Head of Marketing at the German publisher Headup. As a PC gaming enthusiast his professional focus is Steam and the associated marketing opportunities, indie marketing in general, and hardware partnerships. In addition, he gives workshops and talks on topics such as Steam, indie marketing and publishing.

Kai Bodensiek ist Partner am Berliner Standort von Brehm &. v.Moers. Er berät nationale wie auch internationale Unternehmen in allen Fragen des IT-Rechts, Internet- und Medienrechts. Ein wesentlicher Schwerpunkt seiner Tätigkeit liegt in der Beratung von Unternehmen in der Games-Industrie sowie der Mobile-Content-Industrie. Kai Bodensiek ist regelmäßiger Sprecher auf verschiedenen Konferenzen und Veranstaltungen in der Games- und IT-Industrie. Darüber hinaus ist er als Gastdozent an der Games-Academy und der Media Design Hochschule im Bereich Game Production und Game Design tätig. 1997 - 2003 Studium Rechtswissenschaften Humboldt Universität zu Berlin 2003 - 2005 Referendariat Kammergericht Berlin 2005 - heute Rechtsanwalts bei Brehm & v. Moers, seit 2010 als Partner 2015 - 2018 Justiziar des GAME Bundesverbandes der deutschen Gamesbranche e.V. 2016 - heute Mitglied der Video Game Bar Association

Dominik Plaßmann is Art Director and co-founder of Sluggerfly. In various roles, he has played a key part in the development of titles such as Ben and Ed – Blood Party, Hell Pie and Super Meat Boy 3D. In addition to game design and art direction, he is also responsible for marketing tasks, ranging from the creation of assets like trailers and key visuals to managing social media channels. After studying game design at Mediadesign Hochschule in Düsseldorf, he worked for several years as a 2D and 3D artist at Funatics, contributing to projects including Cultures Online and Panzer General Online. Alongside his work at Sluggerfly, he occasionally gives talks, acts as a mentor, and serves on professional juries.

After five years working in the btf games cosmos—now known as Blue Backpack—Robert May started his way into the German games industry in 2011 as Marketing and Market Research Manager at the BIU – Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware e.V., the predecessor of the German Games Association. After several stints in other industries (PR, smart cars, and communication), Robert May joined Super Crowd to support the Indie Arena Booth and the MAG Convention in Erfurt. Since 2020, he has been responsible for all game-related production at btf and Blue Backpack.

I am Chris, an Executive Producer with over 16 years in multi-platform game development and publishing. My career includes roles as Executive Producer at MY.GAMES, Managing Director at DevSisters, Executive Producer at DECA Games, Product Director at NEXON, and Director of Live Operations at KABAM, focusing on product strategy, market expansion, and partnerships. I was fortunate to have worked with IPs like Star Wars, Marvel, D&D, and The Hobbit across multiple roles. I embrace AI as a gaming enabler. Based in Berlin, my interests include AI, games, gym, and running.

Freyja Melhorn is a seasoned communications and marketing specialist in the games industry with more than 18 years of experience and a lifelong passion for gaming. As Director Marketing Communications at the award-winning marketing service provider BXDXO GmbH in Munich, Freyja leads PR, influencer relations, event activations, and go to market strategies for regional and global PR campaigns. Her references include renowned independent developers like ROCKFISH Games and Envision Entertainment as well as major brands and publishers such as ZeniMax/Bethesda, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Wizards of the Coast, CD Projekt RED, NVIDIA, Opera GX, and the CCON Stuttgart Gaming Zone.

Stefan Dettmering is a senior games marketing and communications expert with extensive experience across AAA and indie titles. He is the Managing Director of BXDXO GmbH, where he leads international marketing strategies, high-impact media campaigns, and creative brand activations for global publishers and ambitious indie studios alike. Stefan has overseen award-winning campaigns for franchises such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, God of War, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls, as well as critically acclaimed indie titles. Known for combining strategic thinking with bold, attention-grabbing executions, he specializes in go-to-market planning, experiential marketing, influencer strategies, and cross-functional campaign leadership. His work has been recognized by industry awards and shortlists, including The German Brand Award, and is valued for delivering measurable impact and cultural relevance.

Zwi Zausch is a game designer and co-founder of Toukana Interactive, an independent game studio based in Berlin. With an original background in film, he studied Game Design at HTW Berlin and has been working at Toukana since co-founding the studio in 2020. The studio is best known for the award-winning indie game Dorfromantik and is currently working on its next title, Star Birds. As part of a small team, Zwi is involved in many aspects of development, marketing, and releasing games on platforms like Steam, from early prototypes to launch and post-release support. He enjoys sharing his practical experience and learning from other indie developers and small studios as well.

I’m the (co-)creator of ISLANDERS, Will You Snail?, and Thronefall. I run a game dev YouTube channel (with my name).