“Developer Decisions That Scare Publishers”

Your choices as a developer can impact not just your game, but also how a publisher sees your team. In this talk, Eline Muijres shares real examples from her experience as a Publisher Producer, highlighting decisions and habits that can make collaboration tricky or even risk a publishing deal. 

From ambitious story content that is impossible to cut, to bloated budgets, or designs that will lead to player refunds, we’ll explore pitfalls that raise red flags for publishers. You’ll learn how your choices intersect with production realities, what publishers look out for, and how to avoid unintentional crises. 

By understanding these points, you can make smarter decisions, and create games that are not only creatively fulfilling but also collaboration-friendly.

Speaker bio

Eline Muijres is a freelance producer with 12+ years of experience across indie game development and publishing. As founder of Cohop Games, she hops on board to ship your game, together.

Eline’s career spans journalism, marketing, communications, and production, giving her a broad understanding of how games are built, positioned, and shipped. She managed multi-studio collaborations and worked closely with external partners, stakeholders and platform holders to translate creative vision into executable production plans. With a proven track record across original IP and work-for-hire projects in a wide range of genres, scopes, and platforms, Eline leads teams through complex projects with clarity, compassion, and momentum.

Beyond her production work, Eline is a committed advocate for inclusion and representation in the games industry and serves as a Board Member of the Games [4Diversity] Foundation.

“Plum Road Tea Dream’s Origin Story - From Theatre making to Game Design”

In this talk I will layout the creation process of Plum Road Tea Dream. A videogame with an unconventional approach to creating. From the collaboration between a theatermaker and some game designers to game-jamming the project together in residencies in cultural institutes, to how many collaborations and contributions helped us with our signature eclectic style.

Speaker bio

Samuel Baidoo received their Masters in the Arts with a focus on Illustration and Graphic Design from Sint-Lucas in 2015 and graduated as dancer from the Dance department at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp in 2018.

They take on different roles in the field:

As performer, co-creating and touring works for young audiences and adults in Belgium and abroad for makers and companies such as: Koen de Preter, Maud Le Pladec, Lola Bogaert, Agostina D'Alessandro, Nat Gras, Tuur Marinus, Michiel Vandevelde & Nikima Jagudajev. 

As mentor & coach they guided the process of Rino Sokol & Hernan Mancebo Martinez for Physical Proof at Theater Aan Zee in 2020. Since 3 years they mentor the choreographic work of the Bachelor 3 students at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. In season 24-25 they will be coaching VOUW a new creation by Annelies Van Hullebusch. 

As part of the Hanafubuki collective they see their love for movement & the visual merging while enjoying the collaborative work. In recent years the creations of Hanafubuki have been seen all over Flanders and abroad. As individual maker they created wijtwee//nosotros for Nat Gras in collaboration with Hernan Mancebo Martinez and grot-nest-tempel-huis for Leuven-Hasselt based company tout petit that premièred in february 2024. They presented two iterations of Huis voor Tranen at STORMOPKOMST festival in De Warande in 2022 & 2023.

Currently Samuel works on Plum Road Tea Dream, a project exploring the possibility of the videogame or the virtual as a sanctuary from a queer and poc perspective.

“Growing a Studio on Your Own Terms”

How do you turn a passion-driven project into a studio that can actually last? In this talk, Tim Remmers shares how Team Reptile built an international audience while staying independent and creatively in control. Instead of relying on publishers, platform featuring, or traditional marketing beats, the studio focused on building a strong identity and a direct relationship with its players. Through a series of deliberate choices around scope, finances, and collaboration, Team Reptile grew at its own pace without becoming dependent on external validation. This session offers a personal perspective on the trade-offs behind that path, and what it really takes to build something that lasts.

Speaker bio

Tim Remmers is co-founder and managing director of Team Reptile, the studio behind Lethal League and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. He works at the intersection of creativity and strategy, focusing on how to build games and a studio that can stand on their own.

“The Emergence of Last Mile Financing and how this changes the Development Landscape”

Throughout 2024 and 2025 we've experienced a slew of late stage project cancellations and games that launched too early to fulfil their commercial promise. The landscape is unforgiving for teams which lose control of their budget, and games that are forced into compromises have a history of failure. Last-mile financing options are increasingly available to both publishers and developers, but planning for this funding option needs to start early. This talk aims to educate both publishers and developers about last-mile financing, terms, requirements and the necessity of early preparation.

Speaker bio

Cat is Managing Director at Ichiba, a last-mile project financing fund dedicated to helping indie and AA games <15 months from launch. She has led investment teams at Kepler Interactive and Virtuos Games, with over a dozen acquisitions and 9 financed projects across both studios. On free hours she tests builds outside of Ichiba scope and writes tons of feedback.