Game Design Summit - Game Industry Conference, JUN 25th-27th, Katowice

Game Design Summit 2026

Highlights

Hands-on workshops, no fluff
Three parallel tracks
Senior+ practitioners as instructors

Who it's for

Mid+ game designers with shipped work
Narrative, level, and systems designers
Solo / indie designers on their second+ release

Not built for: juniors, early-years design students, hobbyists, players curious about game design.
The formats assume professional context.

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The game design event
for professionals
— by professionals.

A condensed, hands-on workshop summit for game designers who already do this for a living. We don’t run intro talks. We don’t sell magic frameworks. We run small, intensive sessions led by senior practitioners — the kind of conversation you’d have in a hotel bar at 1AM with the people you actually wanted to corner, except scheduled and with whiteboards.

The 2026 edition returns to GIC Sprint Katowice — a full day of parallel design workshops on 25 June, plus lightning talks during the main conference on 26 June.

What you get

Hands-on, not talks

Every session is a workshop. 3+ hours, small group, real artifacts at the end — paper prototypes, design docs, level layouts, character sheets.

Senior practitioners as instructors

Each workshop is led by someone shipping at real scale and running a senior design role. You’re not getting university lecture material.

Three parallel tracks

Mix of narrative, systems, level, and craft. Pick your workshops, leave with completed exercises and a network of people who do what you do.

See the agenda

FAQ

Can I attend just GDS without buying a GIC Sprint ticket?

Yes. GDS Workshop Day pass is sold separately.

Is GDS for junior designers?

Not really. The format assumes you’re already designing professionally. Junior designers will benefit more from GIC’s main conference tracks.

How small are the groups?

Each workshop is capped at 15-20 participants, depending on the format.

Advisory Board

Łukasz Hacura

CEO, Anshar Studios. 17 years in the games industry, leading Anshar from a few people to 160+. Special Recognition at Digital Dragons Awards. Co-creator of GDSum since 2019.

Jakub Rokosz

Co-founder, Fool’s Theory. 21 years in the games industry, Co-owner of Fool’s Theory for 11 years. Game Director of The Thaumaturge, Witcher 1 Remake and Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Songs of the Past.

Submit a workshop

Want to run a session at GDSum 2026?

What we look for

2+ hours workshop, hands-on format
You bring senior craft experience (5+ years in design role)
Output: participants leave with something they made (prototype, doc, sketch)
Topic: any subdomain of game design — narrative, systems, level, UX, character, world

Past editions

GDSum has been running since 2019 with a focused community of senior design practitioners. The inaugural Poznań edition hosted 20+ speakers including Josh Sawyer (Obsidian), Richard Rouse III (Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break), and Jason Della Rocca (former IGDA executive director, Execution Labs).

In 2026, GDSum returns home to the GIC Sprint conference in Katowice.