Newsroom
Cyprus is heading to Cologne armed with tanks, zombies, pixel guns, punk wizards, and a few video games that developers are not yet ready to name.
The island’s first official national delegation to Gamescom begins its program Aug. 23, marking a major international debut for a gaming industry that has largely grown away from the public spotlight.
Organized by the Cyprus Game Makers Association, or CYGMA, the national pavilion will bring Cyprus-based developers, publishers, and technology companies together under one roof. The aim is not simply to show off new games but to attract investors, recruit talent, and connect local studios with international business partners.
CYGMA says Cyprus is now home to more than 400 game studios — a surprisingly large ecosystem for a country better known internationally for tourism and financial services.
And while some of the companies may be unfamiliar to people outside the gaming world, their games have already reached hundreds of millions of players.
Brickworks Games, for example, is best known for Grim Soul and Cyberika, which have attracted more than 68 million players worldwide. In Cologne, it will present Sublustrum, a psychological adventure built around memory, dreams, sound-based puzzles and the disappearance of the main character’s scientist brother.
Cubic Games will bring Pixel Gun 2, the sequel to Pixel Gun 3D, which has reached more than 300 million players. The new game offers short, fast multiplayer battles in arenas that players can destroy and reshape as they fight.
Ducky will showcase Melon Sandbox, a physics-based game that lets players build machines, create battles, and experiment with thousands of community-made items. The game has recorded more than 150 million installations.
Nicosia-headquartered Wargaming, one of the biggest names in the delegation, will present World of Tanks: HEAT. The new free-to-play game places players in fast-paced 10-against-10 tank battles set in an alternative version of history after World War II. Wargaming’s existing titles, including World of Tanks and World of Warships, have been played by more than 200 million people.
Other delegation members include Mika Games, which will showcase games involving zombie hordes, magical islands and real-time battles; STRTL, whose upcoming adventure .Curator was written by Altered Carbon author Richard K. Morgan; and PlayServ, which is developing technology that helps studios add online multiplayer features without spending months building the systems from scratch.
Crazybit, Horns Up Games and TapClap are also taking projects to Cologne, although some remain unannounced. Visitors to the Cyprus pavilion may therefore be among the first to see titles that have not yet been revealed publicly.
For Cyprus, the delegation is about more than entertainment. Video games combine software development, artificial intelligence, design, music, writing, marketing and international publishing, creating jobs that can be carried out and exported from the island.
CYGMA, which represents local studios in discussions with government, universities and businesses, hopes the pavilion will show that Cyprus is no longer merely hosting gaming companies.
It is making the games too.
