The second edition, Expo Gameri 2025, a dynamic festival of video games, popular culture, and technology, successfully took place in Opatija, Croatia, from May 29 to 31, 2025. The event cemented its position as a high-quality international meeting point, blending the energy of a public festival with the depth of a professional industry conference (B2B2C format).

The Numbers & Event Scale

Expo Gameri 2025 gathered attendees from Croatia and across Europe, affirming the event's growing international relevance and its power to position Opatija as a new hub for digital creatives.

• Total Visitors: The festival gathered around 3,000 visitors over the extended weekend.

• International Reach: 40% of attendees traveled from abroad, including visitors from Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, and Italy.

• Industry and Community Value: A total of 72% of surveyed visitors rated the event as highly valuable (rated 4 or 5 out of 5) for their personal or professional development.

• Exhibitors: The Expo floor featured 27 exhibition booths filled by 37 different exhibitors and teams.

• Team Effort: The event was made possible by a small core organizational team, supported by over 40 dedicated volunteers and 20 collaborators.

• Gender Balance: The audience was made up of 60% men and 40% women. The program actively promoted inclusion, with 30% of speaking roles filled by women.
  

Global Star Guests & Program Content

The two-stage program, including a dedicated B2B Welcome Conference, hosted a world-class lineup of speakers, providing both industry insights and inspiring creative sessions.

Guests of Global Renown:

Expo Gameri 2025 featured five guests who significantly elevated the program's international profile:

• Rami Ismail: Dutch-Egyptian independent developer, known for his work on tools for indie creators and a prominent voice on global game development.

• Dr. Johanna Pirker: Computer Scientist from Graz University of Technology and former MIT researcher, specializing in game development, VR, and education.

• Molly Heady-Carroll: Irish artist specializing in creature animation (collaborations with Netflix, BBC, Universal).

• Sébastien Croteau & Aliki Katriou (The Monster Factory Inc.): Renowned voice studio founder and metal vocalist/voice rehabilitation specialist, known for producing creature and monster voices for major titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Star Wars Outlaws.
  

Program Highlights

Total Sessions

The program featured 16 Keynote Presentations, 10 Panel Discussions, and 2 Workshops.

Key Topics

Sessions covered a wide range of essential industry topics, including: project funding (HAVC), LiveOps, Web3 gaming, esports, cozy gaming, and practical career guidance for 2D/3D art and voice acting.

B2B Conference

The inaugural "B2B Gameri Welcome Conference", including the keynotes "Creative Direction vs Production" by Rami Ismail and "Weird Science of Creature Design" by Molly Heady Carroll, facilitated high-level networking and discussion among professionals.

Indie Showcase & Business Development

The festival successfully connected developers with the audience and key industry resources, promoting the local and regional game development scene.

Games Showcased

A total of 12 domestic independent studios/teams presented their work across three dedicated zones:

• Games Croatia Zone (Tiny Meow Studio, Pet Rusa, Mad Cat Entertainment).
• PISMO Incubator Zone (ANIQ, Porcupine Parkour & Studio Spektar, Misfit Village).
• Indie Zone (Grande Spallone Games, STELLAR, Chunky Pixel Games, Artor Games Studio, Igu Pigu Fanclub, Nitročelik Games).

Discovery Success

72% of visitors positively responded that they discovered a new and interesting product, game, or studio at the festival.

Industry Partnerships

Project partnerships with the Croatian Game Developers Association (CGDA), Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) Games Croatia project, and the PISMO Incubator strengthened ties between the industry, education, and the community.

Audience Engagement & Viral Content

The mix of professional content and high-energy entertainment fueled exceptional audience enthusiasm and unprecedented media reach.

Top Audience Attractions

• Exhibitors and Indie Zone
• Panel discussions and keynotes
• Cosplay competition
• Guest of honor keynotes
• Esports tournaments

Viral Content

A short social media video featuring guest voice actor Sébastien Croteau (The Monster Factory) and a local Helldiver cosplayer went viral, generating total over 400,000 views.

Esports & Pop Culture

Key attractions included the Cosplay Show and Airsoft shooting range, and major esports tournaments for Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and Tekken 8.

Media Impact

The comprehensive media campaign resulted in over 60 announcements and more than 25 feature reports published across international, national, regional, and local media.

Digital Footprint

• Website Traffic: The official website recorded 15,709 visits and 27,450 page views (April–June 2025).
• Social Media: The campaign generated 267 posts across four platforms, including over 850,000 views on Instagram alone.

Looking Ahead: Next Steps

We firmly believe that this year, for the second time in a row, we have again exceeded expectations: Expo Gameri fulfilled its potential and inspired and delighted the audience, patrons, guests, and sponsors. It has become an inspiring center that resonated nationally and internationally, encouraging the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and creative practices.

Special recognition comes from our honorary guests, who are globally recognized figures and frequent participants in many festivals and conferences. Their praise and confirmation of the quality of the program and the entire festival inspire us to continue the story, and the connections we’ve made will undoubtedly help us greatly in preparing the program for next year.

Expo Gameri, although one of only a few events of this kind in Croatia, once again stood out for its:

• professionalism and quality of execution,
• variety and educational-cultural value of the program,
• diverse audience that finds value in the program,
• innovative approach combining festival and conference (B2B2C) formats.

These remarkable achievements of the Expo Gameri event were primarily made possible by the dedication of a small organizational team, with addition of over 40 volunteers and 20 collaborators participating in the festival’s execution, generously giving their time, knowledge, hands, and skills. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Festival is supported by highly valued patrons:

• City of Opatija
• Croatian National Tourist Board
• Opatija Tourist Board
• Ministry of Culture and Media, Republic of Croatia
• Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
• Croatian Audiovisual Centre

Special thanks goes out to the event sponsors and partners: