Celebrating 5 years of tracking events
Game Conference Guide Insights - October 2025
In this month’s issue:
GCG Celebrates 5th anniversary
Updated October’s showcases & deadlines for awards, funding, etc.
Five years ago I launched the Game Conference Guide.
It grew from a simple spreadsheet to a website helping you to find your next event. Local associations liked it, they shared it among their members and the rest is history, as they say.
The website was created during a very difficult time for anyone who was working in hospitality and events. It was a period much like today, with a lot of uncertainty and unknowns around. We haven’t had a clue what would come when the pandemic started, and planning was impossible. The website became a north star, tracking movement of others and shifting dates became vital information for a conference organizer who doesn’t want to cross dates with others.
At the beginning there were a handful of voices saying it will create a time capsule for events and it will help to paint a better picture on the state of this industry. They were true, events mirrors the current shifts and the on-going challenges.
Then there were some saying running a website like Game Conference Guide and tracking so many data points will take too much of time, predicting demise in 5 years or sooner. They were wrong.
It was tough, but the website is still here, tracking more events than I could have imagined. The database started with dozens or so events, and now it has 1853 events spanning 2020 - 2026. It is incredible and the challenge is still here.
PARTNER OF THE MONTH
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Tracking data is super hard. I am not using scrapers, robots, nor AI, as it is unreliable. Data points like dates, ticket prices, and sometimes hyperlinks are changing as the event organizers are getting closer to the events itself. Sometimes the events are cancelled, prolonged or shortened, or just announced and abandoned until the domain expires and the last trace is gone.
Every data point is manual labor. After five years, I have created a routine and even with it adding events still takes time, but I want to continue doing so. I will try to make the website better in the next five years.
I was thinking about what this month’s newsletter issue should be about, and it is about you.
Thanks to all partners who partnered up! You are awesome.
Thank you for being an active supporter (Jeanette, Kate, Jason, Takaaki, Masatoshi, Erik, Robin, Justin, Tobi & Jay, you are all awesome!)
Join them by buying me a coffee
Thank you for visiting.
Thank you for being a reader.
Thank you for spreading the website with your peers and friends, and recommending it to anyone who is looking to discover their next event.
Since you are here, you are a subscriber or you are coming from my personal social channels. Thank you.
If you like Game Conference Guide and you want to keep it free, without any registration needed, support it by:
Hitting the upgrade button here on Substack
By doing so, I know there are more and more awesome people who enjoy my work, who feel what I do is important to them. And it gives me a much needed validation.
I am not good at predictions, so I do not know what will happen in the next 5 years. What I know for sure is, the website is going to be the same, and it will operate as before. As announced in the last issue, I have partnered up with Games Industry Network to make it better, and I am not planning to introduce paywalls or require registration to access much needed details about events.
Game Conference Guide is bringing me joy, helping me to stay in touch with fellow event organizers and it is so ingrained in my daily routine that it is hard to imagine not updating the database each morning.
I started already thinking about version 3.0 (potentially with new design and faster loads), but more importantly, I want to bring events closer to you with better categories, labels and tags.
This is going to be my next challenge. As for my next event?
My next one is Game Days in Slovakia. See you in Kosice.
☔October’s games industry showcases
October 23 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CEST
October 23 @ 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CEST
📺Galaxies Fall Gaming Showcase
October 23 @ 12PM PT / 3PM ET / 9PM CEST
Get all details, dates, times & direct links to broadcast here.
🏆New Deadlines on the horizon
📺Women-Led Games: The Game Awards Edition
Deadline: October 27, Showcase + Steam event, entry: Free
Deadline: November 6, Awards, entry: £264 / £528
📢PitchYaGame
Deadline: November 7, Pitching, entry: free🏆DIGY Awards
Deadline: November 14, Showcase, entry: free🎮Tokyo Indie Games Summit
Deadline: November 16, On-site showcase, entry: free🏆DICE Awards
Deadline: December 5, Awards, entry: $1000
Get all deadlines here.
[Game Conference Guide is helping you find your next games industry events & showcase.]
Thank you for reading and supporting Game Conference Guide. Consider sharing it with your peers, colleagues, and community.
Pavol Buday, curator @ GCG
Congratulations
Congratulations on 5 years!