About Us
Macedonian Game Developers Association – MAGDA is a non-government organization formed in 2013 in order to meet the needs of the game development community in Macedonia.
In the past years, we have organized numerous events including:
Global Game Jam
10 events in the period 2013-2022. This is the world's most important game jam event in a form of a 48+ hour game development marathon. It is held annually, in almost every country, on the last weekend of January. The participants organized in teams are working on the same theme and are developing prototypes of a game. In the past years, the event was held on locations in Skopje, Bitola, and Ohrid, as well as as an online event.
Game Razviotka (Game Bodybuilding)
3 events in the period 2014-2015 in collaboration with Seavus Educational and Development Centre – SEDC in Skopje. The events were one-day educational conferences, at which professional game developers from Macedonia gave lessons to students and young game developers.
Game Weekend
a whole weekend conference in collaboration with Macedonian Telecom. The event covered themes about game design, programming, digital art, and sound design. The lessons were given by renewed Macedonian professionals with international experience. The event was held in Skopje.
Game Jam Plus
is an event that we introduced in 2021, as an online event. This international event has a different concept from the other game jams, because it lasts seven months, has 3 stages of competing (a country competition, continental semifinals, and the world final), as well as an acceleration phase.
We have a large community of people interested in developing digital games. Our Global Game Jam events are regularly positioned high for a number of participants per 1 million citizens that lead us to getting the high 5th place on a world ranking, positions which are usually reserved for countries with the most advanced game industries. Moreover, MAGDA’s debut year at Game Jam Plus result as Macedonia being a country with the largest number of participants, which gave a possibility for 5 teams to get mentorship and compete in the European semifinal.
Game Developers Hive situated in Bitola was a collaborative project between MAGDA and GAUSS Institute Bitola. It was a game development incubator and educational center, which in the period of 2015 – 2019 was offering working space, equipment, and mentorship to young game developers from Bitola and the nearby region. The Hive was organizing educational courses and was also a place for gathering of the Bitola game development community.
Besides the official events, together with the Indium Games company (former KnapNok) and Dark-1 studio, we took part in organizing Indie Beer MeetUp, informal gatherings for the community in Skopje. They gave a possibility to people to meet in person, exchange opinions, or introduce their work.
One of the main goals of our work is to attract students and young people that have an interest in informatics, arts, or digital games, to try to develop their own games. At the events, we have met people from all over Macedonia, and we are happy that we inspired many of them to choose digital games as their further education and profession.
As the game dev sector in Macedonia grows strong MAGDA will continue to work toward its expansion helping the individuals, teams and companies get whatever they need, creative and business wise.