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14 Teams, 3 Days and the Biggest Games Industry Event on Earth!

  • laurenksaker
  • Sep 4
  • 3 min read

With partnership from our friends both at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and Representing Games, CODE supported fourteen teams to Gamescom, the biggest games industry event... in the world.


NZ CODE and NZTE brings a first ever fully branded New Zealand pavilion to the Business Area at Gamescom 2025.
NZ CODE and NZTE brings a first ever fully branded New Zealand pavilion to the Business Area at Gamescom 2025.

Our goals differed from team to team, but there were some common threads;


Representing Games

CODE hosted a pitch event with forty unique publishers and investors in the room. This was a one hundred percent increase on the same event in the same location from last year. CODE has developed a reputation for delivering a consistent portfolio of commercially-focused, highly interesting and marketing products from the independent game studios of Aotearoa that we support. The response was huge and very positive for the nine teams that pitched with multiple publishers booking follow ups right on the spot. 


Pictured L-R: Jack Clark (Headplug Games), Tana Tanoi (Dead Teapot Games), and Olivier Chrun (Big Adventure Games) pitch at Representing Games.


Media and influencer engagement

Two of our studios, both Balancing Monkey Games with their forthcoming release of Beyond These Stars and Stormcloak Games with Adaptory, are on a launch pathway and spent the event engaging with media and influencers.


Pictured L-R: Anna Barham (Balancing Monkey Games); Sam and Anna Barham (Balancing Monkey Games); Jevon Wright (Stormcloak Games).


Investment

Mobile games studio, Cheese Berries was seeking further investment and consolidation, and services business Floating Rock specialising in animation work for games.


Pictured L-R: Cat and Bird mobile game; Trina Yang (Cheese Berries); Lukas Niklaus (Floating Rock).


NZTE took the lead on supplying NZ teams with the first ever fully branded pavilion in the Business Area at the event. Working with them, our approach was very much "product first" - let the games speak for themselves and to make our booth a destination for publishers and investors seeking good saleable game products to suit their audiences or investment in the best early stage teams New Zealand has to offer.


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The New Zealand pavilion in the Business Area at Gamescom 2025.


What Were the Outcomes?


Vee Pendergrast, CODE's Industry Development Manager commented, "We saw appetite for the type of deals suitable for our startup studios in a way that we haven't seen in recent years with the Tech Crunch and other industry macro.


Seeing publishers interested in taking multiple titles from our line-up back for further consideration was really gratifying, plus receiving the feedback that our programme has become highly regarded as a source of good quality projects. CODE is riding a wave of success after the V1.0 launch of Abiotic Factor but we have follow up titles we expect some good success from as well.



Regarding the launches, we're all eager for some good news stories, and the wider NZ industry is talking about a period of stability and sustained growth. The NZ game development industry grew 26% in 2024, and we're expecting to see a growth of over 30% in 2025, making it an excellent time to invest in New Zealand teams and game projects", says Vee.



NZ CODE supported games at Gamescom 2025:



NZTE supported games at Gamescom 2025:





Expressions of Interest for CODE Round 7 Travel Grants


CODE are looking to support Aotearoa New Zealand based teams to achieve commercialisation outcomes by supporting them with travel grants.


Expression of Interest for CODE Round 7 Travel Grants will be open in October 2025, with a focus on travel to events in the first half of 2026. Gamescom-focused (Round 8) Travel Grants will open in April 2026.


Please check the CODE Travel Grant Guidelines, here.

 
 
 
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