Cyprus has over 300 active game development studios. The industry has been growing for years. And until now, there has been no structured program at a Cyprus game industry event designed to bring the next generation of developers into direct contact with it.
On May 29, at GDCy Fest 2026, that changes. CYGMA is running the first dedicated Teens Track — a three-hour program for teenagers aged 14 to 19 built around a single, practical question: what does a real path into the games industry actually look like, and how do you start building it?
The program runs from 14:00 to 18:00. One hundred free tickets have been reserved for teen participants. Registration is required.
What the afternoon looks like
Anton Gorodetsky, Head of Industry Relations at MY.GAMES, opens the track with a ground-level map of the industry — how it’s structured today, which skills are genuinely in demand, and what the realistic first steps are for someone starting now.
Dmitry Kononenko, Art Director at Strikerz, follows with a session that addresses something most young creatives are thinking about but rarely get a straight answer on: what is AI actually doing to the artist’s role in game development? Kononenko brings the question down from abstraction — drawing on his background as a concept artist, sculptor, and lead 3D artist to walk through what is changing in practice, who is most affected, and what that means for how a young artist should be developing right now. His central point is direct: AI won’t remove artists. It will remove those who stopped developing.
The middle of the afternoon belongs to the people who have done it young. Antonina Americ, CMO of Robolab, leads a session on portfolio building, freelancing, and internship pathways — joined by indie developers Sergey Makyshkin and Andrey Demiankov, and 3D artists Kyrilo Kostyria and Karim El Zein, several of whom started their careers as teenagers. Their stories are the actual evidence that this is possible.
Despina Michael-Grigoriou from Cyprus University of Technology then covers the academic side: what programs exist locally, what university pathways are open to aspiring developers, and what tools CUT makes available to students who want to go in this direction.
Max Fomichev, Executive Producer at Holyday Studios, zooms out to the broader industry picture — how development roles are shifting across disciplines, and what that means for people entering the field today rather than five years ago.
The track closes with a panel: “If We Were 16 Again.” A group of senior industry professionals talking honestly about where they would start today, what they would avoid, and what the fastest realistic paths into the industry look like from where they now stand.
The entire program is hosted and moderated by Yulia Tarasova, Head of Education at CYGMA and Co-Founder of KidIT Cyprus.
A note on why this matters
There is no shortage of teenagers in Cyprus who are serious about games — not just as players, but as people who are already making things, already curious about the craft. What has been missing is a clear, accessible entry point that treats that curiosity as the foundation for a real career.
The Teens Track is CYGMA’s first direct step toward building that entry point. It will not be the last.
Registration
GDCy Fest 2026 | May 29 | 14:00–18:00 | St.Raphael Resort, Limassol, Cyprus
100 free tickets for teenagers | registration required
Parents who wish to attend alongside their teenager are also welcome — a discounted ticket is available through the registration form.