Next Play Romania Registrations Open

A unique competition

For the first time, Romanians will be able to follow the development of video games created in Romania before they hit the market, and will be able to contribute to their journey by getting directly involved in the competition.

Next Play Romania, the first national competition dedicated to Romanian video games in development, officially opens for registrations. Organised by the Romanian Game Developers Association (RGDA), together with Nexus Gaming and DBO, with the support of Banca Transilvania, the project transforms the video game development process into an experience that the public can follow in real time, from the first versions almost up to launch.

Romania is one of the most important European video game development hubs, with over 200 studios, approximately 6,600 specialists, and an industry that generates over 343 million euros annually. Every year, Romanian developers create dozens of games appreciated by millions of players worldwide, but most of these projects remain almost unknown to the Romanian public until their launch.

Next Play is dedicated to Romanian studios that develop video games and want to present their creations to a community of players, content creators, and industry professionals. For developers, Next Play represents an opportunity to build a community before launch, receive direct feedback from the public, and increase project visibility at a crucial moment in their development.

Registrations are open until 30 August, and nine games will be selected from all registered projects. The choice will be made by content creators Mădălin Adrian, Werty, and BoboSpider, each of whom will support three projects throughout the competition and promote them to their own communities.

Over approximately 12 weeks, studios will go through three successive stages. In the first stage, they will present their team, game, and a demo version. In the second stage, they will develop and implement a completely new functionality, documenting the entire creation process. In the final stage, the best projects will enter a final development sprint and present their games to the public and a jury of industry professionals.

The public will play an active role in the competition, participating in the three voting sessions that will decide which games advance and which will become the winner of Next Play Romania.

The Next Play Gala will take place in December, where the three finalist games will be presented live to the public, content creators, industry representatives, and the press. Following the community's final vote, the winning game of the first edition of Next Play Romania will be announced.

“Behind any game, there are countless hours of work, hundreds of creative decisions, and challenges that players rarely get to see. Next Play Romania aims to bring these stories and the people behind them to the forefront. We want the public to discover the passion, perseverance, and creativity behind each project, to follow the evolution of the teams with interest, to become attached to the game creators, not just the games themselves, and to support them throughout the competition,” said Andreea Per, Executive Director of the Romanian Game Developers Association.

“Ever since the founding of Bucharest Gaming Week, the first gaming event I conceived, I stated that Romania could become the Hollywood of the video game development industry. It is Romania's most valuable creative industry, bringing in the most money and the greatest reputation outside the country. We now want to put even more spotlights on it, here at home. Next Play Romania does exactly that: we no longer wait for a Romanian game to conquer the world to talk about it. We build it, in plain sight, together with Romanian gamers,” said Tudor Dăescu, Managing Partner DBO.

“Gamers love to say 'I've been playing this title before it officially came out'. Next Play builds exactly that feeling. It gives people the chance to discover Romanian games before everyone else, to follow their development, and to contribute to their success from day one,” said Octav “ang” Crețu, CEO Nexus Gaming.

Romanian studios developing video games can register for the competition until 30 August via the official Next Play Romania website, where the full rules and registration form are available.

Starting in September, the public will be able to discover Romanian video games from the development phase and will play an active role in choosing the winning project.