International Video Games Week Underway at RTU MIREA

RTU MIREA is one of the venues for Moscow’s International Video Games Week, a major event by the Moscow Government and the Creative Industries Agency, gathering top developers, tech firms, and gamers to spotlight the gaming ecosystem’s depth and energy.

Skolkovo Center hosts the main events of the Week, but lectures and exhibits are also being held at such key competence hubs as HSE University, IT Hub, Moskino, RTU MIREA, and the Institute of Business and Design.

RTU MIREA’s events run November 27-28 at the Vernadsky Avenue campus (Building 78), featuring exclusive lectures, hands-on workshops, indie game playtests, board game zones, cosplay contests, and quests with university swag.

“Moscow’s International Video Games Week is a magnetic hub showing gaming’s substance beyond entertainment. It’s a tech powerhouse driving IT sectors and creative economies. For us, it’s a chance to demonstrate our strengths and immerse students in real trends, networking with employers in professional settings, which is priceless for their training and growth,” said Andrei Zuyev, Director of RTU MIREA’s Institute of Information Technologies.

The lecture program covers the industry’s most topical issues. Day 1 (November 27) is dedicated to creative team management and illustrator-to-gamedev transitions. Gennady Baskin (Ingvik Studios, GameBox) is to speak at noon on “Assembling, Managing, and Motivating Creative Teams,” and Artyom Zhukov will disclose the secrets of narrative building and visual style at 1 p.m. in a presentation titled “From Webcomics to Games.”

Day 2 (November 28) focuses on tech and game design. Associate Professor Marianna Alpatova (RTU MIREA’s Department of Gaming Industry) will deliver a lecture titled “Don’t Start with the Headset: Thoughtful AR/VR and Gamification Approaches” at noon, explaining ways to make cutting-edge technologies solve specific tasks rather than serve only as a trendy embellishment; at 1 p.m., Ivan Abukhovsky and Ilya Molotovshchikov from CarX Technologies will start dissecting CarX Drift Racing 3 internal structure and designing principles.

“For our Gaming Industry Department, this a perfect opportunity to cross the divide between theory and practice. We train masters of game design, programming, modeling, and VR/AR. Events like this show how these skills are actually applied in real projects, from indie studios to giants like CarX, inspiring the students’ own creativity and letting them build professional connections even at this early stage of their studies,” noted Mikhail Kovalenko, the Department’s Senior Lecturer and head of the Student Academic Society “Gaming and Creative Industries.” “Gaming needs developer-engineer, rather than just programmers, with cross-disciplinary skills backed up by solid knowledge of fundamentals, adaptability, and lifelong learning.”

Moscow’s International Video Games Week at RTU MIREA is more than an exhibition, it's a full-fledged educational and career-defining hub offering a unique opportunity to peek behind the scenes of one of the most dynamic IT sectors, to connect with the industry’s opinion leaders, and to draw inspiration for one’s own game development projects.