Devcom 2018, the second ever two-day conference for developers which precedes Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, opened today with strong words from Stephan Reichart, head of Devcom.

After a volunteer choir treated attendees to renditions of “Still Alive” from Portal and “Dragonborn” from Skyrim, Reichart opened the conference with a message aimed at the political landscape we currently live in.

“This is not the age of guys like Donald Trump, or Boris Johnson, or other ignorant politicians, racists or idiots… This is your age. This is the age of game development,” announced Reichart.

“It has never been easier to develop games and it has never been more important to develop games that matter to change this world and to protect our society from all this stupidity out there. Let this age of game development start here and now in Cologne, use your chance to make games that matter.”

Devcom will continue tomorrow with a series of panels and developer meet-ups. High-profile keynotes have already been delivered from industry figures like Santa Monica Studios’ Cory Barlog and Guerrilla Games’ ‘Jan-Bart van Beek.