VGTimes at gamescom 2026: Interviews About New Games, Game Development, and the Industry

At gamescom 2026, VGTimes conducted a series of interviews with developers and representatives of gaming companies. The topics ranged from supporting independent teams and using AI tools to co-op shooters and unusual experiments with familiar gameplay mechanics. We have collected these conversations from the expo in a single article.

Xsolla helps developers release, promote, and monetize games around the world, including in markets and through payment systems that can be difficult to reach on their own. We spoke with Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla.

VGTimes: Tell us about your company, what you're doing now, and what your strategy is for the future.

Chris Hewish: Xsolla is a company that provides everything developers need, including launching games and building relationships with users. We help our partners bring their projects to market and provide them with tools that help them succeed. We've been in this business for 21 years. During that time, we've worked with thousands of development studios around the world.

VGTimes: What kind of tools do you offer?

Chris Hewish: For example, we have more than a thousand methods of integration with PlayStation. Beyond that, we work extensively with PC game developers, helping them with launches and connecting with players, and making their projects more appealing to a broader audience. We also work with online stores, help promote games outside the App Store, provide interactive tools, analytics, and much more.

We recently launched a monetization system called Offerwall, which gives users tasks to complete. They receive rewards for doing them, encouraging them to return to the game again and again. We also have a loyalty program where users earn points, along with many other features.

VGTimes: Which other companies do you compete with in this space?

Chris Hewish: A lot of companies provide similar services, but none of them offer the same breadth of tools and approaches that we do. We have many partners who help connect developers with content creators so they can work together. That's another way we support the companies that work with us. Essentially, we don't have any direct competitors because no one can do as much for partners as Xsolla can.

VGTimes: Do you have any special programs for indie development teams rather than large companies — for people who are only just beginning their journey in the gaming industry?

Chris Hewish: We provide companies with tools that allow them to get feedback from users around the world. They may seem too large in scope for indie developers, but that's not a problem. We also help independent teams through acceleration programs and funding clubs that can help them secure money for development.

There are also ways for developers to connect directly with potential players and make attractive offers, even if the team doesn't have its own online store.

Beyond that, we help all developers, including indies, integrate our products. And they don't need to hire a separate team of specialists to do it. For example, handling input data through the command line with AI agents. With our help, this can be done quickly, in a single session, instead of taking days or even weeks as it used to. That means indie developers can use the same tools available to major companies. They can compete on a level playing field.

VGTimes: Tell us about your favorite games. This time we're asking you as a player, not as a business executive.

Chris Hewish: I play almost every day, usually for several hours. For example, I've been playing Apex Legends regularly since Season 2. I missed the first season. I love games, and they're an important part of my life.

VGTimes: Thank you very much for the interview!

Chris Hewish: Thank you!

Rock, Paper, Severed turns the children's game of Rock, Paper, Scissors into a bloody contest. Creative director and designer Edward Baxter told VGTimes about the game's mix of horror, strategy, and social deduction.

VGTimes: Tell us everything we need to know about your game.

Edward Baxter: Our game, Rock, Paper, Severed, is based on Rock, Paper, Scissors, but with a twist. Every time you lose, one of your fingers gets cut off. And if you lose all of them, you die. So it's basically a deadly version of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

We've also added special items, so you can use different strategies. These include instructions, message boxes, and more. The core gameplay is based on the same game we all used to settle arguments as kids, but the special abilities let you manipulate the person you're playing against and do other things. That's where the strategy elements come in.

VGTimes: What kind of setting does the game have?

Edward Baxter: The setting is inspired by the Saw and Hostel movies. It has this early-2000s feel, with dirty walls and a sense of claustrophobia, where you and your friend are locked in the same room and your limbs are being cut off right there during the game.

VGTimes: What other games would you compare your project to? Maybe Postal?

Edward Baxter: The closest comparisons I can give are Buckshot Roulette and Inscryption. They have a similar kind of tabletop-game strategy to what we're doing. We took inspiration from them and borrowed certain elements. We're confident we've made a great single-player campaign as well as a fun multiplayer mode with social deduction elements, similar to Liar's Bar and Buckshot Roulette.

VGTimes: How does the multiplayer work?

Edward Baxter: Four players sit around the same table. You choose an opponent and an item from your box that lets you impose your own rules and confuse your friend. After that, you play Rock, Paper, Scissors.

VGTimes: It's a popular game in real life, and you want to bring it online. I hope you succeed. Is there anything else you'd like to say to our audience?

Edward Baxter: We're a very small team of three people working on our first project. We've had to give it everything we've got and work extremely hard over the past four months. But we've really enjoyed it, and we'd appreciate any support, such as wishlisting the game on Steam. You can also join our Discord community — we'd be happy to see you there.

VGTimes: When will the game be released?

Edward Baxter: We don't have an exact release date yet, but we're aiming to finish it by Q4 2026.

VGTimes: Thank you.

Guns & Dragons is a cooperative first-person shooter where success depends on putting together the right build and working as a team. Game director Park Jun-woo told VGTimes about the RPG mechanics, weapon crafting, and a world where dragons have taken control of all mana. His answers were translated from Korean into English by Kim Iksong.

VGTimes: Tell us everything we need to know about the game. Why should people play it, and what makes it different from similar projects?

Park Jun-woo: Our game is a cooperative first-person shooter. We hope that even players who aren't particularly fast or accurate shooters will still have a lot of fun with it. To make that possible, we've added RPG elements to the action, allowing you to create a build tailored to your preferred tactics.

After each run, you receive resources that can be used to develop your character. Accuracy isn't the most important thing. What matters is that players enjoy working together with others.

VGTimes: Will the game have a proper story with characters? Tell us about the lore.

Park Jun-woo: There is no mana left in this world because the dragons have taken control of it, which means humans can no longer use magic. But the protagonist manages to create an artificial substitute for mana. He challenges the dragons and tries to free the world from their rule.

VGTimes: What are the key features of the game?

Park Jun-woo: First of all, you can craft your own weapons. You do this using various resources and items, such as artifacts.

Second, after every run you receive materials that can be used for upgrades, so you gradually become stronger. Even though this is a shooter, you can develop your character in your own way and decide for yourself what role you want to play within the team during combat.

We already have experience working with shooter mechanics, and this time we've also added things like firing elven bows. It's important to us that players enjoy every aspect of the game, including the shooting itself.

VGTimes: When will the game be released?

Park Jun-woo: We only started playtesting in early August. We still have a long way to go in terms of refining the core gameplay and implementing various unique mechanics.

Once the prototype is ready to be shown to players, we'll be able to talk about a release date. For now, though, we're focused on development.

VGTimes: Thank you!

Park Jun-woo: Thank you.

We also had a brief conversation with Andrei Chirculete, game director of Gods, Death & Reapers at Wolcen Studio. He spoke about the challenge of combining action RPG and extraction mechanics, the extensive testing conducted with the community, and the studio's plans for an Early Access launch.

VGTimes: Unfortunately, I didn't prepare any specific questions about your game. But could you tell us a little about it?

Andrei Chirculete: Initially, we thought these two genres complemented each other really well. And they do, because both of them are built to a large extent around repeatable gameplay loops.

But during development, we discovered that combining them required much more adaptation than we had expected. There are many things that seem simple or almost identical when considered separately, but once you bring them together, they have to be reworked and adjusted to fit with one another.

Andrei Chirculete: We've been testing the game with the community for about a year now. During that time, we've conducted numerous online tests and received a huge amount of player feedback.

I think we now have a much clearer idea of where we need to go in order to make this blend of genres really work.

We're planning to launch in Early Access in February next year, and then we'll see how things go.

In Hellreaper, players take control of the fearsome Reaper of Hell, who is tasked with preserving the fragile balance between Heaven and the Underworld. To do so, you'll have to cut through hordes of demons using a wide range of weapons and magic. The developers promise a challenging but fair experience with responsive controls. Hellreaper is being developed by Awesome Games Studio, known for Yet Another Zombie Survivors and Fury Unleashed. At gamescom 2026, we had the chance to speak with company founder Marcin Draszczuk.

VGTimes: Tell us everything we need to know about the game — its genre, setting, and lore.

Marcin Draszczuk: Hellreaper is an action platformer with roguelike elements where you play as the Reaper of Hell, an Angel sent into the Underworld to rid the world of demonic creatures. But you can't simply kill everything you come across and be done with it, because this is a roguelike. Every new run changes things up, with new enemies, unique items, and much more.

VGTimes: What would you say is the game's defining feature? What makes Hellreaper stand out from other games in the genre on Steam?

Marcin Draszczuk: From player feedback, we've learned that people really like the visual side of Hellreaper. They've also been impressed by the crisp animations and the genuinely fast-paced combat system.

VGTimes: What should we know about the story and characters?

Marcin Draszczuk: Right now, we're mainly focused on the combat. The lore is still in development, and we expect to keep working on it for another two years.

VGTimes: Thank you for the interview!

Marcin Draszczuk: Thank you!

Hellreaper could turn out to be a solid 2D action game, even if it doesn't reinvent the genre. Its level of polish should appeal both to roguelike fans and to more casual players who enjoy a good challenge.

Article by Rodion Ilin and Vladislav Shamshurov.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and over that time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have gathered a wealth of exclusive material. For example, in 2019 we attended a closed showing of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia — CAGS, and we have visited IgroMir several times, where we met Hideo Kojima and other famous developers. In 2024 we traveled to the Land of the Rising Sun for TGS 2024, where we were amazed by the scale of the Tokyo event. In 2025 we witnessed one of Asia's premier gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai. We also made it to the Thai edition of gamescom 2025 in Bangkok, and at the start of this year attended CES 2026 in Las Vegas and later Computex 2026 in Taipei.