A game development meetup in Dhaka drew a capacity crowd at the weekend, in what organisers described as a sign of growing interest in Bangladesh’s gaming and immersive technology sectors.
The The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) GameDev Summer Meetup 2026, hosted by IGDA Bangladesh on May 2, at Rise Up Labs, brought together 60 students, independent developers and industry professionals for a three-hour programme of talks, panel discussions, game showcases and networking.
Organisers described it as the 'largest meetup of game developers held in Bangladesh to date.' The event was organised by Battery Low Interactive and sponsored by Rise Up Labs. It was designed to support collaboration and knowledge-sharing across Bangladesh’s developing games industry.
Minhaz-Us-Salakeen Fahme, founding president of IGDA Bangladesh and co-founder and chief executive of Battery Low Interactive, said the turnout had exceeded expectations.
“We were absolutely blown away by the massive crowd and the sheer energy everyone brought to the floor,” Fahme said. “When we first started putting this together, we didn’t anticipate just how hungry the community was to connect.
“Seeing this level of passion proves that the game development scene in Bangladesh is alive, kicking, and ready to scale. For those we couldn’t accommodate this time due to space limitations, we are already looking into larger venues for our future events.”
The meetup opened with a keynote speech by Ershadul Hoque, founder of Rise Up Labs and a board member of IGDA Bangladesh. Hoque reflected on the early years of Bangladesh’s game development industry and discussed milestones achieved by local studios, including work that placed Bangladeshi developers alongside major global entertainment companies such as Disney.
A panel discussion followed, featuring Arif Mohammad, chief executive of Technomagic Pvt Ltd; Meheraj Hassan Maruf, vice-president of IGDA Bangladesh and chief executive of AttritoM7 Productions Ltd; and Niaz Murshed, secretary of IGDA Bangladesh and co-founder and chief executive of Auleek.
The panellists discussed the challenges facing local studios, strategies for sustainable growth and the difficulties of building game development companies in Bangladesh. They also addressed the current state of the country’s game development ecosystem.
The programme included a showcase segment in which Bangladeshi developers presented homegrown games and demonstrated their technical work. Attendees also took part in open networking sessions, sharing portfolios and discussing opportunities in interactive media, game development and immersive technologies.
