The Great Summer Pitch brought together over 230 game developers, publishers, and investors

The Great Summer Pitch 2026 was our biggest edition yet, bringing together more than 230 attendees and representatives from 56 companies for a full day of pitches, networking, game demos, and celebrations in Karlstad. To make this year's event even more special, we also celebrated 10 years of The Great Journey and a decade of supporting game developers and studios. We also saw an inspiring game design talk by Felix af Ekenstam, Creator of the hit game Battle of Polytopia.

From ambitious student teams to promising indie studios, this year's lineup was one of the strongest we've ever seen. The quality of both the pitches and playable demos made our jury's job incredibly difficult, and we're excited to follow the journeys of all the teams that participated.

Congratulations to our winners!

🏆 Best Pitch

The Magician's Hand by Laser Rabbit (Steam page: )

Prize package:

• 100,000 SEK

• Lurkit license (value 30,000 SEK)

• Keyboard and controller from 8BitDo (value 1,200 SEK)

The winner was announced by Elisabeth Solberg from Raw Fury. In addition to Elisabeth, the pitch jury consisted of Rebecca Lautner from Evil Landfall?, Binni Erlingsson from Behold Ventures and Gustav Linde from The Gang Studios.

🏆 Best Demo

Rhythm of Resistance by NetherMoon Game Studio (Steam page: )

Prize package:

• 25,000 SEK

• Northify QA support (value 40,000 SEK)

• Lurkit license (value 30,000 SEK)

• Keyboard and controller from 8BitDo (value 1,200 SEK)

The winner was announced by Erica Stjärngrim from Lurkit. In addition to Erica the demo jury consisted of

Congratulations to both winning teams! We can't wait to see these games reach players in the future.

A meeting place for the games industry

One of the highlights of The Great Summer Pitch is bringing together developers with publishers, investors, service providers, and industry professionals. This year, representatives from around 50 companies joined us, including Raw Fury, Mojang, Hazelight, Embracer Group, Behold Ventures, The Gang Studios, and SAGAS VC, creating fantastic opportunities for new connections and future collaborations.

The event once again demonstrated the strength of Sweden's indie game ecosystem and the importance of creating spaces where developers can meet, learn from each other, and showcase their work.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us, whether you pitched, showcased your game, attended as part of the audience, served on the jury, volunteered, or represented one of the many companies that made the day so special.

We're especially grateful to our incredible jury for generously sharing their time, expertise, and thoughtful feedback with every participating team.

A special thank you also goes to our event sponsors Raw Fury, Lurkit, Northify, Game Outlet Europe, and 8BitDo.

Finally, a warm thank you to Rebecca and Evil Landfall? for keeping everyone refreshed throughout the day.

Thank you for helping make The Great Summer Pitch 2026 memorable. We can't wait to see you again next year! Image gallery