The Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) is recruiting up to five Korean indie game companies to participate in the 2026 Sweden Game Conference (October 15-16, Kulturhuset, Skövde) through its supported overseas market entry program. The headline benefit: economy round-trip airfare for one representative per selected company, with ticketing handled by the program office.
Applications are accepted through the WelCon platform (welcon.kocca.kr) only — no email or postal submissions — through July 27, 5:00 PM KST. The WelCon application must be fully completed (not just started) before the deadline.
What the Program Covers
KOCCA provides exhibition and consultation space (demo table in the Korean joint pavilion), business matching facilitation, visits to Swedish game companies and clusters, local industry network connections, and advance market information. One economy round-trip airfare per selected company is covered and booked by the program office; departure and arrival dates cannot be changed for personal scheduling reasons.
What participants pay for themselves: accommodation, individual local transportation, travel between Stockholm and Skövde, demo equipment (laptop, promotional materials), and shipping costs for exhibition items. The overall structure is meaningful support toward the biggest cost barrier — the flight — while participants bear the ground costs.
The Sweden Game Conference itself is organized by Sweden Game Arena and includes business consultations, investment attraction sessions, academic conference programming, networking, and pitching sessions. Participants interested in the pitching component should note that Sweden Game Pitch is a separate selection program run by the conference organizers — KOCCA program participation doesn’t automatically include pitching; companies must be separately selected for that.
Eligibility
Two conditions must both be met: the company must be a domestic Korean indie game developer with clear intent and purpose for entering Nordic markets (English business communication capability is preferred), and the company must have been founded less than five years ago. If submitting a game that has already launched, it must have been released within the past 12 months.
Excluded: consortium-structured entities, domestic branches of foreign companies, publishers, platform companies, and technology-holding companies (without game products), companies with unpaid national or local taxes, and companies under KOCCA participation restrictions.
Selection Criteria
Evaluation is scored out of 100 points; companies averaging 70+ from the review panel are ranked by score for selection.
Content competitiveness (35 points) is the heaviest category: overseas competitiveness of the submitted game, alignment with target market trends, localization status, and awards or recognition. Overseas market entry capability (25 points) follows, then specificity of participation objectives (20 points) and clarity of participation plan (20 points).
Required Documents
Seven items must be submitted through WelCon:
- WelCon application form (including content information registration in My Page)
- Additional application form (signed/sealed, HWP or PDF)
- Direct participation personnel and stakeholders list (Excel)
- Personal information collection/use/provision consent form (signed, PDF)
- Business registration certificate (PDF)
- National tax payment certificate within the past year (PDF)
- Local tax payment certificate within the past year (PDF)
Post-Event Obligations
During the event, daily consultation activity reports must be submitted. After the event, participating companies must submit a business outcomes report and register results in the WelCon system within 14 days of the event’s conclusion. These are mandatory, not optional — they’re how KOCCA tracks the return on its investment in the program.
Key Dates
- Application period: July 10 – July 27, 5:00 PM KST
- Selection results: August
- Pre-event preparation: August-September
- Event participation: October 15-16 (with possible 1-2 day extension for company visits)
- Outcomes management: November
Contact
Program inquiries: Kim Hyun-a (klara.k@kocca.kr) or Kim Su-min (ksm.se@kocca.kr) at Sweden Business Center. WelCon platform inquiries: 1566-9984 or welcon@kocca.kr.
Why Sweden Game Conference
Sweden’s game development industry punches far above its population weight — it has produced Minecraft, DICE (Battlefield), Avalanche Studios, Fatshark, and dozens of other studios that have shaped contemporary gaming. Skövde specifically is home to Sweden Game Arena, a game industry cluster that has been building since 2007 and now encompasses studios, educational institutions, and the conference itself.
For Korean indie developers specifically targeting European market entry, Nordic game culture has specific characteristics worth understanding before arriving: a strong indie development tradition, audiences who have historically been receptive to unconventional and artistically ambitious games, and a publishing ecosystem that includes several studios actively looking for international co-production partners.
Five spots. Free flights. Applications close July 27.
