This year, the mobile gaming market in Poland could exceed a value of $142 million, and by 2027, the number of users could reach 6.5 million, according to data from the Statista portal. The entire broadly defined video game industry also has good prospects ahead, aided by technological and generational changes. Polish gaming companies are benefiting from these trends and seeing an opportunity for an ever-stronger expansion into foreign markets. Lichthund Studio, which recently debuted on NewConnect, utilizes artificial intelligence-based tools in the game creation process. Within the year, they plan to release two new productions – Food Truck Empire and Bulldog.
On July 18 of this year, the Warsaw Stock Exchange admitted shares of gaming studio Lichthund, which has been operating since 2015. Its debut game, Lichtspeer, an arcade-style spear-throwing simulator, has gained recognition from both gamers and critics. The company estimates the total number of game downloads to be around 140,000. By releasing the game on multiple platforms, it was distributed in more than 90 countries worldwide.
“In the next 12 months, we plan to release two games: Food Truck Empire, which is a tycoon management genre game, and Bulldog, which has not been officially announced yet and is being developed in collaboration with publisher Team17. We also plan its premiere for the next 12 months,” announces Rafał Zaremba, president of Lichthund, in an interview with Newseria Biznes.
Food Truck Empire is an economic-strategic game with an innovative food crafting system, where the player creates their own dishes. The player’s goal is to build an empire, starting with one food truck and a small base with a crowded garage. Eventually, his empire will have logistics centers scattered all over the city, food parks, gigantic marketing campaigns, and an entire fleet of various food trucks. This is a single-player game intended for PC.
Project Bulldog is intended to be a narrative RPG with management elements. It is being created with the financial and substantive support of Team17, a well-known company in the gaming industry.
“The funds from the NewConnect debut will go towards our third project, Husky. We will develop it to the demo stage using the funds raised from the latest issue,” says Rafał Zaremba.
Husky is intended to be an adventure game with agility elements and logic puzzles. It will debut at the earliest in 2026. The game will immediately have a co-op mode, enabling two or more players to fight together against AI-controlled opponents. Husky will also utilize haptic technologies, which allow players to feel tactile sensations corresponding to the actions taking place in-game. This is another studio production heavily utilizing new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
“We use artificial intelligence, not in what the player sees, but mainly in the game creation process. We previously used voiceovers for prototyping; we could lay down sounds for characters at an early stage using tools like ElevenLabs. They are not perfect enough to be finally inserted into the game and presented to players, but they greatly speed up game production, prototyping, and iteration,” explains Lichthund’s president.
Tools like ElevenLabs or DALL-E allow for automation and optimization of creative processes. An example is the use of voice synthesizers like ElevenLabs, which enable efficient testing and refinement of dialogues before recording final sessions with voice actors. Tools like DALL-E from OpenAI, an AI-based image generator, allow visual artists to visualize artistic concepts and create prototypes in much less time.
“Project management is much more important to us, when we can quickly respond and create what we want, the underlying technology is secondary. Of course, we use the Unity engine, which greatly speeds up game creation, and we also use aspects of artificial intelligence and algorithms. The most important thing, however, is to shorten the time of inserting into the game what the players need,” says Rafał Zaremba.
Lichthund adopted the philosophy of rapid prototyping. This method involves quick iteration, testing various concepts and ideas, and quickly assessing their effectiveness. This process allows for experimentation with various features, game mechanics, and interaction elements before integrating them into the main part of the product. This approach enables a faster adaptation to changing user needs and expectations.
According to the company, flexibility in using new technologies can be a key competitive advantage, including on the international market.
“Polish creators are seen as very ambitious on the international arena, mainly the world knows CD Projekt, Witcher, Cyberpunk. Thanks to CD Projekt, the Polish gaming market has developed strongly over the last decade, and Polish creators are known internationally,” assesses Lichthund’s president.
Data from Statista Market Insights cited by the company show that gaming market revenues have more than doubled in the past seven years, representing an average annual growth of 14%. In the coming years, further growth of the computer game market is forecasted, with an average annual level of 9.8% by 2027.
According to Newzoo estimates, the global gaming market was worth $184 billion in 2023. Last year, growth was recorded in the PC and console gaming segment. The value of the mobile gaming segment slightly fell, reaching $90.5 billion. However, Entertainment Software Association research for the United States indicates that smartphones remain the most commonly used gaming device.
Statista estimates that by 2024, the Polish mobile gaming market will reach a value of $142.4 million. The number of users in this market will grow steadily, with estimates suggesting that by 2027, there will be 6.5 million users. The percentage of the population using mobile games will increase from 15.9% in 2024 to 17.6% in 2027.
“We have recently seen a slowdown in the gaming market, with fewer acquisitions and, on the other hand, a big wave of layoffs. Now the market will be bouncing back,” emphasizes Rafał Zaremba.
In the company’s opinion, despite increased competition in the market over the past two years, the outlook for the broadly defined video game industry is good and will be strongly supported by demographic changes and technological progress. According to data from Newzoo’s “A New Era of Engagement in Media & Entertainment” report, cited by Lichthund, consumers spend almost 12 hours a week on video games and virtual worlds. Additionally, Newzoo’s “Global Gamer Study” states that eight out of 10 people from the total online population engage in video games in some form, from playing, to watching, to creating. Gaming remains the most common form of consumer engagement, with over three-quarters of the total online population having played games in the past six months. Demographic changes are strongly supporting this trend, particularly among the Gen Z and Gen Alpha generations, 90% of which are game enthusiasts.
