Someone in the Tribe makes slot games for a living. Yes, you heard it right, and they probably don't put it in their bio either. It’s not that the work is anything to be ashamed of (it's technically demanding and actually quite hard) but because iGaming with a lot of preconceived baggage. So they sit in their corner and don’t share. Well, we thought that was worth changing.

THU iGaming Lab is a three-day online event for creative professionals working in or curious about the iGaming industry. Just so you know, we’ll also be clear about what it isn't. It's not a celebration of gambling, it's not a recruitment pitch, and it most certainly isn’t here to flatten a complicated industry into a feel-good story. What it is is a real look at what it takes to make these products, who makes them, and what it's actually like when you're deep inside it.

And, go figure, it's genuinely interesting work. There are art directors building visual systems for studios releasing up to twenty games a year and it still, somehow, manages to have a point of view. There are sound designers constructing entire sonic identities for casino games, there are animators trying to answer whether storytelling even exists inside a slot machine (spoiler: it does), and almost none of these people have a place to share this stuff. So we did mind the gap.

We know the Tribe talks seriously about illustration, games, animation, and all the disciplines where the work is visible and the culture is celebrated. But iGaming employs just as many talented people, and demands just as much from them. Why this isn’t being seriously discussed makes no sense to us.

Now the hard part, because there is one. iGaming operates under real regulation, and carries real ethical responsibilities, which puts it in a genuinely complicated relationship with the people it entertains. We're not putting a bow on any of that. Quite the opposite. The conversations we're building include those hard questions about player experience, responsible design, and what it means to make something that works partly because of psychology. The best part is we know that people inside the industry want those conversations, they just haven't had many places to have them.

The event runs June 17 to 19. Three days covering careers, production realities, sound design (which alone could fill a programme, honestly), visual direction, animation, and storytelling. Questions will come up that any creative will recognise immediately, but applied to a context most of them haven't had a seat at before.

This was all built with the help from very cool people inside the industry who wanted to see it done right: @Juliano Castro, @Hennie Blaauw, and @Evgeny Viitman. That meant finding speakers who are actually doing the work, and creating space for these conversations.

Come have a look. Tickets are already available, and if you're a student, you can apply for a free pass.