Google for Games × WeSmile at devcom, Cologne

Turning attendees into playable art and conversations into 1.4k leads in 12 hours

The Brief

At devcom, Europe’s biggest developer conference, Google for Games wanted an activation that showcased the future of gaming and AI while sparking real conversations with studios, publishers, and toolmakers. With approximately 5,400 attendees in 2025 the bar for attention and relevance was high.

Goal

Convert foot traffic into qualified leads and meetings
Demonstrate Google’s role in the AI-enabled game development stack
Give visitors a share-worthy, personal artifact that travels online and back to the booth

The WeSmile Experience

WeSmile built a custom AI Character Forge, a booth that transformed visitors into game-ready characters or concept-art portraits in seconds, framed by Google’s brand system.

A.I. Style presets (curated for dev audiences):

• Pixel Hero – sprite-sheet pose with CRT vignette
• Fantasy RPG Class – tank, rogue, mage with class-specific props
• Arcade Fighter – high-contrast, poster-grade finish
• Isometric – isometric retro-style games

Visitors stepped into the capture frame, select their game style and character style and watched their AI render + branded card appear on the boothdisplay within 20 seconds. Each output carried booth QR → landing page.

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Results

• 1,400 leads captured (GDPR-compliant), tagged by studio size, platform focus, AI interest
• Booth ops: ~507 photos with branding printed
• 12.2hr of experiecne time in the span of two days.

Why It Worked

• Personalization at the core: every guest became the hero; the output felt made-for-me.
• Signal > noise: the AI demo embodied Google’s value in games tooling—no pitch required.
• Frictionless capture: the asset was the carrot; lead capture felt like an unlock, not a wall.
• Right-fit format for devs: presets spoke the language of pipelines, art styles, and classes.

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