Akmal Salikhov

Akmal Salikhov is one of the pioneers of Uzbekistan’s gaming industry, with more than 15 years of experience in game development and digital technologies. His career began in the music field: in 2008, he became one of the first Uzbek artists to release an album on iTunes through the Magnatune label. Later, his interest in interactive technologies fully shaped the direction of his professional journey.

In 2016, he founded VRonica — a studio creating virtual and augmented reality projects for international companies, including British American Tobacco, Carlsberg, Fujifilm, UNDP, and USAID. In 2019, Salikhov launched Uzbekistan’s first game development incubator, GameDev Goethe, which attracted more than 500 applications and received support from NVIDIA in 2024.

Since 2021, he has been teaching game development at WIUT, where the number of students enrolled in his module has grown by 40%. In parallel, he mentors at IT Park, UNDP, and SeedStars. Today, working at East Games, he develops international projects, including Tanks Blitz, and strengthens the partnership with Lesta Games, contributing to the creation of Uzbekistan’s first major game studio and the development of new talent.