Xsolla’s Manny Hachey joins Azerbaijani developers at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne to discuss how incubation, mentorship and global industry access can help turn early-stage ideas into viable games businesses
Xsolla’s Manny Hachey joins Azerbaijani developers at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne to discuss how incubation, mentorship and global industry access can help turn early-stage ideas into viable games businesses
By Jude Ower
The first of two special episodes recorded at the Xsolla Clubhouse during Gamescom 2026 in Cologne spotlights the Xsolla Incubation Program and the emerging generation of games developers coming out of Azerbaijan.
The Incubation Program works with Azerbaijani teams through mentorship, industry expertise and practical support designed to prepare them for the global games market. Run with the support of the Azerbaijan Innovation & Digital Development Agency, the initiative forms part of wider efforts to strengthen the country's games ecosystem.
In my conversation with Manny Hachey, Senior Director of Developer Success at Xsolla, she explains that the longer-term ambition is to help developers create sustainable businesses and intellectual property rooted in Azerbaijan but capable of global export. With my co-host Mathias Gredal Nørvig, we introduce three studios and their projects:
Ibrahim Qurbanov, Co-Founder of BloodBuzz Studio - ‘Swarm’ - a stealth-action game in which players take on the roles of mutated mosquitoes.
Niyazi Khidirov and Turzan Dunyamaliyev, Co-Founders of Massive Dreamers Studio - ‘Enjoy Your Stay’ - a hotel simulation game.
Zeqam Huseynli, Founder, and Isgandar Panahov, Founder and Creative Director of VIA Studio - ‘Dead Ducks Don't Bluff’ - a tabletop game.
This interview with Manny Hachey – hosted by Jude Ower - has been edited and condensed from the original Good Game Club podcast for length and clarity.
Xsolla’s Manny Hachey joins Azerbaijani developers at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne to discuss how incubation, mentorship and global industry access can help turn early-stage ideas into viable games businesses
By Jude Ower
The first of two special episodes recorded at the Xsolla Clubhouse during Gamescom 2026 in Cologne spotlights the Xsolla Incubation Program and the emerging generation of games developers coming out of Azerbaijan.
The Incubation Program works with Azerbaijani teams through mentorship, industry expertise and practical support designed to prepare them for the global games market. Run with the support of the Azerbaijan Innovation & Digital Development Agency, the initiative forms part of wider efforts to strengthen the country's games ecosystem.
In my conversation with Manny Hachey, Senior Director of Developer Success at Xsolla, she explains that the longer-term ambition is to help developers create sustainable businesses and intellectual property rooted in Azerbaijan but capable of global export. With my co-host Mathias Gredal Nørvig, we introduce three studios and their projects:
Ibrahim Qurbanov, Co-Founder of BloodBuzz Studio - ‘Swarm’ - a stealth-action game in which players take on the roles of mutated mosquitoes.
Niyazi Khidirov and Turzan Dunyamaliyev, Co-Founders of Massive Dreamers Studio - ‘Enjoy Your Stay’ - a hotel simulation game.
Zeqam Huseynli, Founder, and Isgandar Panahov, Founder and Creative Director of VIA Studio - ‘Dead Ducks Don't Bluff’ - a tabletop game.
This interview with Manny Hachey – hosted by Jude Ower - has been edited and condensed from the original Good Game Club podcast for length and clarity.
Jude Ower: We’re here at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne during Gamescom, and I’m joined by Manny Hachey, Senior Director of Developer Success at Xsolla. Manny, welcome. First of all, can you tell us a little about your role?
Manny Hachey: I'm the Senior Director of Developer Success at Xsolla, and I help take care of various programs which are directly involved with studios around the world, usually indie studios that are starting out, their companies, their game projects, who want to go the next step - kind of professionalize or connect and network with the rest of the industry. A lot of them are looking for funding. And trying to help them professionalize and understand the ecosystem, the market, how it works and how they can succeed with Xsolla’s help.
We’re really interested in spotlighting different markets in the global games industry. Can you tell us what’s happening in Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan has been a very interesting project for us. We started there last year. The government and our Xsolla department have been in conversation to try to support the local industry. They're trying to evolve their local industry, their local businesses, and the games industry is something that is always very attractive because for young people to want to start their own business, to want to do something they love and they're passionate about very often you're going to get games - as this kind of dream. The government's been very supportive and very active in trying to develop this ecosystem. We've worked with over 20 developers by now in various programs. Five of them are here actually exhibiting their games as well at the clubhouse.
We’re going to be talking to some of the game studios that have been through the Incubator Programme, but can you tell us about it and what inspired its creation?
I came to Xsolla about two and a half years ago to create an accelerator program. I come from over 15 years of game industry experience. I ran a studio for seven years as the chief operations officer, and it was not easy. There's lots of ups and downs, so the inspiration for the program and how it's being led is heavily influenced by my own experience running the studio, having worked with other indies running their studios. We were given this mandate from the Azerbaijani government, from the IDDA (Innovation & Digital Development Agency) to support the industry as much as we could and the local teams.
We started with an incubator, and we've run two formats of the incubator. These help very early-stage studios or teams that aren't even studios yet, who are looking to explore how to change a paper concept into an actual playable demo.
The next iteration of this is going to be a bit more on the professional sort of next step of your business, potentially studios that have already released a game or two and are looking to connect to the rest of the industry and learn the next steps after this one.
How do you select the participants? How many applications do you typically receive and how many are then put through into the incubator?
I believe we’ve received up to 50 applications. We drill it down to what is the passion behind the team a lot. One of the things in the games industry that drives people is really the passion they have in their own project. The more passion, usually the more endurance they will have for the troubles ahead.
If it's early-stage studios, we don't quite look at the experience because a lot of them, this will be their first project. We look at the novelty of the project of the game - do they bring any unique selling points? Are they doing anything different? Do they have a quirky story idea? Any of these things where we think, ‘Oh, this has a twist, this has something that I think we can develop into something.’ And then we narrow it down and make our final selections. The last incubator we chose 15 studios to join us, the one prior was 10, and the next accelerator will be five.
What support does the incubator actually provide?
Mostly mentorship and expertise. We have a program of on-demand videos that are pre-recorded where we worked with around 45-50 experts on their specific topics. Then we offer weekly or biweekly mentoring. Then we have the one-on-one expert where we kind of give topics to the studios to choose from. Do you need help with marketing, game design, engineering? And then we'll try to match them with an expert for up to four sessions, for example, where they can get some very, very focused questions and answers sessions with these experts.
Is it too early to say, or have you seen successes in terms of studios that have gone on to receive funding?
Absolutely. We have had quite a few of our incubated studios receive funding or find funding after the program. This is obviously a big success for us, and we are keeping an eye on game launches. Games take time to launch, so we're always very happy to see when one comes out the door. We'll keep an eye on it, but I would expect that quite a few games will be coming out within the next two years. When you mentor someone, you know that it's a 2-to-5-year journey from beginning to end for a lot of them. So, we're in it for the long run.
How do you measure success, what key metrics are you looking at?
We're looking at very importantly for many of these government organizations is IP creation. You want to create a cultural export within a country, right? Games, brands, characters, stories which belong to an Azerbaijani person or entity company. If you can get this going, it's considered an advantage for people to be able to play a game. And then they look up who the developer is and they're, ‘Oh, it's someone from Azerbaijan.’ And then maybe you've never really heard of Azerbaijan, you've never really heard of Baku when you start to look it out. Every game that is successful from a country, because games are media, they traverse borders like almost nothing else. It gets people curious; it gets people interested. And of course, it bolsters the local economy and ecosystem as well.
I can’t wait to see what comes out of the region. I’m really looking forward to talking to the studios as well, to see what they’re working on. Thank you so much, Manny.
Thank you so much.
Watch or listen to the full conversation with Manny Hachey as part of the Xsolla Incubation Program episode on the Good Game Club podcast here Good Game Club Podcast - YouTube.
Manny Hachey: I'm the Senior Director of Developer Success at Xsolla, and I help take care of various programs which are directly involved with studios around the world, usually indie studios that are starting out, their companies, their game projects, who want to go the next step - kind of professionalize or connect and network with the rest of the industry. A lot of them are looking for funding. And trying to help them professionalize and understand the ecosystem, the market, how it works and how they can succeed with Xsolla’s help.
We’re really interested in spotlighting different markets in the global games industry. Can you tell us what’s happening in Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan has been a very interesting project for us. We started there last year. The government and our Xsolla department have been in conversation to try to support the local industry. They're trying to evolve their local industry, their local businesses, and the games industry is something that is always very attractive because for young people to want to start their own business, to want to do something they love and they're passionate about very often you're going to get games - as this kind of dream. The government's been very supportive and very active in trying to develop this ecosystem. We've worked with over 20 developers by now in various programs. Five of them are here actually exhibiting their games as well at the clubhouse.
We’re going to be talking to some of the game studios that have been through the Incubator Programme, but can you tell us about it and what inspired its creation?
I came to Xsolla about two and a half years ago to create an accelerator program. I come from over 15 years of game industry experience. I ran a studio for seven years as the chief operations officer, and it was not easy. There's lots of ups and downs, so the inspiration for the program and how it's being led is heavily influenced by my own experience running the studio, having worked with other indies running their studios. We were given this mandate from the Azerbaijani government, from the IDDA (Innovation & Digital Development Agency) to support the industry as much as we could and the local teams.
We started with an incubator, and we've run two formats of the incubator. These help very early-stage studios or teams that aren't even studios yet, who are looking to explore how to change a paper concept into an actual playable demo.
The next iteration of this is going to be a bit more on the professional sort of next step of your business, potentially studios that have already released a game or two and are looking to connect to the rest of the industry and learn the next steps after this one.
How do you select the participants? How many applications do you typically receive and how many are then put through into the incubator?
I believe we’ve received up to 50 applications. We drill it down to what is the passion behind the team a lot. One of the things in the games industry that drives people is really the passion they have in their own project. The more passion, usually the more endurance they will have for the troubles ahead.
If it's early-stage studios, we don't quite look at the experience because a lot of them, this will be their first project. We look at the novelty of the project of the game - do they bring any unique selling points? Are they doing anything different? Do they have a quirky story idea? Any of these things where we think, ‘Oh, this has a twist, this has something that I think we can develop into something.’ And then we narrow it down and make our final selections. The last incubator we chose 15 studios to join us, the one prior was 10, and the next accelerator will be five.
What support does the incubator actually provide?
Mostly mentorship and expertise. We have a program of on-demand videos that are pre-recorded where we worked with around 45-50 experts on their specific topics. Then we offer weekly or biweekly mentoring. Then we have the one-on-one expert where we kind of give topics to the studios to choose from. Do you need help with marketing, game design, engineering? And then we'll try to match them with an expert for up to four sessions, for example, where they can get some very, very focused questions and answers sessions with these experts.
Is it too early to say, or have you seen successes in terms of studios that have gone on to receive funding?
Absolutely. We have had quite a few of our incubated studios receive funding or find funding after the program. This is obviously a big success for us, and we are keeping an eye on game launches. Games take time to launch, so we're always very happy to see when one comes out the door. We'll keep an eye on it, but I would expect that quite a few games will be coming out within the next two years. When you mentor someone, you know that it's a 2-to-5-year journey from beginning to end for a lot of them. So, we're in it for the long run.
How do you measure success, what key metrics are you looking at?
We're looking at very importantly for many of these government organizations is IP creation. You want to create a cultural export within a country, right? Games, brands, characters, stories which belong to an Azerbaijani person or entity company. If you can get this going, it's considered an advantage for people to be able to play a game. And then they look up who the developer is and they're, ‘Oh, it's someone from Azerbaijan.’ And then maybe you've never really heard of Azerbaijan, you've never really heard of Baku when you start to look it out. Every game that is successful from a country, because games are media, they traverse borders like almost nothing else. It gets people curious; it gets people interested. And of course, it bolsters the local economy and ecosystem as well.
I can’t wait to see what comes out of the region. I’m really looking forward to talking to the studios as well, to see what they’re working on. Thank you so much, Manny.
Thank you so much.
Watch or listen to the full conversation with Manny Hachey as part of the Xsolla Incubation Program episode on the Good Game Club podcast here Good Game Club Podcast - YouTube.
