Indie Dev Releases Tearful Message After Multiple Laptops Are Stolen At Gamescom - Kotaku
“All our laptops have been stolen,” says Laley in his post to X, trying to hold back tears. No cameras?” Laley replied, “Meant to be 24-7 security and limited access at night. ” We spoke to Laley to get the latest on the situation.
Ryan Laley is the indie developer behind October’s Mimic, an impressive-looking asymmetric multiplayer survival horror. Attending this week’s Gamescom in Germany to promote his game, the British dev has posted to X to report the news that he and multiple other developers have had their laptops stolen from the convention’s business suite. In a tearful message, he explains the devastating loss and how “Gamescom is over for me.” Speaking to us a few hours later, Laley reports that while he still feels sick about it, “the support has been overwhelming.”
Gamescom is the world’s largest gaming event, combining the industry aspects of the former E3 with the public show floors of PAX, seeing over 350,000 people showing up each year to the Cologne, Germany convention. Opening Night Live gives it a high-profile start, before the show floors start heaving. For developers, especially indie devs, this can be an opportunity not only to get their games in front of the public, but also publishers and other developers. Ryan Laley was one such attendee, with a booth in the “Business” area of the show, which promises 24/7 security such that it’s a place where items can be left securely. Except it is being reported that on the morning of August 28, multiple developers entered to find that their equipment had been stolen overnight.
“All our laptops have been stolen,” says Laley in his post to X, trying to hold back tears. “Not just mine, others as well.”
My #gamescom cut short. Our equipment was stolen last night from the booth.
Police reports have been filed.
At a loss for words to describe the feeling. Just defeated. Gonna do my best with what's left of the week.
But a huge blow financially and mentally pic.twitter.com/dKpp3Of6df
— Mimic | Ryan Laley (@RyanLaley) August 28, 2026
“As an indie, solo dev,” Laley continues, “this shit’s expensive, and hard to do all by yourself. To have this happen is beyond frustrating, it’s heartbreaking.” He adds, “The whole area has been raided.”
The incident has been reported to Gamescom management and also to the police, although Laley holds little hope of anything being recovered. When someone asked, “No security? No cameras?” Laley replied, “Meant to be 24-7 security and limited access at night. So no idea.”
Meant to be 24-7 security and limited access at night. So no idea. Next time will have to take security into my own hands and extra secure things up or take them back to the hotel each night (which would be a massive pain)
— Mimic | Ryan Laley (@RyanLaley) August 28, 2026
We’ve reached out to Gamescom to ask about the robbery, how it was able to happen, and whether the event is insured such that it can replace the attendees’ equipment. We’ll update if we hear back from either. Meanwhile, Laley reports that he’s had an “outpouring of love and support from everyone.”
Today at gamescom we arrived to our station in the business area hall to discover that our two laptops had been stolen over night, despite the presence of Koelnmesse security.
These were machines we were using to demo iam8bit Presents titles Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2 to…
— iam8bit @ gamescom hall 5.2 stand C051 (@iam8bit) August 28, 2026
Update: 08/28/2026, 3:30 p.m. ET: Video game publisher and merch company iam8bit says it also had laptops stolen from Gamescom. These laptops contained unfinished builds of two different games: Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2.
“This is hugely disappointing for us and our development teams at Nano Park Studios and Coin Crew Games who worked tirelessly to prepare for this show. ”
We spoke to Laley to get the latest on the situation. He told us that he knows at least seven or eight laptops were stolen in the incident, and re-emphasized his bemusement that it could happen. “Being in the business hall one would expect it to be more secure, and we were told it’s 24-7 security and no equipment can be removed without authorization.”
Many have reached out to Laley, including the developers of some of his favorite games, Playtonic, and most recently CD Projekt via the company’s Cyberpunk 2077 account. We asked what that experience was like. “A rollercoaster of emotions,” he said. “This morning [I] felt sick, spoke to [my] wife, had a cry, then rallied myself.” He put out a video to his YouTube channel where he teaches on the Unreal Engine, and “then the support came flooding in.”
We are very sorry this happened to you. We hope you know you’re not on your own with this. And while it won’t help right this second, we’ll check the Arasaka hardware archives and see if we can send a few things your way. No choom should have to start from zero. 🤝🏼
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) August 28, 2026
“No idea how to handle it, to be honest,” Laley told us, laughing, adding that he’s “just so appreciative of the support and love from everyone here and online.”
When one person asks if he will set up a Go Fund Me or the like, the developer replies, “Thanks man but it’s okay, just wishlist my game and share the page would be enough.”
Updated: 08/28/2026, 12:29 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comments from Ryan Laley.
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