Author: Yane Calovski, Artistic Director, Press to Exit Project Space
Introduction
Not long ago, I had the privilege of speaking with Danko (Dan) Dimoski as part of the research phase of the Empowering Youth Talent (EYT) project, but our acquaintance reaches back much further. I have known Danko since he was a teenager through his father, Vlado Dimoski, a deer friend and generous collaborator with whom I pleasure to set up numerous visual art exhibitions over the years.
Danko is a remarkable young talent. Over the past decade, he has established himself as an internationally recognised game designer, working across independent and AAA productions. He is currently Lead Game Designer at Glorian Games, where he leads the design and development of new game projects. Previously, he worked as a Senior Game Designer at Nimble Giant Entertainment, contributing heavily to their new games pipeline and games in development. While working in mobile he has surpassed over one billion downloads. Earlier in his career, while working with NapNok Games in collaboration with PlayStation Studios, he contributed to the development of two first party development BAFTA-nominatedgames. But, before dedicating himself fully to game design, Danko studied Film and Television Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje and worked as a film producer and director—an experience that continues to shape his understanding of narrative, character, and player experience, as reflected throughout his responses to the EYT questionnaire.
What has always stayed with me is not only his intelligence or creativity, but also his generosity, modesty, and clarity of thought. When we began developing the research component of the Empowering Youth Talent project at Press to Exit, one of our objectives was to speak with practitioners whose experiences could genuinely inform the educational Toolbox we are creating for young creatives across Europe. Rather than documenting success stories, we wanted to understand how creative careers are actually built, which competencies become essential over time, and what educators might learn from those experiences.
Knowing how demanding his professional schedule is, I expected finding time for an interview to be difficult. Instead, I sent Danko a list of questions and he responded with characteristic generosity, recording a thoughtful seven-minute video in which he answered with remarkable openness and precision. That willingness to pause, reflect, and contribute to a project intended to support younger generations of creatives says something important about the kind of practitioner he has become.
See the projects Danko is involved in:
Nekome: Nazi Hunter : https://store.steampowered.com/app/4200110/Nekome_Nazi_Hunter/Frantics : https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/229768/Chimparty : https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/232849Sausage Wars : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2290210/Sausage_Wars/
Creativity Inside the Machine
The first question I posed was simple: What are the biggest challenges you face in your creative career today? Rather than lamenting commercial realities, he described creativity as an ongoing negotiation between artistic expression and production.
“The art form in which I express myself is business-driven. It is very difficult to truly express myself because everything is connected to how commercially successful the project will be.”
His reflections recall Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s understanding of creativity as something that emerges within relationships between individuals, professional fields, and broader cultural systems. Listening to Danko, I was reminded that this negotiation is familiar across contemporary art as well. Exhibitions, commissions, institutions, and funding structures all shape artistic possibilities. The games industry simply makes these dynamics more visible, while revealing creativity as a profoundly collaborative practice.
From Cinema to Interactive Worlds
Growing up in Skopje, Danko wanted to work in video games, but there was no educational pathway into the profession. Film therefore became his foundation. As he observed:
“In theatre or film, the audience watches the story unfold. In games, players shape the experience together with the creator.”
This distinction transforms authorship itself. Rather than presenting a finished narrative, game designers create conditions in which multiple narratives emerge through participation.
This understanding resonates with Johan Huizinga’s concept of play as a fundamental cultural activity and James Paul Gee’s argument that games are sophisticated environments for learning through experimentation, adaptation, and collaboration. The player does not merely consume meaning but actively produces it. Asked which skills he still wished to develop after years of professional success, Danko offered a surprisingly simple answer: programming. His response reflects intellectual humility. Expertise, he suggested, is never complete. Donald Schön described this as reflective practice: professionals continually learn by adapting to new situations rather than relying on fixed knowledge. Artificial intelligence may accelerate production, Danko noted, but it cannot replace judgement, curiosity, or imagination. Creative education should therefore cultivate lifelong learning rather than mastery of today’s technologies alone.
Communities of Practice, Opportunity and Responsibility
One of Danko’s strongest observations concerned professional relationships:
“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a single job or project without a friend of a friend reaching out to me.”
What he described was not networking in the superficial sense but communities built through trust, generosity, and long-term collaboration. Etienne Wenger’s concept of communities of practice helps explain why creative careers develop through participation with others rather than individual achievement alone. Mentorship, collaboration, and shared experience remain essential forms of learning.
Reflecting on today’s industry, Danko observed that young creatives increasingly struggle to gain the very experience employers demand. AI, changing production models, and fewer junior positions make entry into the profession more difficult. His observations remind us that talent alone is never enough. Access depends upon opportunity, mentorship, language, and supportive professional ecosystems. Preparing young creatives therefore requires more than technical training; it requires creating conditions in which emerging practitioners can meaningfully participate.
In conclusion, Honesty as Pedagogy
The final question concerned advice for educators. Danko’s response was clear:
“Be honest with young creatives. The games industry is exciting, but it is also ruthless.”
Throughout our conversation, he returned less to talent than to learning, curiosity, collaboration, and resilience. These qualities align closely with the aims of the Empowering Youth Talent project and with the transversal competencies identified across our broader research. Creative careers are sustained not by brilliance alone but by continuous learning, generous communities, and the willingness to adapt.
Empowering young creatives ultimately means creating environments in which they can continue asking questions, collaborating across disciplines, and contributing meaningfully to cultural life.
Primary Source
Dimoski, D. (2026). Video responses to a structured interview questionnaire prepared by Yane Calovski for the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership Empowering Youth Talent (EYT), Work Package 2: Research and Toolbox Development, Press to Exit Project Space. Unpublished video recording.
LinkedIn. (2026). Danko Dimoski – Professional profile. Retrieved July 2026 from LinkedIn profile.
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.