Call For Papers

The Game Hacking Village at DEF CON 34 (August 6-9, 2026, Las Vegas Convention Center) is now accepting submissions for talks!

The Game Hacking Village is focused on the technical and creative aspects of game hacking, including reverse engineering, modding, exploitation, and more. We are looking for educational content, sharing knowledge, and demonstrating techniques in a community-driven environment. We do not promote or enable cheating especially in live online environments.

Talk Formats

  • 30-minute talks (ideal for focused technical demos or targeted topics)
  • 60-minute talks (for in-depth presentations, multi-part demos, or workshops)

Live demos, code walkthroughs, hardware teardowns, or tool showcases are highly encouraged.

Topics We Are Looking For

We welcome submissions on (but not limited to) the following areas:

  • Novel game mods or tools that provide substantial improvements, new features, or quality-of-life enhancements
  • Hardware-based game hacks or modifications (custom controllers, console modchips, FPGA reproductions, peripheral reverse engineering)
  • Techniques for understanding modern anti-cheat systems (purely educational/research-focused)
  • New anti-cheat measures and research (e.g. AI detections)
  • Exploitation of vulnerabilities in modern titles, retro consoles, PC engines, or mobile games
  • Speedrunning tools, glitch hunting, or software-assisted speedrunning advancements
  • Game server reimplementations, protocol reverse engineering, source code restoration, or emulation enhancements
  • Historical perspectives on game cheating, modding scenes, or notable hacks/exploits from past decades
  • Reverse engineering of game engines, file formats, networking protocols, or AI behaviors
  • Emulation advancements, accuracy improvements, or hardware-level emulation challenges

Important Guidelines

  • No commercial promotion: Talks must not advertise, sell, or directly promote commercial cheat services, paid cheat software/hardware, or any for-profit products/services
  • All content must remain ethical in presentation and focus on research, education, or historical analysis
  • Multiple submissions from the same author(s) are permitted
  • You may resubmit information prior to the deadline

Submission Details

Submit your proposal: Google Form

Milestone Date
Last day to submit June 14, 2026
Notifications by June 23, 2026 (or earlier)
Draft slides by July 24, 2026

If accepted, you will receive a DEF CON Badge with a Village Speaker lanyard. !!!!! DO WE WANT THIS

We look forward to your submissions. See you in Vegas!