In Gaziantep, young computer-engineer entrepreneurs are building mobile games. Their titles have already been downloaded 30 million times, and the team, determined to make Turkey a serious player in the global mobile games industry, now ships a new game every week.
Abdurrahman Koçak began developing mobile games in 2015, founding a studio together with a group of friends who, like him, are computer engineers. Some of the games Koçak and his friends built have been played by millions and made it onto the App Store's 'best new games' list on iOS. Once their games passed 30 million downloads across mobile platforms, the young entrepreneurs caught the attention of technology investors. Having made their mark in the big-budget mobile games market, they secured 1.85 million lira in investment. With that backing, Koçak and his friends expanded their operations at the company they set up in Gaziantep University's Teknopark and, almost like a production line, began releasing a new game every week.
Abdurrahman Koçak, who leads the software team, said their games have been downloaded 30 million times worldwide and that this success led to their investment. Koçak explained that his team develops a new game each week and, after testing, releases it online for players:
"We develop mobile games and bring them to the whole world together with our publishers. Our earlier games reached 30 million downloads worldwide, and after that success we received support from an investor. With that investment we’ve grown our team, and now we build a new game almost every week. We test the games we make and publish the ones that perform well."
Koçak said his passion for games goes back to his childhood, when he already had ideas about building the games that kids play. Explaining that he chose to study computer engineering out of a desire to make games and bring his childhood dreams to life, Koçak added:
"I’ve had a passion for games ever since I was a kid. Every child played games; I would think about how to build them. Even as a young child, while playing, I always wondered how those games were made. I chose my field of study for the sake of those dreams. I’m a computer engineering graduate, and I’m also doing my master’s in the field. Through our work, we want to build a global brand out of Gaziantep. The games we develop right now are mostly hyper-casual titles. One of our games even climbed all the way to number one among the most-downloaded free games in the United States."
