Digital Game Design

A team of four students from the Department of Digital Game Design participated in Your Turn, a board game design and presentation event organized by Bahçeşehir University on May 9–10. During the event, the students showcased their board game Pulse, presenting it both for public playtesting sessions and to industry publishers. The event provided an opportunity to gather valuable feedback from players while also introducing the project to professionals from the tabletop gaming industry.

The first game project of Faculty of Art and Design graduate Berker Murat Görgülü, who contributed to the “Original Concept” and “Storytelling” aspects of the project, has been released on Steam under the title Taksimetre. Developed by Debt Driven Games the game offers a narrative-driven experience centered around managing a taxi station. Players are tasked with assigning the right drivers to the right customers while making important decisions throughout the day and attempting to pay off a debt left behind by their uncle within 15 days.

Organized by the Department of Digital Game Design, the fifth meeting of the Dev-Meets event series was held on Wednesday, May 6 at 12:00 in Seminar Hall II. The event featured Cultic Games founder and creative director Can Oral alongside production executive Görkem Emrullah as guest speakers. During the session, the team shared the studio’s journey from its foundation to its current projects, discussing their development processes and experiences within the game industry.

As part of the event organized by the Department of Digital Game Design, the third game session titled Cardora Game: QA Testing was held on Wednesday, April 22, between 13:00 and 18:00 in the Digital Game Design Game Room on the first floor. With the participation of Nightbadgers and Media Zone, the session introduced participants to Cardora, a medieval-themed card game. Students from various departments across the school showed great interest, experiencing both the multiplayer mode and the roguelite-inspired single-player mode.

Organized by the Department of Digital Game Design, the fourteenth meeting of the GameTalks event series was held on Thursday, April 16 at 13:00 in room AK-B1-1, featuring game marketer and multidisciplinary producer Ata Deniz Oktay as the guest speaker.

Organized by the Department of Digital Game Design, the thirteenth meeting of the GameTalks event series was held on April 4 at 13:00 in the Ground Floor Seminar Hall II, featuring Özgür Deveci, Business Development Manager at GameDev İstanbul, as the guest speaker.

Organized by the Department of Digital Game Design with the contributions of the İKÜ OTG Club (Game Design and Development Club), Spring Game Jam 2026 was held between April 3–5, bringing together students for three days of creativity, collaboration, and game development.

Set in a medieval theme, Cardora is a brand-new card game designed for players who love classic card mechanics but are looking for something different. Built upon a poker-based system, the game challenges players to achieve the highest synergy through powerful combinations formed at the end of each match.

Each session offers new chaos, new tactics, and a new story. Cardora features both a competitive multiplayer mode and a roguelite-style single-player mode, providing varied strategic depth and replayability.

The jury session for first- and second-year students was held as part of their final evaluations for the Game Development 1 and Programming for Game Design courses. 

The fourth Dev Meets event organized by the Digital Game Design Department took place on Wednesday, December 17, featuring guest speaker Hamza Başoğlu, co-founder of Biotech Gameworks.

During the event, Başoğlu shared his experiences in founding a game company, offering valuable insights into both the creative and operational aspects of entrepreneurship in the game industry. He discussed the origin story of Biotech Gameworks and provided an in-depth look at the journey from early ideas to team building, project development, and shaping a sustainable company culture.