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.
One of the most vibrant sections of the Games for Change 2025 Istanbul event, hosted by Bahçeşehir University, was the Arcade area, which showcased a variety of innovative and impactful games. Among these, one of the standout titles was “Monkey Business,” developed by Research Assistant Orhan Yavuz Erhan and his team, all consisting of students from Bahçeşehir University’s Game Design Master’s Program.
As part of the inspiring Games for Change 2025 Istanbul event, hosted wonderfully by Bahçeşehir University, one of the standout sessions came from Şeyma Nur Tahmaz, instructor in the Digital Game Design Department. Her presentation, titled “The Same Walls, Different Worlds: Urban & Virtual Accessibility,” was featured within the special theme of Critical and Practical Perspectives in Impact Game Design, one of the key focus areas of this year’s gathering.
Hosted wonderfully by Bahçeşehir University, Games for Change 2025 Istanbul brought together the gaming industry, academia, and students over on December 6–7. On the second day of the event, the panel titled “Gender Equality, Diversity and Community Building in Gaming” provided an in-depth discussion on how inclusivity and diversity can be strengthened within the world of games.
The twelfth GameTalks event organized by the Department of Digital Game Design took place on Thursday, November 27, featuring guest speaker Emre Gökçe Çimen, an accomplished artist.
During the session, Çimen explored the role of visual design in both board games and video games, demonstrating how art functions as a powerful storytelling and world-building tool. He discussed essential elements of visual design; such as character design, environmental storytelling, color theory, and composition, and explained how they shape the player’s experience.
The eleventh GameTalks event organized by the Digital Game Design Department took place on Wednesday, November 26, featuring guest speakers Zeynep Burcu Kaya Alpan (Arcade Coordinator) and Meral Didar Ağlaç (Program Coordinator) from Games for Change Türkiye.
