Turkish mobile game industry on way to providing 100,000 jobs

Dominating the market, the mobile game industry is known for its vast export, employment and growth potential. And over the last few years, Türkiye has emerged as one of the global hubs for mobile gaming.

Most developers used to be based in Istanbul, but that trend has changed as they have spread to Anatolia, with southwestern Denizli province home to one of the fastest-growing hypercasual studios in Türkiye, Daily Sabah reports.

Tiplay studio has been generating jobs and creating exemplary projects with its business model. Through its oFON Incubator and accelerator program, as well as an apprenticeship program, it seeks to mobilise new talented teams, designers and software developers to the gaming industry.

"We believe that the oFON Incubator will turn teams trying to develop games with limited opportunities into enterprises that achieve global success in a very short time," said tiplay studio CEO Mehmet Umut Ermeç.

The oFON Incubator is seeking to support early-stage mobile game startups in building the future of the ecosystem. Teams of at least two members with limited professional experience can apply for the incubator, which prepares them for its accelerator program.

Startups that go through the program receive financial, technical and entrepreneurial support.

"We have achieved the success of 20,000 people so far. In three years, 50,000 people and in five years, 100,000 people will start producing games played by millions around the world," said Ermeç, outlining their road map.

New talent, programs

Tiplay has been developing different game genres suitable for multiple platforms, including hypercasual, arcade idle and Snap games. It launched the oFON Incubator with the support of the video game giant Zynga’s hypercasual game maker Rollic in 2019, focusing on creating a globally sustainable ecosystem.

The incubator paves the way for promising teams to be included in the oFON accelerator program.

The oFON Incubator will help participating teams develop in areas such as idea generation, creativity and technical proficiency to make them successful gaming initiatives operating within the oFON accelerator, aiming to pave the way for tens of thousands of potential gaming entrepreneurs.

Outlining exemplary projects with a new revenue-sharing model, tiplay studio continues to bring new talents to the sector with its apprenticeship program.

Teams applying

It is promising that an initiative from Denizli is putting forward ideas that will reveal its potential for growth not only in its own city but throughout Turkey.

"In order to apply to oFON Incubator, it is necessary to have a team of at least two people. Experienced leaders of tiplay studio review all oFON Incubator applications and give positive or negative feedback, and accept the teams after testing their games that are uploaded to the system during the application process," said Ermeç.

Game industry shines in 2021

Tiplay studio continues to make the lives of hundreds of millions of people more fun, both as a game company and as a global enterprise.

Following the apprenticeship system and the oFON accelerator, the necessary steps are taken to create a sustainable ecosystem with the oFON Incubator. The gaming industry has turned into a sector that has attracted the most investments in recent years.

While the Turkish startup ecosystem received a total investment of $1.2 billion in 2021, one dollar out of every four invested was made in the gaming sector.

In the coming years, this rate will increase even more and the gaming sector will become the powerhouse of Turkey, and tiplay studio will continue to be one of the leading companies laying the infrastructure of this great change.

41 million players

The gaming sector in Türkiye is becoming more and more popular. The total number of players has increased from 36 million to 41 million in 2021, Ermeç said.

"In the global gaming sector, Türkiye continues to wave the leadership flag in the hyper-casual genre and remains one of the most important ecosystems in the world in the casual mobile game genre," he noted.

"Tiplay studio is also moving rapidly toward the goal of entertaining hundreds of millions of people from all segments by both expanding its product line and increasing its team strength. In the second half of the year, we will continue to invest in the potential of Turkey with hundreds of talented colleagues who we will have included in the oFON Accelerator, oFON Incubator and apprenticeship system."

Set up in 2019

As an ever-growing game development player, tiplay studio is focused on creating a globally sustainable ecosystem.

Founded in 2019, tiplay focuses on the development of hypercasual, arcade and Snap games.

The company behind Water Shooty, Car Restoration 3D and Pair Up games is now aiming to become one of the players "igniting the growth wick" in the mobile game sector from Denizli.

Among others, Queue Jumping, Joust Run, Dodge Master and Swords Maker games are being developed by teams within the oFON accelerator program supported by Rollic.

The company, which has also developed a platform called Online WorkSpace (OWS) to enable its studios and oFON teams to remotely manage game development processes such as idea creation, iteration and quality control, employs more than 60 people.

Tiplay is also included in the Snap Game Partner program and developed its first Snap game in 2021.

Last December, it raised around $1 million from a group of investors that included Re-Pie, one of Turkey’s pioneering investment companies, and experienced businesspeople such as Kerim Kotan and Saruhan Tan.

At the beginning of 2022, tiplay studio was accepted into Snapchat’s accelerator program, Yellow, a platform that provides a community and mentorship to aspiring developers.

It has three offices in Türkiye – two in Denizli and one in Izmir.