If you’ve been paying attention to the casual games market, and even if you haven’t, I challenge you to answer honestly that there’s not at least one such title residing on your phone at this very moment, there’s a very high chance that said title was developed in, or has a connection to, Turkey.
Arguably, the Godfather of this movement is Istanbul’s Peak Games (which was acquired by Zynga in July of last year) and the backstory of their incredible recruitment drive now the stuff of legends.
Since this time, Peak has seen a number of successes, and employees. Some of which have graduated the ranks, and are now starting studios of their own. My case in point: Gleam Games.
Founded in January of this year by serial entrepreneur and former VP of strategy at Peak, Eser Yoğurtçu, the studio has launched its first title Fruit Match - Sweet Journey earlier this month.
True to the ecosystem's form and function, the game is free to play and includes in-app purchases ranging from the gimme-a-boost, right on through to the truly addicted at prices €0.99 through €99.99.
While the title itself isn’t blazing any new territory in terms of graphics or gameplay, the startup aims to set itself apart from the crowd with its proprietary cloud-based software technology called Marcus. Details were scant on the tech, but something tells me we'll hear more about this down the road. Likewise, it’s important to keep in mind the Peak lineage and that this is the fledgling company’s first market entry.
Gleam currently has a team of 12 with backgrounds including other Turkish gaming studios including Gameflex, Hi Games, Marvy Games, Genetic Studios, Roof Games, and Tosby Games, and is targeting the onboarding of another 23 team members in the coming months.
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