Referring to the importance of the game industry for the Turkish economy, StartGate CEO Mustafa Cihat Durmuş said, “We hosted young people from all over Turkey in this game development event we created. Cave Jam’23; “In addition to creating a knowledge pool, a network between talents, new ideas and opportunities, it also became an indicator of Turkey’s high potential in the gaming industry.”
The winners of Cave Jam, founded by Ataberk Palacıoğlu, one of StartGate’s game producers, were determined at the event held at StartGate Campus, organized by IdeaGate, one of StartGate’s subsidiaries. At the event, which was held for the seventh time this year with the theme of “Mysterious Machine”, 15 of the 405 games developed competed in the final and three games that met all the criteria shared the top.
405 “Mysterious Machine” Themed Games Developed
The awards to the finalists of Mağara Jam’23, which was held at StartGate between 16-19 November and broke a record with 150 physical and 5 thousand 350 online participants, were again given their awards at StartGate Campus.
Among the 405 games developed during the Jam, the evaluation phase began after the presentations made by the teams that qualified for the top 15 as a result of public voting and jury evaluation, one by one, and the Cave Jam jury determined the first three games. Games were evaluated based on visuality, originality, game design, sound and music, story and compatibility with concept and theme. Among the games developed with the theme of “Mysterious Machine”, Ali Emre Küçükkurt’s “Makinerik” came first; Fadeos team’s “This Piece!” game came second, and Mötiv team’s game “Jutholmen” came third.
The winning teams were given many supports and gifts to improve their game development processes. The game team that wins first place will have the opportunity to attend office and StartGate training for a year at StartGate; The second and third teams were given support including a six-month open office opportunity at StartGate. In addition to the winners, gifts consisting of game development equipment were distributed to the other teams that qualified for the top 15.
Cave Jam of the Firsts
Making a statement about the 7th Cave Jam hosted by StartGate, Founder Ataberk Palacıoğlu said, “We continue Cave Jam with more partners every year. The number of participants, which was around 4,500 in previous events, reached 5,350 this year. This jam, which we held as a partner this year with StartGate, which sponsored us last year, was very important for the game developers as well as Cave and StartGate. Developers experienced 72 hours focused solely on gaming with StarGate’s technological equipment, infrastructure that meets every need and the support of its successful team. “This made a significant contribution to game production,” he said.
Stating that many firsts were achieved at the event, Palacıoğlu pointed out that Mağara Jam is both a leverage and a value-added platform for the Turkish game industry. Stating that Mağara Jam, where international game developers participate more and more every year, plays an important role in the development of the Turkish game ecosystem, its visibility and the concretization of its potential, Palacıoğlu stated that one of his future goals is to carry Mağara Jam abroad and said: “Mağara Jam “By turning it into a brand, we aim to attract more investments to our country and ensure that young people are visible on the international stage through this brand.”
“We Hosted Young People from All Over Turkey”
Referring to the importance of the game industry for the Turkish economy, StartGate CEO Mustafa Cihat Durmuş said, “Hosting Cave Jam’23, which ended with a record participation, was a good experience for both us and all young game developers who attended such an event for the first time.” . We hosted young people from all over Turkey in this game development event that we created together with the Cave Jam team and its Founder Ataberk Palacıoğlu. Cave Jam’23; In addition to creating a knowledge pool, a network between talents, new ideas and opportunities, it became a new indicator of Turkey’s high potential in the gaming industry.
Digital gaming is one of the most popular professions of the future. Its importance is increasing day by day in globalizing competition. Therefore, we must support young people for both economic and technological development and support their ideas and creativity.
As StartGate, which acts with the aim of taking the gaming world to the top with all its stakeholders and processes; “We will continue to organize similar events that contribute to the industry and make Turkey’s name heard in the world,” he said.
What Happened at Cave Jam?
405 games were developed over three days at Cave Jam, held at StartGate Campus between 16-19 November. The event received more than 270 thousand traffic and more than 820 thousand interactions in total. While the games on the website received more than 41 thousand downloads in total in three days, the live broadcasts on YouTube were followed by more than 134 thousand people and received more than 1 million views in total. The event, in which more than 8,400 people participated in the voting, ended with the announcement of 3 winners.
