As a teenager, Emirhan Gül was an avid gamer, so he was excited to join a gaming startup in Istanbul as a developer after graduating from university. As Turkey rode the mobile gaming wave, he worked on the design of 23 games over five months, but quickly became burnt out.
“The budget was high and the workload was high. They would hire anyone, even if they didn’t have a lot of knowledge,” said the 24-year-old. Rest of the world. However, “the idea of churning out games every week didn’t really appeal to me. It wasn’t a culture I particularly enjoyed.”
At the time, the mobile gaming industry was booming in Turkey. The country is home to more than 800 active game studios, making it Europe’s largest game development center after London. In 2021, more than half of the top 10 mobile games on Apple’s App Store were developed by Turkish studios, including the country’s first unicorn, Peak. In 2022, Peak’s rival Dream Games became the second unicorn.
These success stories inspired aspiring developers like Gül to study games and enter the industry. After leaving his job at a Turkish start-up, Gül turned down offers from American companies and started his own studio. With the launch of Claude Code in early 2025, Gul realized he only needed two full-time employees. This is just a fraction of the nearly 10 employees at my previous job.
“I’m the only developer on the team. When I started the team, I had to write all the code myself. I also have to manage game design, social media, investment meetings, etc.,” he said. “Claude Code makes everything so easy. It really speeds things up and is a big help.”
For Gul, Claude Pro’s $200 annual fee is worth it. Artificial intelligence tools have lowered the barrier to entry for independent developers like him. But as more gaming companies deploy AI tools, recent research shows that more than a quarter of gaming industry workers have been laid off worldwide in the past two years.
Instead of hiring five junior programmers, my developer friend uses AI to do all the work himself. ”Nazm Adakli, Bahcesehir University
Globally, the video game industry is worth more than $500 billion, with mobile games accounting for half of sales. It is dominated by large tech companies such as Sony Entertainment, Microsoft, and Tencent, which are also downsizing their operations. Microsoft Xbox announced earlier this month that it would cut more than 3,000 jobs, or about a fifth of its workforce, and sell five of its video game development studios.
The growth of Türkiye’s game development industry is also stagnant. The number of new game startups decreased from about 200 in 2021 to 84 in 2023 and 30 last year. Nazim Adakul, who lectures on AI in games at Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University, said jobs are drying up and major gaming companies are reluctant to hire entry-level employees. Rest of the world.
“A developer friend of mine does all the work himself instead of hiring five junior programmers at the startup he works for. AI,” Adakri said.
With generative AI, you don’t need any programming or design experience to develop your game. In places like Türkiye, AI tools are sparking a proliferation of independent developers and small studios. In 2023, the first Turkish event on Steam, the US-based digital distribution platform for computer games, received 67 applications from small, independent studios with two to three employees. One year later, the event received 254 submissions from such studios.
Ender Tınkır is one of the independent developers who left the big studios to become independent. At Peak, he worked on hit games such as Toon Blast. Two years later, he was at Dream Games developing the blockbuster games Royal Match and Royal Kingdom. In 2022, with the launch of ChatGPT, He decided to go solo, he said. Rest of the world.
“AI has become part of my daily work. I actively use it in many areas, from prototyping and visual variation to coding and iteration,” he said. “Many of my Turkish developer friends who left companies like Peak and Dream are starting their own solo studios using AI.”
Using Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI’s Codex, and Claude Cowork, Tınkır’s Play On Studios released its first mobile game, Zen Mahjong, earlier this year.
“Two years ago, I could never have imagined that I could make my own games,” Tınkır said. “We developed the game in just two months without any involvement in coding, design, or product decisions.”
The barriers to turning people’s ideas into products are disappearing. ”Ender Tınkır, Individual Developer
According to him, an investor approached Tunkle in June about starting an “AI-powered mobile gaming company.” The new studio has two employees.
“Over the next few years, the number of products being developed by individuals or very small teams will increase significantly,” Tinkle said. “The barriers to turning people’s ideas into products are disappearing.”
Still, only one in five game titles are profitable. Meanwhile, AI tools are making it easier to clone games and are replacing concept artists, writers and young developers, said Güven Çatak, founder and director of the Game Lab at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. Rest of the world.
He said the junior position was a “predicament” for the students. “The old path of ‘join a big studio, gain experience and move up to a senior position’ is a thing of the past.”
Adakri advises students not to waste time. “It’s a mistake to wait to get hired by a major studio. … They’re making games while they’re in college and signing deals with publishers,” he said.
“I tell my students: ‘This is the worst time to enter the gaming industry to find a stable job, but it’s the best time to start your own venture and realize your ideas,'” he said.
But the industry is becoming more competitive because anyone can easily develop and release games, said Begum Seren Onar, a 34-year-old game designer. Rest of the world. Onar was fired from his Istanbul-based game studio in December after a game his team had been working on for years failed. The studio decided to use AI to generate new product ideas and laid off 17 of its 20 employees, she said.
“More and more people are developing games independently, but most people don’t make a living from them,” she said. “Quantity does not necessarily mean success.”
