Alp Karaata

🎮 🗣️ 🙏 Games, talks and collaborations. ✨ These three words came to me while updating my portfolio. 🏷️ Tag your friends in the comments to share more and grow with games. https://lnkd.in/dFCQQAdx #game #network #gamedev #network #connect #collaborations #opportunity #opentowork #gamepublish #marketing #gaming #steam #wishlist #steammarketing #epicgames

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💫 Turkey’s gaming scene is growing fast, with over 30 million gamers. I really believe it’s a great opportunity for international game studios or game products! Here’s how to connect with Turkey’s young, tech-savvy gamers: -Go Local: Tailor your content to fit the Turkish culture. -Social Media: Use platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to reach them. -Influencer Collaborations: Partner with popular Turkish gamers and streamers. -Get Involved: Participate in local gaming events and online tournaments. The Turkish market is full of energy and opportunity. Want to know more? Let’s chat about it. 👊 #GameMarketing #Turkey #GamingCommunity

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🇹🇷 I started analyzing 250 PC Games under ‘’Land of the Crescent 2024’’ on Steam, all made by Turkish Developers! -Wow! This is the biggest Turkish PC Games Sale event. As the analysis will go on, more details will reveal. I spent hours creating a custom list, partnered with Video Game Insights on this precious analysis, Hoping to shed light on the industry. 👇 Steam link on the comments So far here are the questions you may ask: >Is the Turkish PC Game Development going good? -Yes, it could be better, but yes. We are learning. >Did majority of mobile developers turned in to PC? -No, they did not. Some of them did, while majority Continues on mobile development. >Is this all the Turkish PC Games developed? -No it is not, there is more, just not listed here. >Are they all making Simulator or Horror games? -No they are not, Action is a big focus though. >Are they all Indie and recently released? -We have AAA and AA, mostly indie. All these games were released in different years. We are working to sort Year-Release analysis. This is barely a scratch on the analysis, many games have only been announced, but still listed. Stay tuned for more updates. Best of luck and kudos to all developers listed! CHEERS! DM me for questions, suggestions or just comment! PS: Cultic Games thanks for the great illustration. Thanks to BUG Lab TEKMER for putting together this event on Valve corporation's Steam Land of the Crescent: Games from Türkiye #videogames #gameindustry

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I’m excited to announce the launch of a new series where I'll be sharing my insights and perspectives on the latest developments in the gaming and ad tech industry. In our first piece, I’ll explore the factors behind the Turkish gaming industry's remarkable boom ⬇️ 1. The Turkish government puts money back into the gaming industry - Thanks to the lack of capital gains tax and some employees' exemptions from income tax, money is being reinvested in the games sector. - As announced by Tugbek Olek earlier this year, the government is also covering 50% of two development staff's salaries up to €50k and reimbursing Apple's and Google Play's 30% commission up to 50% and €100k.    2. A young, gaming-focused population  - A 2022 study found that 81% of adults in Turkey play mobile games. And with 44% of the population under the age of 30, a vast majority of the workforce attended Turkish universities and studied abroad – coming back with an international and entrepreneurial mindset. They were able to apply their ideas and create some of the great games companies we see today like Dream Games, Peak, Spyke Games, Masomo and on the hyper/hybrid casual side Rollic, Alictus, Good Job Games and Panteon. 3. International investors  - Building off the support from the government, external investors are becoming more open to investing in Turkey. And with more money coming in, better games will be developed. - If money is kept in the sector, there's a very high chance international companies will reinvest, and now we are seeing the results in the form of a thriving gaming hub. When I started out in the industry in 2012, it was just a matter of time until Turkey became a big name in gaming. Now I'm looking forward to seeing where not only the giants will develop, but also keeping an eye on Fugo Games, Vertigo Games, Fomo Games, Gamegos, Tiramisu Studios and Zuuks Games. 

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💥 Hi everyone, We often talk about Turkish games coming to the USA, but what about USA games going to Turkey and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) regions? There are huge opportunities here! Why Turkey and MENA? - Turkey: Over 32 million gamers! The market could make over $1.5 billion by 2024. - MENA: More than 100 million gamers! The market might be worth over $6 billion by 2024. Why Bring Your Game There? - Diverse Players: Gamers in Turkey and MENA like all kinds of games, from mobile to big console games. - High Engagement: Players are very active on social media and gaming forums. - Strong Purchasing Power in MENA: Gamers in that region is ready to spend money on good games. - Government Support: Countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE support the gaming industry with incentives. Why Now? - Better Internet: Improved internet and more smartphones make gaming easier. - Cultural Relevance: Games that include local themes or languages can become popular quickly. - Esports Growth: The rise of esports offers more chances for competitive games. Let's Talk! Are you a game developer interested in new markets? Let's discuss the potential of bringing your game to Turkey and the MENA region. There are great opportunities! #GameMarketing #Turkey #MENA #GameDevelopers

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How we're educating game developers and building the future of game development. For example at Istanbul Blockchain Week we hosted two groundbreaking events that highlight our commitment to advancing blockchain gaming. Here's what we created for developers: Day 1: Community Building ↳ Open networking event ↳ Developer meetups ↳ Idea exchange sessions ↳ Team introductions Day 2: Professional Development → Interactive workshops → Expert panel discussions → Special ceremony: First-ever physical certificate awards for our training course graduates Why this matters? We believe in building success through education. Whether it's: - Workshop learning - Panel discussions - One-on-one mentoring Every interaction is an opportunity to grow together in the blockchain gaming space. This is just the beginning of our journey in revolutionizing game development education.

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⚡🕹️Project Showcase: Skeleton Lord -Let's talk about my newest game “Skeleton Lord”. We developed this game with my dear friend Elif Azra MURAT in a period of 1 month. You can download and play on itch.io:https://lnkd.in/d7w5iRXB -This project is the same as “Telekinesis Samurai”. Since I developed both games in the same time, it helped me improve myself a lot in Unreal Engine 5 and C++. About the game: 📌 In this game, we have sword and shield, magic and lightning throwing abilities. 📌 In a small village, we pass various skeleton enemies ( wizard, meleee, bomber) and fight with skeleton lorda who has the same characteristics as us. 📍 Game Title: Skeleton Lord 📍Development Time 1 month 📍Publication Date: July 20, 2024 📍Developed with: Unreal Engine 5 C++ 📍Art and Design: Elif Azra MURAT created 3D models (Sword, Player Character) Youtube: https://lnkd.in/dsvSsZq7

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Should a game developers be strictly focused on their current niche or should they search for wider expertise? White Nights has posted the recordings from WN Istanbul and I am happy to share the recording of my talk on the topic of porting AA games from PC to consoles based on the experience of Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition project: https://lnkd.in/dk2Aa7uu I had some concerns if it was the right place to hold such a talk, as the biggest part of the conference’s participants were mobile developers, marketing agencies and very small indies, and my topic was mostly out of the scope of their business niche. But Rami Ismail who was present in the audience supported me and told me that he considered it important and interesting for game developers to look outside their current focus and be aware and be prepared for challenges and projects that they may face in future: “You talk may raise indie dev’s interest in consoles and attract them to new markets…”. What do you think guys? Should a game developer be strictly focused on his current niche to become successful in it? Or should one look outside the scope and search for extended professional erudition? - Please, comment.

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🎮 Top Game Picks of the Week! 🎮 Welcome back to another week of exciting mobile game discoveries! This time, we’ve got a thrilling mix of strategy, matching, and puzzle games that have kept me hooked all week. Let’s jump right in! --- 1) TDS - Tower Destiny Survive by SayGames 👑 King of the Castle (or Tower!) In this super fun tower defense game, you'll find yourself defending your very own tower against relentless waves of zombies. It’s not just about surviving; it’s about strategically building and fortifying your tower to withstand the onslaught. The cute animations combined with the challenging gameplay make this game a standout title. If you love strategy games that test your tactical thinking, this one’s for you! Appstore - https://shorturl.at/ZzzUI Googleplay - https://shorturl.at/D9LSn --- 2) Triple Treats: Tile Match by Calumma Games 🍰 A Sweet Debut! Calumma Games has hit the ground running with their first release, Triple Treats. This adorable tile-matching game takes you on a sweet journey where your matching skills will help you create delectable bakery masterpieces. The beautiful visuals, paired with a fresh building meta system, make this game a delightful treat for both your brain and your eyes. Perfect for a relaxing yet engaging gaming session. Appstore - https://shorturl.at/WFMfX Googleplay - https://shorturl.at/VVIju --- 3) Magic Sort by Blu Studios 🔮 A Magical Twist on Sorting Puzzles Magic Sort brings a new dimension to the classic water sort puzzle genre. Help Wizard George sort out his magical potions in this beautifully designed 3D puzzle game. The animations are incredibly smooth, making the gameplay both relaxing and challenging. If you enjoy puzzle games with a bit of magic, Magic Sort is definitely worth a download. Appstore - https://lnkd.in/djVAbUVx Googleplay - https://lnkd.in/ds5y3XDk --- That's all for this week's top game picks! Each of these games offers a unique experience that’s sure to keep you entertained. Give them a try, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments below. Happy gaming! 🎮

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I was recommending for years to move from mobile market to Steam and shift production to PC projects, because it's more rewarding, stable and fair. You literally can expect result without tossing a dice every time you publish a game or update. Why so? Well, let's deep into some facts and compare two markets: - Most mobile teams/companies, especially in HC genre was motivated by the fact they was able to get enormous amount of money from the "7-days prototype game". - But on average they was needed to spent from tens to hundreds attempts during YEARS, with no guarantee to success. - Recommendation algorithms on distribution platforms such as Play Market created in a way to make developers highly dependent on the advertisements and force them to pay for every user, leading them to maintain user conversion really hard. - Experienced developers who have worked with Play Market since it's start know how much the recommendation algorithms has changed during the years, completely destroying possibility to get meaningful native traffic without paying for every user. - Even direct search app by it's unique name will have no success and Play Market will rather show not relevant results. This happens because Google desire what app is more important and profitable to them. - Low entry border of HC games and semi-random trends created strong illusion to companies that they can pack whatever quality product and sell it to players. This was illusion even before HC crash happened, because so many teams tried and only a few achieved success without understanding what they should do nowadays to keep the auditory interested, but whatever was before is not the case anymore. - Mobile gaming auditory is more sensitive to troubles in the games, no matter what it is: UI/UX issue, game play issue, complexity, bug or tutorial. Any small mistake can and WILL ruin the metrics of the game really hard, unlike in PC gaming, where players more patient, challenging and open to feedback and discussions. - As the result >99% of HC teams has failed on this route, when they was able to ship several PC projects(1-2 per year at least) and get guarantee profit from each, often enough to continue improve and develop the games. This is not a case for platforms such as Steam, because it's search and recommendation algorithms always helping to interesting and even less popular games to find it's auditory. Even most bad games receives some players as well as income. Moreover PC gaming community is so well developed they will advertise your game better than any marketing company you can spend budgets on. This is the fact. And vice-versa: hyped advertisement company will often gives 0 guarantee to make games successful. You don't need to jump into trends in PC gaming industry, but instead you always free to setup your own trend, if idea of your game is complete and playing well.

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We joined to Ludum Game Jam 55 with my friend, forcing our developing abilities to maximum! Though, we had no time to add Turkish as a language, so beware of it before trying it! (Language is no part of it but still, feels wrong to not add it onto a game I make as a turkish person) I created a summoning system based on the order of the inputs you put in. Basically like Helldivers' stratagem system. I will explain how I coded it later on! Here ya go:

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Community Expectation Setting Friends, after my family and day job, I dedicate everything I have to Amir Satvat's Games Community. However, there are practical limits to what even I can manage, so I want to outline these clearly. What I can do: Create and update resources for our community. Stay in touch with our Discord team, which is run by an incredible group of mods and lead mods. When they have specific concerns, they elevate them to me. Focus on collaborative opportunities with other communities, hiring managers, and recruiters, and ensure our resources are updated and populated at scale. Share interesting and varied content weekly to keep our community informed, inspired, and connected. What I can’t do: Be involved in the day-to-day management of our Discord community - that’s handled by our mod team. Provide individualized support like reviewing CVs, offering mentorship, or managing one-on-one requests. Category 2 on our website has thousands of volunteers setup to help with exactly this because I knew, eventually, my personal availability wouldn't scale Split the work of existing community resources or my inbox - I appreciate the offers! They’re already set up in the most efficient ways possible or involve proprietary data I protect as part of my promise to the community. Engage in anything related to commercial opportunities - this community isn’t about generating profit. Make individual posts or reposts for people seeking work - if I can’t do it for everyone, I won’t do it for anyone, to remain fair and impartial. Keep in mind tens of thousands of people are looking so this has nothing to do with my empathy for your situation but, rather, reflects that I must maintain equal empathy for all situations. You might wonder why I emphasize expectation setting so often. It’s because of the sheer scale we operate at. There are months when we reach 500,000 unique users, and even with 10–20 hours a week to dedicate, handling what is within scope is already a significant undertaking. If you’re reaching out because you’re wondering how to use our community or where to start, here’s all you need to do: 1. Visit amirsatvat.com and patiently walk through resources 1 to 15 - it takes 15 minutes. 2. Join our Discord at discord.gg/amirsatvat and browse all our support there. 3. Check out the one-pager on our website's landing page, which better describes our resources, and also find it pinned in my favorite posts. These are all designed to be very self-explanatory and easy to navigate. I’ll reference this note as a short-form response to inquiries when appropriate. Thank you all for being part of this incredible community and for reviewing this note carefully Amir

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⚡🕹️Project Showcase: The Timeless Archer 💫 As I mentioned in a previous post, by improving the bow and arrow mechanics and adding two fun and challenging enemy types, my dear friend Elif Azra MURAT and I created this demo game together. You can download and play on itch.io: https://lnkd.in/dEwV6FW2 📌 In this game, you play a archer who has the ability to slow down the time and shooting arrows. You can dodge attacks by dashing. 📌On a small tournament field, you will fight against: 😈 Telekinetic Thrower: Can attract objects from the surroundings and throw them at the player. 😈Invisibility Archer: An archer that turns invisible, dashes to a specific point on the map, and then fires an arrow at the player or along their running path. 📍Developed With: Unreal Engine 5 C++ Credits: ⭐ Elif Azra MURAT: 3D models (Player Character, Bow and Arrow) ⭐Haktan Çağrı Kodat: Developer Youtube:https://lnkd.in/dbAX7sMs

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We discussed recent developments of AI in audio and video production with Gobavo. Big thanks to Gökmen Bayraktar for having me🤘

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My 8 take aways + 5 Expert insights: Must see for any mobile developer to evaluate publishing! I listed top mobile game publishers over the years. My take aways go like these: ✦ Azur Games reminds 2018-2021 Voodoo growth! ✦ Voodoo, Rollic, SayGames and Homa; All had successful transition to hybrid casual! ✦ Scopely's Monopoly Go! is the most successful mobile game of the last 2 years. Change my mind. ✦ Playtika turned on acquisitions to gain impact. ✦ Zynga acquisitions are WELL paying off. ✦ There is a drastic drop on downloads - (23%) So make every download count! (monetize 🤷‍♂️ ) ✦ No such a thing as saturated genre! (Monopoly Go!, Match Factory, Royal Match) ✦ Despite lower downloads, Supercell holds its grip.  (not because of Squad Busters 🙁 ) My special guests ! Yağız Gür ✦ SciPlay’s Alictus, Playtika’s SuperPlay acquisition &  Product Madness's incubator show a significant thing:  ↳ They're smartly redirecting casino profits into social  casino and casual gaming to find their next big hits. Ömer Yakabagi ✦ Azur's dominance is driven by strategic  acquisitions of tastypill and Good Job Games,  Dominating top charts with since 2020. Playtika's acquisitions of Superplay, YoudaGames,  and Innplay Labs highlight its aggressive expansion to enhance market share, innovation, & monetization  in casual and social gaming. Jakub Remiar: ✦ Rollic successfully mastered the formula of hybrid  puzzle based games with multiple hits.  Monopoly Go! is the most successful mobile game  in the west, but worldwide it is Dungeon and Fighter. Mariusz Gąsiewski ✦ This heavily shows the change that industry made as it needed to find the way to monetize each download better. Due to last years mobile gaming grew more  ↳ by heavier monetization rather than downloads. Anton Slashcev ✦ The current market with high competition and  declining downloads would be to study sub-genres  in more detail and find rapidly growing niches.  For example, take a closer look at sort puzzle, visual novels, match-3D, and merge. ↳ Avoid overcrowded and declining genres like;  bubble shooter, team battler, hidden object,  match-3, and arcade sports. Thank you AppMagic for being the data provider.   If you are looking for more details and I believe you are since you read through here 👀 Check out more on the link below: ↳ https://lnkd.in/dQXHXBVT Or get in touch with Andrei Zubov, Diana Levintova What are your take aways? Cheers! #gamedevelopment #gamedesign #mobilegames #videogames

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How has hyper-casual changed the Turkish gaming ecosystem? Turkey has made major progress especially in the mobile gaming ecosystem between 2019 and 2023. It has become a successful ecosystem in terms of hyper-casual production. It was a small step especially for those who want to produce games. Let's not forget that Rollic is a big factor here. We have become a country that is the focus of successful hyper-casual games. We have also become the center of attention of other publishers. Let's leave aside the big match-3 games. Mobile game companies that could sustain their revenue cycle continued their lives. With the effect of the great crisis, the saturation of the market, the normalization of life after the pandemic and the decrease in mobile game revenues, some companies closed down and some companies looked for a way out.  Here we saw how talented studios are in the Turkish gaming ecosystem. An option was found for companies with survival skills "simulation games" Most of these game companies were successful or unsuccessful studios coming from mobile game production. When we look at the simulation games coming out of Turkey recently, we see that they are successful and more games will come. I'm not saying this to belittle the games; The knowledge and experience gained in hyper-casual production pushed these studios to simulation production. Less production load, use of prepared assets, less risk and high profit possibility (like as hyper-casual know-how) Anyway, if you analyse these studios, most of them are studios coming from hyper-casual or their employees are like that. If these studios can survive the next recession and generate a revenue cycle, the next step will be to release more different games with stronger development and marketing knowledge. These games may seem like short-term successes. This shows that the pains of the hyper-casual genre are behind us. I am sure that we will see more impressive games in the coming years. In this sense, Turkey is an ideal place to invest for the gaming ecosystem. All you need to do is to discover studios or person with high survival skills. #simulationgames #gameinvestment #gameindustry #videogames #gameproduction #gamemarketanalysis

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15 Insightful take aways from Mobidictum that you want to hear: ✦ Location was great and everyone was happy with it. ↳ Easy to get in and out (besides Istanbul traffic). ↳ Breakfast and lunch were amazing, coffee was not. ✦Major stakeholders from last year with big booths: ↳ Were only present with their business developers and some didn’t even show up, that’s not good. ✦Pretty much every game tech is looking for a game developer who has ‘’potential’’. Where are they? ↳ Probably at home, working on the game. ✦While these developers looking for investment: ↳ because publisher deals and trust is damaged. ✦Meanwhile investors looking for early metrics and staying away from new developers, ↳ So whole thing is ‘’TANGLED’’ ✦There were almost only B2B people, so whoever you ↳ run in to has either something to sell or buy. ✦Great positive vibes among all people on the floor. ✦Too little time, too many people to meet: ↳ so I missed almost all keynotes. ✦I didn’t see any AI or ‘’blockchain’’ people. ↳ Where did they go? ✦User Acquisition is a ‘’hot’’ topic and companies ↳ offering alternative UA channels has increased. ✦Self Publisher is the word everyone talks about ↳ but only few know what it means. ✦Almost all gametech companies offer a referral ↳ its like people are hiding a good studio under  their basement and chasing these offers. Are they? ✦Turkish Indie PC games are looking better! ↳Yet haven’t seen a unique gameplay, yet. ✦There are MAJOR game studio shifts between ↳ well known publishers as some of them are increasing their presence in Turkey, again while others looking for something else. => Whole TANGLED situation will be solved with One or two hit games coming from the area (mobile) By a small studio, again. Everyone is looking for them, while they are quietly working on it. For more, hit me up and let’s talk! Was your experience better than last year? Cheers! PS: Met many wonderful people again, Jakub Remiar and Felix Braberg were there. It was good to see Ömer Yakabagi but missed Yağız Gür. Many surprise names and ex-colleagues(Rollic) I cant name, but they were browsing, let me just tell you that. Special thanks to Batuhan Avucan and whole Mobidictum team for their hospitality, Emre Çakan, Sina and Yunus AYYILDIZ for sharing the stage. Looking forward to see more industry professionals next year like Sergei Vasiuk, Anton Slashcev and many more. Also there were few closed events, thanks to Alp Geven for the invite! #videogames #gameindustry #conferences

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SayGames consistent portfolio strategy is paying back, as we see Tower War scaling to more than $1 Mil. 🤑 IAP only revenue a month. We got to chat with Anton Volnykh (SayGames's Chief Publishing officer) about some of those portfolio decisions, especially around My Perfect Hotel and Dreamdale 😎. The company is a masterclass in efficiency as it currently has only 170 😱 people, with the portfolio downloads crossing already 5 Billion downloads 💹. This is especially true if you look closely at some of the recent updates of their games. We can see clear synergy, where an update in one game result in positive uplift and then it is quickly translated and adapted across other portfolio games, even though it is built by completely different game teams. A good example of this is the addition of permanent progression into My Perfect Hotel 🏨 during last year. This was done after we covered it in a separate episode on the podcast, and you could see it being adapted across whole game, where the daily quests system, battle pass and even old hotels now give you this permanent progression coins 📊. Now that it was proven and AB tested that this system works 💡, you can see this same system being integrated into Tower War (image on the right). Again same strategy was applied, where slowly the team is adding more progression and metagame layers into the game, scaling it constantly. Join us, as we discuss all of this and more together with 🦩 Matej & Felix and big thanks to Anton for coming on the pod and sharing a lot of interesting insights 😁. Data based on Sensor Tower, thanks for the support 🤗 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dXPfRuJ3 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/d8MsZad4 🗣 Join the discussion in our slack channel: https://lnkd.in/eGr8EDe6 #gamedev #gamedevelopment #gamedesign #gameindustry #mobilegames #mobilemarketing #mobileadvertising #userexperiencedesign #userexperiencen #gamedeveloper #games #gameart #ads #creative #casual #hypercasual #hybridcasual #puzzle

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Excited to Attend the Mobidictum Conference in Istanbul Next Week! 🇹🇷 I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be heading to Istanbul for the Mobidictum Conference next week! 🎉 I'll be presenting a talk on the State of Hybrid Casual Games with Jakub, where I'll cover: - Ad Formats Used by the Highest Scaling Games 📊 - Exploring the most effective ad formats that top-performing hybrid casual games are leveraging to maximize revenue and user engagement. - Segmentation Formats and Their Impact on Ad Revenue 📈 Diving into the various segmentation strategies available and how they influence different ad revenue percentages, helping you optimize your monetization approach. See you in Istanbul! 🕌✨ #Mobidictum2024 #HybridCasualGames #GameDev #AdMonetization #MobileGaming #Segmentation #GameDesign #GamingIndustry #Istanbul #Conference #Networking #MobileAds

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