Active game developers in the Mena region are less well known by gamers and other video game enthusiasts. Burak Tezateser is one of these Turkish game developers who has published two games in his career so far.
To learn more about this game developer, we planed an interview with him. Hoping to continue this trend in relation to other developers in the region.
Burak Tezateser founder at Nowhere Studios (Right)
Bazinegar: Can you please introduce yourself and talk about your experience in video game industry?
Burak Tezateser: I’m working in games since 2010. Started as a producer and evolved into designer in time. I founded Nowhere Studios in 2011.
Tell us about your studio, how many are you right now? Are you hiring more people?
Nowhere Studios has 9 full time developers now but we have also a few freelancers we work frequently. We’re almost always hiring as other studios. We’re looking for people sharing our mindset and taste in games and if they’re also good at what they’re doing and pleasant people to work with, we eventually end up together.
Burak Tezateser founder at Nowhere Studios in university
What is your goals and plans for the future of your company? Are you going for a new genre?
We want to make good games. We don’t have a sale target or a game with huge scope to go for. We want to make games that lots of people love and can’t stop talking about. We’re trying to mix good narrative with clever mechanics. We’re interested in RPG, simulation, strategy games and adventure games. I know this is a wild range but we have expertise on these areas and every game we make will be a combination of these main genres.
Burak Tezateser next to Monochroma main character
How would you describe your company games Monochroma and Circadian City to someone who isn’t familiar with them?
Monochroma was puzzle platformer with silent narrative. It tells the dystopic story of two brothers in an atmospheric twisted 1950’s world. Circadian City is an imaginary city from today’s world. Yet it’s a utopia where there is no violence and the city is full of friendly NPC’s. Players will go back andforth between their dreams and real life and improving their personality is key in advancing in the game.
In my first review of Monochroma, I felt that the game was designed very similar to Limbo, except that it had simpler puzzles.as can be seen from the media reviews, the average score of the game is about (Metacritic 55) and the critics liked the game to some extent, but had some drawbacks to the design.in relation to this game, explain the stages of its production and publication, and what achievement did you got from the production of this platformer game?
There is a dramatic difference between Metacritic and user reviews on Steam. I believe media was a bit too obsessed about the comparison with Limbo. Limbo was a great game and if you compare any game with Limbo the other game will look bad. Yet puzzle platformer players who played lots of games before Monochroma and Limbo thought it’s a cool game with some flaws and I think it’s fair to say that.
Circadian City
Your company’s second game, Circadian City, was released this year, six years after the previous game. What is the reason for the long production process?
We haven’t been working on Circadian City during all that time. There was two other projects we started but we had to cancel. We also spend some time for porting Monochroma to consoles. Yet we don’t want to stay silent for that long after Circadian City. We want to build a community expecting new games from us. Long silences is not great for keeping fanbase.
far is the production of games in Turkey from the high level countries in game development industry?
I think Turkey is doing pretty well in the game industry compared to other countries with similar economic size. Mobile is doing really great and PC / console is fairly doing well. Yet experienced talents tend to leave the country and seek jobs in more developed countries.
How do Turkish gamers react to games made in their own country?
I think it’s polarized. If the game is good then they became fans but if the game is not their type or it’s plain bad, then they criticize it very harshly. Just like a football team competing in a national game. If the team does well everybody loves them, if they lose, they are doomed.
Do you know about game industry in Iran? Which Iranian games were you familiar with?
I met lots of artist, programmers and directors from Iran. All the people I met so far was great people in their area. Yet I can’t tell a game I played and enjoyed from Iran. I think there is a shortage of good designers or studios.
Do you know that Iranian video game developers face obstacles due to sanctions, which sometimes they can’t say in which country their game was made? Because if they announce, the foreign publisher will not work with them.
It’s really sad that video games are sanctioned. I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately I know artists and developers who can’t go back to Iran because of their views. That’s very bad. All countries should allow their and foreign artists to express themselves. It’s sad to be a game developer in Iran and not being able to show the world what you have done and it’s also sad to be an Iranian artist outside of Iran and not being able to come back to your country because of your views.
What is your opinion about holding joint events with countries in the region to share knowledge among industry activists in the region? What was the biggest event you attended in the West Asian region?
I didn’t attend to any event outside of Turkey in Asia zone unfortunately. All the publishers and investors I’m interested in are either in Europe or in United States. This is partly because we do premium games and premium model only works in Europe and North America. Other regions have really low amount of premium game sales (maybe except Japan). But I support joint events and joint efforts with other countries in the region for improving the game ecosystem.
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