Bold Games CEO Ulaş Mergen on Prototyping Speed and AI

Ulaş Mergen, CEO of Bold Games, says the Turkish mobile games market is highly competitive with most new studios likely to fail. He joined the industry in 2020 after being hired by Dream Games as a graduate, citing mobile gaming as the only competitive sector in Türkiye at the time where global opportunities existed.

Bold Games was founded by Mergen alongside Baris Incesu, Atakan Tuglu and Candas Demirel after his stints at Rollic and Bigger Games. The studio’s culture focuses on product innovation in already-well-executed casual puzzle games, differing from Dream Games’ operational excellence and Rollic’s high-volume prototyping.

The company’s first title, Market Match, combines elements of Goods Sorting and Match Factory. Mergen says the team liked the look and feel of Goods Sorting but wanted more depth in swiping mechanics, leading them to explore the stacking and step mechanics from Match Factory.

Bold Games believes success requires strong mechanics and level design, not only art execution. The studio is innovating in these three areas: mechanics, levels, and execution, with Mergen stating that art alone cannot carry a game without solid foundations.

The studio recently secured a $6 million investment led by Arcadia Gaming Partners, Makers Fund and e2vc. Mergen clarifies this is a seed investment aimed at expanding the team, not scaling Market Match. He says the funds will help bring on people who believe in the studio’s vision and want to make great games.

Currently, Bold Games has nine employees. Mergen says he does not want a major recruitment drive and ideally wants the team to grow to 12-14 people. He emphasizes the value of small teams and small offices, noting that close proximity allows quick problem-solving without frequent meetings.

Regarding development culture, Bold Games aims to create a prototype for game mechanics within one week. This is followed by seven weeks of implementation to produce 100 playable levels, five obstacles, and one refined mechanic for level design testing.

Mergen notes that seven weeks was considered quick six or seven months ago, but AI advancements have made it seem slow again. He suggests the timeline may need to tighten to four weeks, anticipating that new AI models in one or two months could increase workload capacity significantly.

He says he is currently unsure whether four weeks is truly quick, as it may soon be seen as slow due to further AI-driven acceleration. The studio will reassess its prototyping speed as AI tools evolve.

When asked about its five-year plan, Mergen says Bold Games dreams of having dozens of titles. The studio will focus on casual puzzle games, use its team’s background in the genre, and aims to explore new subgenres to create more entertaining puzzle experiences.