From Google Game Bootcamp to Game Development: Oktay Turkdagli's Story

Can you introduce yourself to us in your own words?

Hi, I'm Oktay, I am a Computer Engineering student at Dokuz Eylül University. I have been interested in computers since I was little, in general I like to make people happy and learn new things. I am trying to move forward in the field of game development, where things I love come together and add new things to myself.

When did you get acquainted with game development?

I've actually dreamed of making a game since high school, but since there weren't many resources at the time, I couldn't get started because I didn't know how to do it and didn't research it either. I designed the game I drew on paper in high school in later years in picture editing programs. I have also been developing games with game engines for the past few years. In general, I try to develop simple casual games.

When did you cross paths with Path.dev? What lessons did you take here?

I discovered Patika.dev about 6 months ago, a great platform that is growing rapidly in the number of tutorials. I took career management, Kingdom of Game, Git, and C# courses. The number of professional Turkish resources on the Internet is really small. I would like to thank Patika.dev for their contributions to the industry in this matter.

Google Games bootcampHow was your journey and what did you experience?

It was a really great bootcamp. It was one of the most beautiful trainings I have received in my life. For 3 months we received trainings from leading people in the industry. Our teacher Buğra Süslü on entrepreneurship and game design, our teacher Tolgay Hickiran on Unity and our teacher Halil Coşgun on software architecture gave us very valuable information.

At the same time, during bootcamp, with our team of 60 people”Galaxy Destroyer“We came up with an open source professional project called. When we were doing this project, we tried to build a structure like professional game studios work, and in the end it turned out to be a beautiful game.

By the time Bootcamp was over, we were not only technically advanced, but also in our way of thinking. Together with this structure of thinking, we decided to revive the idea of a game studio that we had previously established with our fellow students, but then remained passive. Together with the participation of İlkin Mammadzade, whom I met from bootcamp, we design our own games with our team of four and publish them with our partners.

You've started doing your own thing right now and you've received a huge boost, how do you feel?

First of all, I am happy that I can now realize the games that I once drew on paper. I am happy with my friends to do things, learn new things, produce and make the things we produce create a value.

I hope I can continue to do what I love in the future and our team continues to grow and add value to the world.

Finally, what would you recommend to people who want to become a game developer?

Obviously, I just learned that I don't know how accurate my advice might be, but I can share a few things I've done myself.

I planned how to work for a few weeks before I started developing games:) then I didn't start for a few months because it didn't fit my plans, then I didn't start making games because I didn't know professionally, I just watched how-to videos. Of course, I started making my games later, but I felt like I was wasting a lot of time. Most likely, this method was a little wrong, so as Bruce Lee said, “If your intention is to learn to swim, dive straight into the water. As long as you keep standing on land, no thought can help you.”

There are plenty of free resources on the internet to learn, as well as game engine developers have their own free learning resources, for example, if you are learning Unity, you can start with Unity Learn right away. You can learn game programming in a few months by watching training videos, doing clone projects and producing your own simple games, and you can get a lot of opportunities, especially in the mobile field.

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We congratulate him on this journey of Oktay and wish him success! If you want to step into the world of game development by participating in bootcamps like this one and have the opportunity to settle into a job, open to application bootcamps from here you can browse!