StartGate Mağara Jam’23 Finished

StartGate Hosted Mağara Jam’23 Breaks Participation Record! The seventh edition of Mağara Jam, one of Turkey’s largest game development events, was held at StartGate, the largest Digital Game and Game Technologies Entrepreneurship Center in Europe and the Middle East, between November 16-19. In the 72-hour-long Mağara Jam’23 event, participants pushed the limits of their creativity by developing hundreds of games with the theme “Mysterious Machine”. The game development event, which took place with record participation, met with developers with 150 physical and 5,350 online participants. Ataberk Palacıoğlu, Founder of Mağara, one of Turkey’s largest game developer communities, said, “It was an incredibly fun event. There was a warm environment where our participants both produced and had fun. We received great comments both physically and online. As Mağara, we will continue to improve what we do.” Mustafa Cihat Durmuş, CEO of StartGate, said, “It was an event with more intense participation than we expected. Since all the needs of the participants were taken into consideration by StartGate, they were able to devote all of their motivation and energy to game development, resulting in hundreds of creative and successful games.”

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StartGate Events Bring a New Breath to the Industry!

Founded by Ataberk Palacıoğlu, one of the game producers of StartGate, Mağara Jam was held this year at StartGate Campus, the largest Digital Game and Game Technologies Entrepreneurship Center in Europe and the Middle East. Participating game developers from different provinces of Turkey developed games with the theme of “Mysterious Machine” in the 72-hour-long Mağara Jam’23 event held between November 16-19.

Broadcasts were watched for 6,532 hours
Organized for 7 years, this year Mağara Jam hosted by StartGate had a record participation. Turkey’s largest game development event Mağara Jam met with developers with 150 physical participants and 5,350 online participants.

The Mağara Jam website was launched after the event and received more than 166 thousand traffic and 520 thousand interactions in the first 48 hours. The games on the website received more than 40 thousand downloads in total within 3 days, while the live broadcasts on YouTube were watched by more than 100 thousand people, received 1 million 343 thousand 500 impressions in total, and the broadcasts were watched for more than 6 thousand 532 hours in total. In addition to game developers, investors, influencers and other stakeholders in the ecosystem came together at StartGate Campus.

Noting that they have been doing this for 3 years, Mağara Jam Founder Ataberk Palacıoğlu said, “It was an incredibly fun event. There was a warm environment where our participants both produced and had fun. We received great comments both physically and online. As Mağara, we will continue to improve what we do.” Mustafa Cihat Durmuş, CEO of StartGate, said, “It was an event with more intense participation than we expected. Since all the needs of the participants were taken into consideration by StartGate, they were able to devote all of their motivation and energy to game development, resulting in hundreds of creative and successful games.”

405 games developed, the best will be announced on December 9 at StartGate
405 games were developed during the 72-hour Mağara Jam marathon. The games will first be submitted to public voting and then to the Mağara Jam pre-jury voting. In the final stage, the final jury voting, the games will be evaluated according to the criteria of visuality, originality, game design, sound and music, story and concept, and compatibility with the theme.

The first 15 winning teams will receive a Mağara Loot Crate. In addition, the top 3 teams will be offered support, including the right to benefit from StartGate’s mentorship, training and infrastructure opportunities. The 15 best games will be announced on November 28th and the winners of the adventure will be announced at the “Mağara Jam’23 Final” on December 9th at StartGate.

About Startgate
StartGate, A Campus That Lives 24/7

Located in Maslak, Istanbul’s advanced office center where universities, technology centers and many global companies are located, StartGate serves on an area of 4,215 square meters in its 5-storey building. StartGate, which is a 24/7 living campus focused on digital game and game development technologies, is the largest new generation meeting center with private sector investment with its experience and test laboratories, training and seminar halls, lecture halls, lecture theaters, acoustically insulated online meeting cabins, sleeping pods, Podcast/Vlog rooms, specially designed terrace for events and meetings, music room and 50 game development studios.