A Human-Centric Approach to Mobile gaming industry by Ömer Yakabagi

Speaker 1 Let's let's talk about something real. Like, our uh world of mobile gaming is fully built on creativity and fun, pure joy.
But, like,

Speaker 1 imagine we could flip the script and like put people first in everything we do. So, like, let's let's talk about, for example, startup culture, especially studios, um,

Speaker 1 edtech companies, etc.

Speaker 1 It's 4 a.m. and we're rolling the dice.
Fate drops, knowledge made of gold and ice. Felix with ads making those coins rise.
Jackup designs worlds chasing the sky.

Speaker 1 We're the two and a half gamers, the midnight crew. Talking UA adverts and game design too.
Matei, Felix, Shaku, bringing the insight. We're rocking those vibes till the early daylight.

Speaker 1 Mate, you a master eyes on the prize. Tracking data through the cyberspace skies.
Felix stacks colors like a wizard in disguise. Jackups crafting realms lift us to the highs.

Speaker 1 Two and a half gamers talking smack. Slow hockey sick, got your back.
Ads are beautiful, they like the way. Click it fast, don't delay.
Uh-huh,

Speaker 1 uh-huh,

Speaker 1 uh-huh,

Speaker 1 aha,

Speaker 1 uh-huh.

Speaker 1 Uh-huh.

Speaker 1 Hello, everyone. Ahoy.

Speaker 1 So, today I am your host,

Speaker 1 Jakub Remiar.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 no, no, definitely not.

Speaker 1 Actually, John Wright used this joke with Mate, and I wanted to have it for Jakub, my buddy.

Speaker 1 So hello, everyone. Omar Jakabu here, as in Turkish pronunciation.
Globally, it's Elma Yakabagi.

Speaker 1 And today we'll be talking about mobile gaming revival. I know it sounds big, but I swear there is no bullshit here.

Speaker 1 So first of all, thanks to ton of Gamers Crow, like not just Matei, but also dear friends, Felix, Jakub. Appreciate it.
And it's nice to be here in this monologue session.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 like, when Matei asked me, would you be up for this like half an hour monologue speech, I was thinking, what's what could it be? You know, like, it's something really big.

Speaker 1 Um, that's why I wanted to talk about the industry itself, current situation, and how about the not just you know, edtech, money, but I also want to go to the human-centric side.

Speaker 1 Who are we? How is it going actually? I really want to touch upon these

Speaker 1 human vibes as well. But before, very quickly

Speaker 1 about who I am.

Speaker 1 So who is Omer?

Speaker 1 I actually

Speaker 1 like back then studied English language teaching, continued with tourism industry for some years. And afterwards, I started

Speaker 1 working

Speaker 1 at media company Mobedictum. And since like four years, I have been in different fields like UI, monetization, not just at network side, but also hands-on operations.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, right now I'm actually founder of Gamigen.

Speaker 1 It's a mobile gaming website where we have a journal, really cool content from industry experts, and also having some new status, sharing the weekly highlights from the mobile gaming industry.

Speaker 1 And I also actually

Speaker 1 have the jobs platform in our websites. Actually, I love the support and feedback from many of you.
Like, really love it, improved it a lot according to feedback.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, please keep sending feedback. That's highly appreciated.

Speaker 1 And actually, the numbers are growing crazy already, like over 10K

Speaker 1 a month, like from Google Analytics, you know.

Speaker 1 And yeah, I actually opened the website like just six months ago. Like it's really crazy.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

Speaker 1 So about today's topic, I would like to talk about mobile gaming revival, what it means.

Speaker 1 Actually, I really want to take you on a fun journey where we face up to the

Speaker 1 real challenges in the industry while dreaming about feature, you know, it's about

Speaker 1 great gaming, creativity, connection, always good vibes, like from events, etc. But actually,

Speaker 1 we really need to be aware that our work is

Speaker 1 not just about

Speaker 1 money,

Speaker 1 also not just about fun, it's like a mix of everything. I want to talk about this, so it's not

Speaker 1 making experiences that entertain,

Speaker 1 heal,

Speaker 1 and

Speaker 1 bring us us together, like connecting. You know, that's what I mean with human-centric.
I love mobile gaming, and

Speaker 1 it will be kind of like Trump's sentence: you know, let's make mobile gaming great again. I know that's like

Speaker 1 kind of bullshit, but we really need to

Speaker 1 understand that

Speaker 1 this revenue-focused, QPI-focused,

Speaker 1 stressful

Speaker 1 situation for like majority of the companies.

Speaker 1 I don't see it's

Speaker 1 going in a sustainable way. We really need to, you know, do something.
So that's why, actually, big kudos to everyone who keeps the spirit alive every day.

Speaker 1 Love it. Like,

Speaker 1 really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 So, what I mean about the

Speaker 1 like problems, let's call it as facing the realities. So, actually, I call call this as challenges we should, we can overcome.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 let's talk about something real. Like our

Speaker 1 world of mobile gaming is fully built on creativity and fun, pure joy. But like

Speaker 1 imagine we could flip the script and like put people first in everything we do. So like let's let's talk about, for example, startup culture, especially studios,

Speaker 1 edtech companies, et cetera. Like right now, most of them are startups.
Like it's crazy, but even like five years old companies are startups as well. And that's making them

Speaker 1 very aggressive because they need to go for revenue, right? So our fast-paced startup world

Speaker 1 demands this like aggressive culture. And in Turkey, actually, we call this as peak culture.
So like rapid growth and big numbers escalating. So, there is actually no room for fun side at all.

Speaker 1 Like, uh, you know, people are working too hard. It's like being stuck in a never-ending race where the finish line is like always out of reach.
Like, okay, this one, this one, here's the key pi.

Speaker 1 Like,

Speaker 1 it's kind of like the

Speaker 1 rabbit carrot sample, you know, like, sorry, not donkey carrot. It's like like they are putting it like this and it's always running.
So,

Speaker 1 yeah, like, but what if we could slow down and focus on what matters most, like our industry people?

Speaker 1 Picture a workday where you like have time to, you know, catch your breath, enjoy a quick game break, and you still smash your goals. Like, when we put

Speaker 1 people first, make it human-centric, every win actually feels that

Speaker 1 much sweeter, much enjoyable. And actually, like

Speaker 1 last week with Mate,

Speaker 1 we talked about in our podcast, the Amazon podcast,

Speaker 1 how do you maintain

Speaker 1 this

Speaker 1 work-life balance? And I even call it work-family balance because, like, he's caring a lot about

Speaker 1 his family,

Speaker 1 spending lots of time with

Speaker 1 his daughter. And I really love it.
And like he told a lot about that to me. So love it.
I wish everyone could, you know, make it that work-life balance.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 yeah, I actually would like to go deeper. Let's go, guys.
So,

Speaker 1 developers,

Speaker 1 I really appreciate how game developers put that much effort. It's not just coding, it's also like putting their soul over there.
So, let's be honest: like, too many developers turned coding into a

Speaker 1 never-ending checklist. It's like I'm talking about the startups, especially, right?

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 especially in Turkey, I know that like really long, long working hours, and it's like too stressful.

Speaker 1 I really cannot share so many details.

Speaker 1 I know some like internal information from many companies, but I know that they are just buried

Speaker 1 in the work. It's like

Speaker 1 some don't even get to play the games they build because they are

Speaker 1 stuck over there. Isn't it crazy that you don't enjoy playing the game that you develop? And it's so normal.

Speaker 1 Imagine a world where you could experiment, tinker around, and actually have fun with your own creations.

Speaker 1 Like when we give developers the freedom to play and enjoy, we could bring back the like spark that

Speaker 1 make us fall in love with the industry. So

Speaker 1 that was a developer side. And actually similar for designers, artists, like they often face this intense pressure to churn out the content that you know looks actually cool

Speaker 1 and sometimes at the cost of their own creative joy. Like, many don't even get a moment to step back and enjoy the art.
It's not like that, really.

Speaker 1 What if every designer could like spend time dreaming up about like wild ideas? Maybe this could be, you know, like it's not like that, really. It's going in

Speaker 1 revenue direction, and yeah, that's killing the creativity. You know, when we

Speaker 1 have to just

Speaker 1 make it humanized, I think.

Speaker 1 How about the marketing? Like

Speaker 1 user acquisition? It's like literally more than just data churners, you know. Once upon a time, like UA was all about creative storytelling, like capturing hearts, cool stuff.

Speaker 1 Now, like, it's, it can feel like a

Speaker 1 like grind of data and numbers, fully about CPI, money, leaving like no time to enjoy

Speaker 1 the

Speaker 1 games they are actually working, especially in hyper casual. Like I know that

Speaker 1 many of the UA guys don't even like care about the game, like just bum bum bum bum, and it's like literally boring work for them with lots of

Speaker 1 actually manual work kind of.

Speaker 1 So it's kind of like

Speaker 1 imagine if the focus shifted back to engaging, playful storytelling, where your ideas could shine just as much as the CPIs.

Speaker 1 Of course, similar for admon admin station guys, like chasing revenue targets, sometimes strip away the fun and turning what should be a creative adventure into like relentless

Speaker 1 revenue game. So yeah, overall,

Speaker 1 I actually also have to touch upon the

Speaker 1 sales teams in the industry. Like, they are under lots of pressure to hit high targets.
And, you know, that actually

Speaker 1 drains the energy right out of their work. It's a real bummer, like, when the fun of connecting with players gets lost in the chase of numbers.
So,

Speaker 1 yeah, that's why I think we really need to

Speaker 1 get back to ourselves, maybe. That would be the sentence.
So, yeah, so why have we or how have we lost our spark? Like we drifted drastically away from like what truly matters. Genine,

Speaker 1 creativity, human connection, pure joy.

Speaker 1 Like normally mobile gaming was meant to be our playground. And actually not just for industry people.
Imagine about like from we call it like seven to seventy, you know, like uh it can be child or

Speaker 1 lonely person with depression, and elderly person, like maybe even pretty sick. It's kind of actually

Speaker 1 even rediscover joy. It's sometimes a place to escape, like unwinding.

Speaker 1 You know, it's time to remember

Speaker 1 that we

Speaker 1 are human and we

Speaker 1 just should enjoy our life. I think from our side, we are not just here to meet targets.

Speaker 1 We are here to create moments of wonder and fun. Like we are all of us, we are the creators, storytellers, architects of

Speaker 1 worlds that bring

Speaker 1 smiles

Speaker 1 and little break from either everyday routine or horrible things, like not everyone is so lucky, you know.

Speaker 1 It's maybe even poverty, et cetera. These people

Speaker 1 get

Speaker 1 hope

Speaker 1 just, you know, having a sip, having a breath over there. But let's dream up about a future where we

Speaker 1 can find this fun lead.

Speaker 1 That's

Speaker 1 the focus in my speech here.

Speaker 1 I would say, I would put number one as we need to celebrate creativity. Like, you know,

Speaker 1 we

Speaker 1 should let creativity flow, like, you know, experiment, play around,

Speaker 1 and make

Speaker 1 work feel like

Speaker 1 fun challenges and not just like task, task, business, business, money, money. I think that that would

Speaker 1 change a lot in time. It sounds small, but it will be big.

Speaker 1 And I would put number two

Speaker 1 investing in

Speaker 1 well-being, not just about

Speaker 1 like physically, but also

Speaker 1 being mentally strong.

Speaker 1 because we are talking about creativity like and for that you

Speaker 1 like need to give yourself and your colleagues time to relax, uh, learning new tricks and enjoying the ride, you know. And, like, I have actually like four more pinpoints here.

Speaker 1 I would call them like breaking down the barriers, number three, to

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 all developers, designers, marketers, and everyone should be

Speaker 1 collaborating and actually like sharing ideas,

Speaker 1 having that joy of mobile gaming. And I don't see a lot actually.

Speaker 1 And there we go to redefining the success because

Speaker 1 right now there is only one answer, which is revenue.

Speaker 1 Nobody cares about like the

Speaker 1 smiles, the genuine

Speaker 1 connections we create with our not only colleagues, also with our players. So like I think,

Speaker 1 of course, like, I said nobody, but like, there are already great companies. Like, for example, I'm a big fan of Supercell.
I love how,

Speaker 1 like,

Speaker 1 you know, company culture, how they

Speaker 1 have built their community.

Speaker 1 Of course, the games, like, and of course, there are many more companies like that. From another aspect, I actually want to talk about the industry events.

Speaker 1 I really love them, not just big ones like Packet Gamer, Games Forum,

Speaker 1 and many more, Hit Game Conference, Mobidictum, White Knights, and many more.

Speaker 1 I think our industry people are just awesome. Like we are, you know, super chill,

Speaker 1 cool vibes, and you can literally go and shake hands with like anyone and get to know each other, like you know, get friends and learn anything.

Speaker 1 Literally, like, just you know, find the right people to ask, and your network will grow very quickly. It's actually pretty unique, like, especially imagine

Speaker 1 finance

Speaker 1 or

Speaker 1 you know,

Speaker 1 many industries, actually. And it's like super uh formal

Speaker 1 boring i would call

Speaker 1 and that's why i think we should

Speaker 1 keep this uh vibes up and

Speaker 1 if we go back

Speaker 1 to for example pandemic time

Speaker 1 which was the golden era right

Speaker 1 that time

Speaker 1 was the like, you know, just skyrocketing because when the success is is over there, money flow is huge, all the VCs are like looking into investing. They're like, Do you have any project?

Speaker 1 Yeah, okay, we are investing, and that was really uh quick and easy that time. Um, so now, like, especially since last two years, it's kind of getting um

Speaker 1 in the opposite direction, so it's it affected our industry as well. So, right now, uh, because of the financials,

Speaker 1 what I mean with opposite,

Speaker 1 that time was everyone was chill, enjoying any way like success was coming. And right now, it's actually super hard,

Speaker 1 not just for studios, also for like any

Speaker 1 can be edtech or even for VCs.

Speaker 1 Actually, like right now, it's so hard to find the right investment for studios to make profitable games, also getting investment, for ed tech companies to like find companies, finding a sweet spot in the industry.

Speaker 1 I can give like hundreds of examples here, but what I mean,

Speaker 1 these challenges affected the

Speaker 1 industry people as well.

Speaker 1 That's where

Speaker 1 I would like to

Speaker 1 direct basically.

Speaker 1 I think, even in this scenario, we really need to

Speaker 1 get back to our core mobile gaming vibes. Like, I really

Speaker 1 loved when Mati wrote about this

Speaker 1 sexist creative ads where we like, you know,

Speaker 1 lost our

Speaker 1 how to say, I think we can even say humanity, like literally with

Speaker 1 pregnant women, childs, like so many more things with animals. I saw horrible things.

Speaker 1 Like, I wish I didn't see them, and I can't imagine, like, some UA people saw worse things, and some of them are actually

Speaker 1 creating them and like using them. So, it's really crazy.

Speaker 1 That's why, overall, I would like to

Speaker 1 just,

Speaker 1 I think, pray

Speaker 1 that our industry will not

Speaker 1 lose its humanity, joy, fun.

Speaker 1 Right now, I'm actually very happy to be in the industry. It's like so amazing.
And

Speaker 1 I'm glad to support the

Speaker 1 people, industry people, with content, quality, like not only media news, but also educational content in our blog and also sharing jobs so it's literally about giving hope to many people that actually

Speaker 1 feel so bad after some like big layoffs or some crisis etc they they have something to like

Speaker 1 share check etc that's some of them like write to me and we chat that's also

Speaker 1 making me happy to be able to help in this way in an emotional way you know

Speaker 1 We started our podcasting. We invite people, like right now, we have

Speaker 1 recorded with actually six people, including two and off gamers,

Speaker 1 John Wright, etc.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it's actually

Speaker 1 about

Speaker 1 them.

Speaker 1 It's just like,

Speaker 1 who is Mati? Who is Felix? Who is Jakub? Like, literally human-centric, fully.

Speaker 1 Even like before mobile gaming, what were you doing? If we, you know, exclude the industry, who are you? What are you doing? How is your life actually?

Speaker 1 What would you, you know, tell about

Speaker 1 the life you see from your perspective? You know, those type of cool questions, pretty personal. And we would like to grow distraction to also

Speaker 1 blog.

Speaker 1 side as well, like written form basically.

Speaker 1 And yeah, we would like to do many more like these projects. Um, also, like, big uh thanks to Eileen to support on the uh

Speaker 1 podcast and content side, and so far, like the big love from industry is

Speaker 1 I think making this doable. In the beginning, I had like concerns, you know, like

Speaker 1 not just

Speaker 1 how would the industry react, but also like, is it correct? Is it the best way, etc.

Speaker 1 So, uh,

Speaker 1 that's my direction. Also, like, I wanted to connect this topic to

Speaker 1 who I am and what I am currently doing in the and for the industry.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 this is about mobile gaming revival. And here

Speaker 1 is Omer, and I would like to do my best to keep the positive, great vibes in the industry. Whenever you feel down, whoever you are, you know,

Speaker 1 happy to chat, happy to support anything I can do. So,

Speaker 1 not everything is high-level, and

Speaker 1 we

Speaker 1 are all connected. We should support each other.
Our industry is small. We are not,

Speaker 1 as I mentioned, banking or food industry, mobile gaming, just thousands of people. That's it.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 thank you for having me, thank you for listening to me, especially if you made it uh till here. Really appreciate it.
So

Speaker 1 take care.