The Exciting Life Journey of a Blockchain Game Designer
Escaping the Corporate Grind to Being a Pure Gamer!
From designing games as a child to escaping corporate life for the creative world of game development, this is the fascinating story of Serhat Maraşlıgil, BoomLand’s Head of Ops and Design. One man’s journey to become a blockchain game designer.
Getting the Gaming Bug!
Serhat, 36, was born in İstanbul. Gaming became a passion for Serhat at an early age. He started designing dungeon crawlers on pen and paper in primary school. Then, expanding his love of fantasy, he ‘upgraded to being a dungeon master for a handful of nerds in high school’.
Immersed in roleplaying, the group of friends held D&D campaigns for years, as well ‘as picking up the most dangerous vice in the world: Magic The Gathering’. The days of his youth had set the scene for a life destined for the creative industries and later blockchain game design!
Becoming a Pure Gamer
His father’s profession, as one of the first computer engineers in Turkey, was a massive influence on him as a gamer This meant that Serhat had exposure to gaming devices much earlier than his peers and it further fuelled his love of gaming. It was those experiences that nurtured him and helped him become what he calls ‘Being a pure gamer’.
Istanbul & Student Days
He had a transatlantic education having graduated from New York State University and Istanbul Technical University in 2007. Following this, he embarked upon a career in the financial sector which was not the creative path he had dreamed of as a youth.
Escaping Corporate Banking for a Creative Life
Although he worked as a corporate banker and public finance advisor, he decided that corporate life was not his dream existence. It was killing the creativity he honed for all his teen years and he desperately needed to escape it. Rather than compromise his aspirations, he quit banking and switched to a career in advertising.
Digital Marketing Years and Advergames!
Over 9 years he worked as a project manager and later as a Founder and Creative Head of his own Digital Marketing Agency. He had not lost any of his drive and determination to succeed and he worked with household brands in the domestic and international markets.
Most of the projects that he did were centered around developing ‘advergames’ on Facebook and microsites. An Advergame is a video game created in collaboration with a brand or corporation with the explicit purpose of advertising that brand within the game.
Buying His First Bitcoin
Having discovered Tor and Dark Web concepts, he created his first crypto wallet and bought 3 bitcoins for $30. Concerned about the dangers of crypto wallet hacking and theft, he didn’t feel comfortable with buying any more bitcoin. He later sold his 3 coins for $300; at today’s rate 1 bitcoin is worth $40,000!
However, he did use his banking skills for day-trading in new and upcoming cryptocurrencies. Plus, Serhat helped a Stellar-based, peer-to-peer flight ticket marketplace & Billing/Settlement/Payment token for an AITA project. His role was in preparing its tokenomics and value proposition.
His First Game
Around the time of the Flappy Bird craze, Serhat achieved a gaming milestone with the release of his first game. Whilst only getting 300 downloads, it showed him his strengths and weaknesses for game development. Clearly, he was gifted at game design but he wasn’t adept at the developing side. Whilst it took him 4 hours to design a game concept, it took another 4 months to develop and publish it on Google Play.
Taking the Leap into Gaming
Fortune shone down on Serhat when he was acquired by one of the biggest independent agencies in Turkey. After that exit, It was Serhat’s role to help startups in Turkish ecosystems with growth hacking and performance marketing. It was at this point that he finally decided to take the leap into gaming full time. Gaming was now set to be his future, thus realising the dreams of his youth.
The Beginning of the Boombit Adventure
Having worked for Netmarble as a Senior Publishing Manager and Head of Product for Game Guru, Serhat finally joined the Boombit group in 2020.
As Head of Game Design for the publishing division, BoomHits, he set about designing the game ‘Shoe Race’. He hit the ground running as it became the first chart-topping game of BoomHits.
In the last two years, he has achieved solid success with over 100 million downloads and 4 chart-toppers with his all portfolio projects. Serhat has worked on dozens of games during that time proving his credentials as a top game designer with a love of gaming.
Gaming as an Income
As Department Manager and Head of Ops & Design for BoomLand, Serhat is part of our exciting project to create a blockchain gaming platform. In his own words, Serhat is helping to shape the new age of ‘Gaming as an Income.’
Serhat’s life is testament to the importance of following your dreams. He never compromised his creative aspirations and escaped the corporate rat race to lead the life of ‘being a pure gamer’.
Contributors
Editor
Richard Ibbotson
Writer
Jamieson Lee Hill
