Serkan Özay
| Serkan Özay | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 5, 1978 İstanbul |
| 🏫 Education | Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University |
| 💼 Occupation | Co-founder and Creative Director at Hero Concept |
Serkan Özay (born 5 February 1978) is a Turkish entrepreneur and designer[1]. After starting his career as an animator and graphic artist he worked at various video game companies in the 2010's before starting his own studio Hero Concept in 2017. There he published two arcade games based on one of the intellectual properties he brought to the company, the Doughlings franchise.
Early Life & Career[edit]
Özay was born in İstanbul in 1978. His first job out of high school was as an assistant animator for the legendary daily political cartoon series BizimCity[2]. He graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with a degree in Traditional Turkish Arts, while simultaneously working at Show TV. He also worked at CINE5 and various digital agencies and video game studios as a graphic artist and an animator. He worked for Peak Games in their early years and was the art director at Ocelott, Fundungo, Orbital Asylum, and Oyun Stüdyosu.
In 1998 Özay started the metal band Battlorn. From 1998 to 2003 he was the lead guitarist and composer for the group that was producing progressive metal music. In 2001, a 4-song EP named "Long Way From the Dark" was released. The subject matter of the songs took inspiration from sci-fi fantasy series such as The Lord of the Rings, Dune, and Dragonriders of Pern.[3]
In 2014 Özay created the subculture website Kahramangiller and grew it to over 200,000 page clicks on 70,000 unique visitors at its peak. The site does not publish news articles or press releases, focusing exclusively detailed analyses of products or concepts by subject matter experts. As of July 2019 the site has just under 2,500 articles and essays on comics, movies, TV, comics, and video games as well as board games. In the 5 years since its inception the site has established itself as one of the most visited websites of the segments it serves.[4]
Hero Concept Years[edit]
In June 2017 Özay co-founded Hero Concept with programmer and former colleague Turgut H. Özdemir, aided by an angel investment by serial entrepreneur Arif Obdan. Özay brought to the company the design documents of his original creations Doughlings, Mayhem Chronicles, and Intercept Course, laid out as multiple games across different genres as a 5 year publishing plan. The studio immediately got to work on its first game, a brickbreaker clone, using the Doughlings IP. Originally intended as a simpler mobile game, the development process outgrew itself and under Özay's leadership the studio pivoted to becoming a full-service video game studio catering to the console and PC gaming audiences. Doughlings: Arcade was releases on all platforms in the summer of 2018.[5] Its sequel Doughlings: Invasion, a space invaders entry, had its release on all platforms in the August of 2019, preceded by an early release for the XBox One community which was announced earlier my Larry Hyrb a.k.a. Major Nelson, Microsoft's director of programming at XBox Live.[6][7]
In early summer of 2019 Özay started collaborating with Paris Obdan and Eren Merzeci, COO of Nişfud, and grew the Hero Concept team to 8 people. Earlier in the calendar year Özay had brokered further seed investment deals with Tunç Yalgın, an early investor to Gram Games, and Sinan Tahan, a former board member of Sezai Türkeş Feyzi Akkaya Investment Holding Group. Currently he is leading the efforts for developing the company's third game, a side-scrolling beat 'em up game with comic book style art that utilizes metroidvania and fighting game mechanics.
In Press[edit]
On March 28, 2018 Başlat Tuşu conducted an interview with Özay where he answered questions about the games start-up scene and game development.[8] A few months later LeveL published an extensive conversation with Özay about his career and current projects.[9]In 2019 Özay was invited by Sony to be a guest blogger on the European edition of the PlayStation Blog where he penned an article on the role of cultural references in video game design.[10]
Özay also guest lectures at universities from time to time, most recently a lecture on "2D Game Visuals" at Bahçeşehir University Game Lab.[11]
References[edit]
- ↑ Özay, Serkan. "Co-Founder at Hero Concept & Founder at Kahramangiller.com". LinkedIn.
- ↑ Memecan, Salih. "BizimCity Complete Anthology". YouTube.
- ↑ "Battlorn". Encyclopaedia Metallum.
- ↑ Abaday, Ali (April 29, 2018). "Marvel and World of Geeks". Ahval.
- ↑ Sutra, Gama (April 20, 2018). "Doughlings: Arcade Launches on Steam in May". Gama Sutra.
- ↑ Nieva, Jason (July 30, 2019). "Doughlings: Invasion Release Date - Prepare To Shoot It Out On Switch Next Month". Player One.
- ↑ Hyrb, Larry (June 19, 2019). "Doughlings: Invasion Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One". Major Nelson.
- ↑ Tuşu, Başlat (May 8, 2018). "Hero Concept Serkan Özay Röportajı". Başlat Tuşu.
- ↑ ONLINE, LeveL (May 8, 2018). "Hero Concept ile yeni oyunları Doughlings Arcade üzerine konuştuk…". LeveL Online.
- ↑ Özay, Serkan (July 16, 2019). "The cartoonish shooter is packed full of pop culture references". PlayStation Blog.
- ↑ University, Bahçeşehir (June 27, 2012). "2b Oyun Görseli". Vimeo - Bahçeşehir University Game Lab.
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