Games for Change Türkiye 2025 Festival Brings Digital Game Experts Together at BAU

Game industry professionals, academics and digital game experts from different countries came together in Istanbul on 6–7 December as part of the “Games for Change Türkiye 2025 Festival” . Hosted by Bahçeşehir University, this year's festival focused on the theme “City and Game” .

Organized by Bahçeşehir University Game Lab (BUG Lab) , the European representative of the New York-based Games for Change platform, the event invited participants to rethink cities through games, design and technology under the motto “Gaming the City, Modding the Future” . The festival program offered a wide range of content featuring social impact games, along with talks, presentations and panels aimed at raising awareness of global issues such as the climate crisis, gender equality, the preservation of cultural heritage and animal rights. Students also had the opportunity to present the game projects they developed to participants at dedicated booths.

International Participation and Opening Speeches

The festival hosted leading figures from the international game industry. Many experts took part in the event, including Adam Mirkowski (11 Bit Studios), Onat Hekimoğlu (Slow Bros), Cyrus Nemati (Little Bat Games), Felix Bohatsch (Broken Rules), Jérôme Cattenot (DOWiNO), Vincent Péquignot (Gamabilis), Dr. Oğuz Buruk (Tampere University) and Dr. Ekim Tan (Play the City).

Delivering the opening speech, BAU President Prof. Dr. Esra Hatipoğluemphasized the transformative power of games, stating:

“While following global developments, universities should also actively shape the discussions around the future of culture, education and technology. Games are among today's most powerful tools for addressing important issues such as climate change, gender equality, cultural heritage, social justice and animal rights.”

“Cities Are Full of Puzzles to Be Solved”

A member of the festival organizing team, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güven Çatak, Head of the BAU Department of Digital Game Design and Founding Director of BUG Lab, described the relationship between cities and games in his speech on the theme of the event:

“This year's theme, ‘Gaming the City, Modding the Future,’ truly excited me. As an architect, I have always believed that cities are vast open-world games. Cities are full of quests, puzzles, problems and opportunities for redesign. Games offer the perfect environment to explore all of these.”

Emphasizing that Games for Change Türkiye is a young initiative, only one year old, Çatak noted that it has created a broad impact in a short time:

“We have become a meeting point for designers, academics, activists, institutions and studios who believe that games can inspire change. Istanbul, where cultures, ideas and stories meet, offers a unique atmosphere for this initiative.”

“Keep Imagining Better Worlds”

Offering advice to young participants in the rest of his speech, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Güven Çatak concluded:

“Please keep experimenting, keep challenging norms and never stop imagining better worlds. Because games are not the opposite of seriousness; on the contrary, they are a powerful tool that allows us to explore the most serious ideas.”

Hosted by Bahçeşehir University, the Games for Change Türkiye 2025 Festivalattracted great interest again this year with its comprehensive program, which demonstrated the potential of games to create social impact, and its international participation.