Greetings From Istanbul

Zeynep Özge Yalçın
October 31, 2022
Uncategorized
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As the Game and Application Academy Bootcamp winner, we were in Istanbul for the TakeOff Istanbul event.

Day 1:

This was the FIRST meeting of our team face-to-face. Aruna and I set out from Izmir, Mert from Antalya, and Halime from Bursa.

Since Omer and Furkan live in Istanbul, they were waiting for us. Due to his job, Furkan joined us later. After working online for six months, it would be weird to meet us gathering together physically. However, it was not. All five of us were what I expected; FUN AND ENERGIZED.

Before the TakeOff event, Google Turkey welcomed us at their Istanbul office. It was so lovely to meet with the people behind this beautiful project.

At the end of day 1, we managed to meet with Furkan and experienced THE Istanbul traffic. After having fun and chatting throughout the evening, we returned to our hotel to prepare for the next day, the first day of the main event.

Day 2:

We woke up on the first day of TakeOff. Seeing our name on a stand like that was a great happiness and proud moment for us. TakeOff Istanbul day 1 was a whole madness; the interest coming from visitors, mentors, and investors motivated us, and we created great connections and networks.

As a team, we know our potential, and it was lovely to hear such comments and support from game lovers.

**Spoiler: You will see us at events like that a lot.

*** Did you see our t-shirts? Yup, we designed it for ourselves. We know the power of branding and are lucky to have that image from day one. We also created some stickers for the event.

Day 3:

During the second day of TakeOff Istanbul and our 3rd day, besides investors and mentors, we talked a lot with students. It was shocking how so young people are interested in game design and software. The questions that they asked were so detailed and well-thought. As we are coming from Academy, we did our best to motivate them to enroll and take place in this year’s education or jump into designing their games with the communities they can participate.

Day 4:

The last day of TakeOff was the ceremony day. Look at us with lots of excitement and pride! Thank you, Game and Application Academy and sponsors, for making this Academy happen and giving us this opportunity.