# Game Projects | Bulut Karakaya Co-founder of Second River Games, building AI-native simulation games. 16+ years creating award-winning titles. Cambridge, UK. Every studio and game Bulut Karakaya has worked on, with role, years, and links. ## Second River Games, 2025 to present **Role: Co-founder** Second River Games is an independent studio in Cambridge, UK, which I co-founded with Duygu Cakmak. We make simulation and management games: worlds built on carefully designed systems, choices with consequences, and handcrafted detail, with generative AI used where it genuinely makes a world feel alive, giving characters who remember you, interpret what you say, and react. Underneath that sits a firm layer of traditional systems, so every surprise still traces back to a cause. Our first world is Village of Whispers, a living village where a single prophecy can reshape relationships, rituals, politics, and the odds of survival. When you speak, the villagers do not simply obey. They interpret you, spread the word, distort it, and slowly your words become their culture. Website: [second-river-games.com](https://second-river-games.com) ([markdown](https://second-river-games.com/index.md)) ## Philosopher King, 2025 **Role: Head of Game Development** At Philosopher King I ran the game team, sitting between the founders and the people building the game. I consolidated gameplay, tooling, and the AI work into a single Unity project, and reshaped how work moved through the team, so that a change which used to pass through four pairs of hands before it reached the screen became something one person could own from idea to screen. Alongside the executive producer, I turned the founders' vision into sprints the team could run. Much of the team came from web and backend engineering, so a large part of my job was helping them work as game developers, including bringing a backend programmer into Unity full time. It was also where I worked hands-on with language models as game systems rather than as a content generator, and that experience is the foundation Second River Games is built on. Website: [philosopherking.ai](https://www.philosopherking.ai/) ## ustwo games, 2021 to 2025 ### Monument Valley 3 **Role: Lead Programmer** As Lead Programmer and technical lead on Monument Valley 3, I led the programming team through production and release, helping deliver a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning entry in one of mobile games' most acclaimed puzzle series. Trailer: [youtube.com/watch?v=R0BGVxbWmHE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0BGVxbWmHE) ### Desta: The Memories Between **Role: Lead Programmer** On Desta: The Memories Between, I led the programming team and helped shape a turn-based game built around story, movement, and memory. The project won Best Mobile Game at the Develop:Star Awards 2023 and the Ukie Video Game Awards 2024. Trailer: [youtube.com/watch?v=yEVsmJlTQjI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEVsmJlTQjI) ## Jagex, 2018 to 2021 **Role: Senior Gameplay Programmer** At Jagex, I worked on an unreleased ARPG in Unreal, focusing on character abilities, movement, and combat. Although the project was cancelled, it gave me the chance to spend several years working closely on action gameplay systems. I also worked with design on an AI Director system, inspired by Left 4 Dead, that dynamically balanced pacing and difficulty and was later featured in a GDC talk. ## Digit Game Studios, 2016 to 2018 ### Star Trek: Fleet Command **Role: Lead Unity Programmer** As one of the lead programmers on Star Trek Fleet Command, I worked on core ship and base systems, and also led an early augmented reality prototype. The project later received Webby Awards for Strategy/Simulation Game and Technical Achievement. Trailer: [youtube.com/watch?v=rjut4UlO0pc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjut4UlO0pc) ## Pera Games, 2014 to 2016 ### Overfall **Role: Co-founder and Technical Director** At Pera Games, I co-founded the studio and was the sole programmer on Overfall, a strategy RPG built around diplomacy, procedural runs, and permadeath. To support a nine-person team as the only programmer, I built data-driven tools and systems that let designers, writers, and artists create abilities, characters, levels, and story content independently. Available on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/402310/Overfall/). ## Gripati, 2014 ### Egg Fight **Role: Project Partner** Egg Fight was a fast-paced mobile fighting game where players controlled mutant eggs in short, single-touch battles. I worked on the programming and contributed to the design, helping shape the combat feel, progression, and overall tone of the game. Available on [Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gripati.game.eggfight&hl=en_GB). ## Tart Games, 2012 to 2014 ### Kixel Soccer **Role: Co-founder and Technical Director** At Tart Games, I co-founded the studio and served as technical lead on Kixel Soccer, a multiplayer football game built for the Unity Web Player on Facebook. My work focused on networking and core gameplay systems. ## Gravi, 2010 to 2011 ### Gravi SurfACT **Role: Gameplay Programmer** Gravi SurfACT was an interactive floor installation that used projection and body tracking to turn movement into play. I worked on the game side of the experience in a four-person team, while the rest of the team focused on hardware and image processing. ## Independent Project, 2007 ### BannerRunner BannerRunner is an automated course registration tool I built in 2007 to deal with overloaded university registration servers during enrolment. During peak registration periods, students were spending hours manually trying to get in. BannerRunner automates this process and can use several pages simultaneously to increase your chances of logging in. Once you log in, you are greeted by a classic Mario theme song playing from your modem speaker. I wrote this program in 2007, and people are still using it, coming to this webpage to download it every year. - [Setup file](https://github.com/bulutk/BannerRunner/releases/download/V3.02/BannerRunner.V3.02.rar) - [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/Bannerrunner) ## Carnegie Mellon University, 2008 to 2010 Masters projects at the Entertainment Technology Center. ### SurfaceScapes SurfaceScapes was a tabletop RPG prototype for Microsoft Surface, designed around tangible interaction, automated rules support, and shared visual feedback. The goal was to make sessions easier to run and more immediate for both players and game masters. ### Sketch-It-Up! Sketch-It-Up! was a rapid prototyping tool for testing game ideas without writing code during the concept phase. I rewrote the networking layer and implemented automation features, using Panda3D and Python. The project was shown at ICEC '09 in Paris. ### Building Virtual Worlds projects These five projects were each built in two weeks by a rotating team of four. - **DragonForce**: a VR prototype where players raised and guided a dragon using a head-mounted display and magnetic sensors. The project focused on attachment, training, and how physical interaction could support storytelling. - **Blind Date**: an interactive storytelling project where the audience used remotes to guide the main character through the twists and turns of a blind date, focused on collaborative storytelling and live audience participation. - **Wizball**: a projection-based pinball game controlled by players' shadows, ending with a wizard boss encounter. Built in a week and a half as part of the ETC's rapid prototyping cycle. - **Mine Cart Adventure**: a VR prototype that put players in a collapsing mine, using a head-mounted display and a physical stick for navigation. Designed as an accessible introduction to immersive play and shown at the ICEC '08 reception. --- Other pages: [Home](https://www.bulutk.com/) ([markdown](https://www.bulutk.com/index.md)) Copyright 2026 Bulut Karakaya.