Magicians and Mathematicians: How Dream Games Mastered the Art and Science of Play

Games are as old as civilization itself. From ancient Egyptians playing Senet 5,000 years ago, to your aunt who’s somehow reached level 3,427 on Royal Match, humans have always been obsessed with play. Both then and now, games have served as a kind of cultural glue for our species, a backdrop for meaningful human interaction, and a space to share emotions and experiences.

Yet making a truly engaging game has never been harder. We live in a golden age of creativity and content, in which consumers are more discerning and have more choice than ever before. Convincing them to download, play, and stick with something requires exceptional quality and execution.

That’s why we’re thrilled to congratulate Dream Games on their achievements. The latest news is proof-positive of something we’ve known since our first meeting with founders Soner, Eren, Hakan, Ikbal and Serdar in Istanbul: this team understands the rare alchemy that transforms a great game into a global phenomenon. It’s a quality we’d seen before at Supercell, who captured players’ hearts and minds with Clash of Clans, and King, with its blockbuster game Candy Crush.

Creating a breakout game today requires two seemingly contradictory skill sets. The first is that of the magician – crafting experiences that delight and surprise through creativity, artistry and emotional resonance. The second is that of the mathematician – optimizing acquisition, engagement and monetization through distribution, data and analytics.

The average founding team is likely to excel at one or the other. But Dream Games manages to master both. Soner, Dream Games’ CEO, is an embodiment of this duality, bringing a creative vision and analytical rigor that’s propelled Royal Match into the exclusive club of top-grossing mobile titles globally. Nothing he touches is ever overlooked or undercooked.

There’s another reason gaming success is so elusive. Game studios aren’t trying to solve a pain-point; they’re promising to inject joy into your day. Unlike many digital products where users might tolerate small imperfections, gameplay has to be flawless across every dimension. It’s not so different from moviemaking: a film with brilliant cinematography but poor dialogue feels broken, just like a game with stunning visuals but clunky controls fails to connect. This is why Dream Games’ titles are more than the sum of their parts, from their intuitive mechanics and charming characters to seamless performance and perfectly calibrated difficulty curves. In the competition for attention, they rise to the top.

As we mark the success of Soner and the whole Dream Games team today, we’re equally excited to see how they’ll shape the future of gaming. Games have been at the forefront of every recent technological wave, from GPU chips to cloud, mobile and beyond. Right now, AI is revolutionizing on-the-fly content creation and enabling more sophisticated and immersive experiences. Yet the best founders – the Dream Games crew among them – realize that players need more than just excellent content and well-calibrated competition. They also crave connection. Whether it’s building with friends in Roblox or joining a time-limited tournament in Royal Match, games are becoming ever more important as digital gathering places that capture the zeitgeist and bring diverse communities together.

From all of us at Index, thank you to Dream Games for bringing us on the journey. We wish you the best of luck as you write the next chapter in humanity’s oldest and most enduring form of entertainment.