Second River Games Ltd
Second River Games is a UK-based studio making simulation and management games, combining seasoned game craft with emerging technologies. Our characters have inner lives: they notice, form opinions, hold grudges and pass stories on. Foundation models make this possible; traditional game AI keeps it readable and fun.
Posted: 05 November 2026
Second River Games is a UK-based studio, founded by two experienced game developers, Bulut Karakaya and Duygu Cakmak. The studio makes simulation and management games in which characters, systems and stories interact in unexpected ways. Our mission is to combine seasoned game craft with emerging technologies to build worlds that are rich, reactive and deep enough to keep surprising players. We focus on characters with inner lives: they notice what happens around them, form opinions, hold grudges and pass stories on. Foundation models have made this possible, and we pair them with traditional game AI so the results stay readable and fun.
The studio's first title, Village of Whispers, is a premium PC simulation that casts the player as an oracle rather than a commander. Each night the village asks one question, and the player answers with a single short prophecy. By day, villagers live, remember, gossip, mourn and act on their own interpretations, so one sentence becomes ritual, politics and survival strategy.
Meet the team
Bulut Karakaya
Bulut Karakaya has 16 years in game development. He was technical lead on Monument Valley 3 and Desta: The Memories Between at ustwo games, and has co-founded independent studios and shipped original IP on Steam.
Duygu Cakmak
Duygu Cakmak has 16 years in software engineering and AI development, including 10 in games. Until August 2026 she was R&D Director at Creative Assembly, where she founded the R&D function and led AI strategy, with credits on the Total War series. She co-founded the AI and Games Conference, chairs the IGGI industry board and is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Games.
