Surge Games raises $3m to scale AI-native puzzle games

$3m · Other round · Gaming · Istanbul, Türkiye

Istanbul-based Surge Games has raised $3m in a pre-seed round led by Play Ventures, with Simya VC and Drilo Ventures participating. The financing, reported by Webrazzi in August, will support hiring, user acquisition and the scaling of games that meet the studio's performance thresholds.

Founded in 2026 by Muhammed Atlam, Onur Uras, Rabia Konuk Uras and Yiğit Yücel Neğiş, Surge Games is building short-session mobile puzzle games. PocketGamer.biz reports that the team uses AI across game development, art and user acquisition, while Webrazzi says it combines player behaviour and in-game data to develop and test new mechanics. Its first title, Twin Tiles!, is live on iOS and Android.

The commercial test is not how many concepts the studio can generate, but whether faster iteration produces games with retention and monetisation signals strong enough to justify acquisition spending. Surge Games says it will use data from each experiment to decide which titles deserve to scale. That connects its AI-assisted production system to a specific capital-allocation loop: reject weak mechanics earlier, then concentrate marketing money on the games that clear internal performance thresholds.

The round gives Surge Games resources on both sides of that loop. Growing the team can increase the number and quality of experiments, while a larger user-acquisition budget can test promising games with real cohorts across markets. The execution risk is repeatability: one live title proves the studio can ship, but the model becomes more valuable only if learning from Twin Tiles! improves the odds and economics of subsequent launches.

The founders previously worked at Turkish game companies including Dream Games, Good Job Games and Feraset, according to PocketGamer.biz. Simya VC said their combined experience in games, product, data and growth, plus their ability to prototype and test quickly, drove its investment decision. Play Ventures identifies the financing as a pre-seed round and says it led the deal. The matching Tech.eu event is canonically classified as Other, so EUVC uses the approved Other round tag in the facts line and metadata while preserving the investors' more precise description in the article.

Sources checked:
Webrazzi · Play Ventures · PocketGamer.biz · Simya VC · Surge Games · Tech.eu Funding Explorer

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