We're a Berlin-based studio making narrative games and workshops that explore identity, inclusion, and what it means to belong. Founded in 2019, we've been doing this since before it was fashionable.
We're Food for Thought — a multidisciplinary collective of game designers, writers, educators, and artists based in Berlin. Since 2019, we've been making narrative games and facilitated workshops that engage young people with questions they don't always get to ask.
Our topics include gender, sexuality, identity, accessibility, neuro and physical diversity, environmental justice, migration, and social inclusion. Not because they're fashionable, but because they're the questions our team lives with.
Diversity and inclusion aren't just themes in our work — they're built into who we are. Our team is made up of women, trans people, queers, migrants, and neurodivergent people who bring their whole selves to every project we make.
We believe education should be engaging and honest. Games give young people a way to explore difficult topics at their own pace, in their own words, without pressure. The conversation that comes after is the point.
We don't use games as entertainment with a lesson tacked on. We use them as a medium for reflection, discussion, and creative expression.
Every character we create reflects someone who rarely sees themselves in a game. That's a design principle, not a marketing decision.
Our pedagogical model moves young people from playing to thinking to making to doing. We design for all four stages, not just the first one.
We develop our games in close collaboration with civil society organisations, educators, and the communities our stories are about.
We sit at the intersection of games, education, and cultural learning. Everything we make follows the same four-stage model.
Young people play a narrative game together. The story creates shared experience and opens emotional space for what comes next.
A trained facilitator guides structured discussion. What did you notice? What felt familiar? What felt wrong? There are no right answers.
Participants respond creatively — through character design, storytelling, or building their own game concepts. Their perspective becomes part of the work.
Reflection leads to action. We aim to equip young people with the tools to recognise, name, and respond to the social questions our games explore.
Food for Thought was founded in 2019 by Serenad Yılmaz as a Berlin-based studio at the intersection of games, education, and social impact. The idea was simple: narrative games could open conversations that classrooms couldn't.
Our first game, Laika, launched in 2019 and was immediately recognised for its approach to empathy and social skills in younger children, winning the Comenius EduMedia Award and being nominated for the Deutscher Computerspielpreis Best Children's Game. It established our approach: games that take their audience seriously.
Sibel's Journey followed — a game about gender, sexuality, identity, and consent for teenagers. It has since become our most recognised title, winning the Gaming Ohne Grenzen Award at gamescom, the Big Impact Diversity Award, and the Goldener Spatz Media Sponsorship, among others.
Leila's Play, our third game, is currently in development. A narrative detective game exploring disability, accessibility, and neuro and physical diversity, it expands our portfolio into new territory while staying true to the same core question: whose story gets told, and in whose world?
We're experienced and well-established players from the games and culture sectors — but we're also the people our games are about. Diversity isn't ornamental to us. It's core to our identities, and to every experience we create.
We bring not only our professional expertise but our personal experiences and perspectives to everything we make.
Caught the game bug in the early 2000s and designed her first game in Flash — it was played by 11 million people online. She spent over a decade in the creative industries as a graphic and UI designer, five of those years in the games industry. She holds an MA in Gender Studies and another in Science and Technology Studies. She was once chased by a rhino and has a weak spot for platform shoes.
Works in Berlin primarily in interactive media and video design. Her work spans concept and game design, character design, illustration and animation across digital formats, as well as graphic design in print. She leads design and art direction across FFT's game portfolio.
Born in Istanbul in 1995, she holds an MA in Sociology as a DAAD scholarship holder and works on topics including gender, sexuality, and bodily autonomy. She contributes to the design and implementation of workshops and educational game projects including Leila's Play. A first-generation migrant in Berlin.
Born in 1992, holds two MAs in Sociocultural Studies and Sociology, and developed the plot and educational content of Sibel's Journey. They provide training in sexual and gender education and are completing their doctorate in Sociology and Trans Studies. Most recently published: "Interaktiv und intersektional: Sexualbildung für Jugendliche mit dem Digitalspiel Sibel's Journey".
Working on her Ph.D. at the European University Viadrina on Discourses on Sexuality in Berlin-Neukölln. She has worked in psychosocial counseling for queer people of color, is a lecturer for Gender Studies, and works as a freelance trainer in adult education. As a parent of a teenager, she has a lot of practice translating political content into language that actually lands with young people.
Received her doctorate in political science from the University of Georgia in 2010 and worked as a researcher in Turkey until 2017. She currently works as a project manager for the Threatened Scholars Integration Initiative at the Open Society Foundations, an international scholarship programme for persecuted academics.
An artist and animator based in Berlin since 1997. He works primarily as a character designer and storyboard artist, with credits across traditional 2D animated feature films and TV series. His game credits include the award-winning Laika, Monkey Swag, and The Great Jitters: Pudding Panic.
Holds a Bachelor's in Sound and Music Production and has been working in sound design since 2021, creating sound effects for games, trailers, films, and videos. She learned multiple instruments from an early age and also passes on her skills and energy as a children's trainer in a martial arts school.
A professional game programmer since 2013 with experience shipping console, desktop, and mobile titles using both custom and modded engines. Particularly at home in engine programming, localisation, and accessibility work. In their spare time: pixel artist, audio synthesist, and woodworker.
Our games are developed in close collaboration with civil society organisations, educational institutions, and community experts. Every project draws on a broad international network — because the communities our stories are about should help shape them.
Support us and help keep our workshops free for the schools and communities that need them most.