Kaan Soral

Kaan Soral

Full Stack Engineer

MMORPGs Real-Time Systems Distributed Architecture
0+ Years Experience
0M+ Users Reached
IOI Silver Medalist
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Senior game engineer building and operating online games and real-time systems. Creator of live MMORPGs with long-running servers, programmable gameplay, and organic player communities. Strong background in algorithms and distributed systems, with deep hands-on experience designing scalable backends and real-time game architectures.

The Journey

2007
Education & Achievement

Ankara Science High School

Graduated from one of Turkey's most prestigious science high schools.

National Olympiad in Informatics — Gold Medal
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) — Silver Medal
2007–2011
Education

METU — Computer Engineering

Middle East Technical University, one of the top engineering universities in Turkey and the region.

1st Place — METU Inter-University Programming Contest (2012)
1st Place — Global Game Jam Ankara, Mobile Category (2010)
2010–2016
$3K/day Ad Revenue

Bought all the popular Facebook Page apps in Turkey, monetized and grew them. Expanded internationally into an app ecosystem generating $3,000/day from ad income alone.

The Facebook Rug Pull

When Facebook switched to Timelines, traffic plummeted overnight. They removed page visibility for all page owners and killed the ability to make apps the default tab of pages. Years of growth — gone in a day.

Platform Independence

This taught me the most important lesson of my career: never build on someone else's platform. Everything I've built since has been self-hosted and infrastructure-independent.

2012–2016
Project

Geobird.com

Location-Based Social Network

Infinitely scalable, map-centric social network with geobox-based caching and spatial querying for instant map panning feedback.

App Engine Geospatial iOS Android HTML5
Ambitious Dream

The project I poured my heart into — a map you could pan across the entire world, seeing photos and posts pinned to real places. I wanted to build the "Google Maps of social."

Geobox Caching

Invented a geobox-based caching system that made map panning feel instant — spatial queries returned in milliseconds even at global scale on App Engine.

The Hard Lesson

Mobile HTML5 UX wasn't there yet. The tech was right, but the ecosystem wasn't ready. A tough lesson in timing — sometimes being early is the same as being wrong.

Full Social OS

Built native-feeling apps for Web, iOS, and Android — plus content aggregation, movie/TV tracking, and a trending system. It was practically a full social operating system.

2015–Present
2018–Present
Project

Distributed Crypto Gaming Network

Currency System + Game Servers

Built a distributed currency system with hourly mass lottery mechanics and game servers. Completed technically but intentionally not launched due to operational complexity and legal considerations.

Distributed Systems Game Servers Cryptocurrency
2021–2025
Personal Achievement

Omega C-Case Collection

#1 Collector Worldwide

Wished to go back in time and experience an ecosystem before a boom — and got to do exactly that. Dominated a niche market before people knew it existed. Over 100 unique models, one-of-a-kind enamel dials, historic pieces, and 10 exclusive white gold references.

Vintage Watches Omega C-Case Collecting
Speculative Markets

People chase crypto, Pokemon cards became an investment vehicle through grading — I got to collect C-Cases before people even started looking for them.

The Drive to Compete

After IOI, was looking for an area in life to compete and achieve something that can be remembered. Manifested this passion and wish through vintage watches.

Friendships

I truly enjoyed and enjoy all the friends I made collecting. I love helping, I love meeting new collectors. It’s been a constant joy in my life. A big thanks to the community.

Insight

Gained a lot of insight into international logistics and challenges, and plan to build a product in the future around making things easier for collectors.

Watchmaking

Got into watchmaking as it was otherwise infeasible to handle all the watches. Cleaned and serviced almost all of them — and freely service 550–750 cal. family watches for anyone! A watch takes around a week to complete, and taking 4 years off from anything else, I consider it a great achievement building a top condition, clean collection.

Airlifting

Airlifting should be a must for vintage watches. Built a custom airlifter to protect all the dials — I place extreme importance on keeping dials untouched whenever possible. My gentle approach to dials is one of the things I’m most proud of.

2022–Present
Project

AuctionStalker.com

Global eBay Search Engine

Queries all eBay regions simultaneously, merging and normalizing results across regional marketplaces. Built to address geographic visibility limitations for collectors.

Web API Integration Search
2025–Present
2026
Weekend Project

Slap.Games

Casual Multiplayer Games Portal

A weekend passion project. Built it, decided not to market it, and moved on to more ambitious projects.

Node.js Multiplayer Web

Technical Arsenal

Client

HTML5 / Canvas WebGL (PixiJS) JavaScript / ES6+

Servers

Node.js Python Express

Databases

MongoDB Google Datastore

Infrastructure

App Engine Kubernetes Self-Hosted

Domains

MMORPGs Real-Time Multiplayer Authoritative Game Servers Live Operations Distributed Systems Scalable Backends

Beyond Code

Mechanical Keyboards

Design, firmware, ergonomics

Vintage Watches

Collecting and restoration

3D Design & Printing

Modeling and fabrication

Fitness

Running and strength training