Dreams on a developer of a pillow about challenges in creating games from the West Bank

“Sometimes I joke about it, but like I need a battle to start a new game,” Rasheed Abu-Eideh told me about a call. “The specific thing that makes me create Liyla and Shadows of War is the attack on Gaza in 2014, and the specific thing that made me make a dream on the pillow is the attack on Gaza in 2023.”

The dream on the pillow is a stealth adventure telling the story of a young mother in the Nakba period – cleaning the nation in 1948, the movement and persecution of the Arab Palestinians of Israeli. According to its funding campaign, it was a game of “a land full of people created into a nation without land”.

The campaign still has a few more days, but has surpassed the original goal earlier this week. Abu-Eideh said the reaction was overwhelming. “I know people care,” he said, but he never expected so much support, and a lot of good words. The funding is given with admitting that he needs more than twice the target to “fully pay for salaries, machining and assets”. But this means he and a small group of artists, calligraphers and programmers can start production.

“We need talented people to believe in this project,” Abu-Eideh said. “It is like a basic requirement for something like this, because it is not a normal project. You need those who believe in your career.” While the team and him were about to transfer from the production prenatal, I asked what his current current looks like his home in the West Bank.

“It is difficult, daily life. Just taking your child to school is a big problem because you don’t know which way you should go.”

We are seeing the increasing speed of the surrounding settlements around us and taking up more land, “he continued,” occupying our land and turning into settlements. Therefore, it is not safe just to move. Someone.

OMM, word of mouth dreaming on the pillow based on, widely known in Palestine. “I know that from a young age. People often use it to show how terrible Nakba is. There are many stories about Nakba and Palestine, but I think this story has grasped the emotions I want. It really shows the suffering of the Palestinians.

The dreams on the young mother of a pillow fled from the house after the murder of her husband, accidentally took a pillow instead of her child. The pillow is still a comfortable source, but she will not be able to interact freely with the world until she put it down. Abu-Eideh said he wanted to make sure the game provides “complete harmony” between this story and its play, instead of these factors that lead to the opposite directions.

“Morging them is essential. The pillow itself is a safe thing.

“It is the emotional aspect of Nakba himself,” he continued, “not only showing the normal danger that the Palestinians have, but also the psychological impact of losing their dreams. The Palestinians not only lose their houses and land, but they also lose everything. They lose their memories, history and future.”

Abu-Eideh first participated in the game design through computer technical research, which has turned into a job. “Until 2010, when there is a big trend for mobile applications, the expansion of the App Store and Google Play, similar things. There are new platforms you really can use to create games. I start playing with these things and discover that I like to make games. He said he loved games like Limbo, The Walking Dead, Shadow of the Games with the game, The Last of us, the uses, the uses, the uses. Heavy story “.

The platforms like Google Play in history do not recognize his area is the present

Apple’s App Store will then play a different role in Abu-Eideh’s journey as a designer. In 2016, they refused Liyla and Shadows of War from their ‘game’ genre, telling him that “for example, it will be more suitable when classifying your application in news or references for example”. Abu -Eideh felt this was a decision based on Liyla’s political content – where a Palestinian family focused on armed attacks in 2014 Gaza. Backlash is publicly followed, and the App Store reverses their decision.

But this is not the only obstacle Abu-Eideh and other Palestinian developers face. As he mentioned in Miziziziziz’s 2022 video, platforms like Google Play in history do not realize his area is the present, making it difficult to connect to payment gateways. That is why Dreams on A Gung is being raised community funds through Launchgood, a foundation founded on the principle of “Muslims have incredible stories to tell”.

“I think we are lucky because we have Launchgood, because I can’t do it on any other platform. It’s the same problem. They don’t recognize this area. I’m not sure if they are willing to support a project like this or not, or at least put it on their foundation.

Liyla and the darkness of the war were a “great success”, Abu-Eideh said. He talked at GDC in 2017. He wanted to turn the game that the game brought into a career. First he started working with dreams on a pillow of the same year, but could not reach the point that it became sustainable. “I have abandoned that project many times. Life here is very difficult. You focus on the basic things more than anything else. You need to exist every day. You need to provide your family and you are absolutely no security. At that time, I want to do something that at least I can maintain my life in some way. And maybe, if I can return to this game.

“I can remember many nights when I encrypted Liyla, I encoded with my tears.”

Abu-Eideh opened a Nut factory near her home to support the family, while continuing to work in small game projects. Roasted cashews, pistachios and watermelon seeds are the most popular, he told me, but people often buy almonds. There is a traditional Palestinian dish called Msakhan used a lot of them, besides Sumac chicken and Caramen onion bread. He makes it sound delicious.

“Today,” reading the sponsorship campaign, his factory “sitting empty” due to the unsafe business. “With what is happening right now, Abu Abu-Eideh told me, I think, I should do this. Because I feel I am more responsible now, and I am responsible for doing this. It’s an obligation.

“You do something authentic, and when you express yourself in a game and when you show your personal experience, people will react to it. People will feel that. I have the idea that the games are powerful before I release Liyla. For Liyla, I encrypted Liyla.

I ended the interview by asking Abu-Eideh if anything he wanted many people to know about the scene of Palestinian game.

“You know, this is like a personal story for me, trying to create games as a reflection of reality here in Palestine. Many, many talented students here want to create games, but not. It’s easy. Yesterday, I could do it.

“Therefore, I think the lack of game studios we are here in Palestine,” you continue, “is because people just want the basic things in life, and there is not much room to test and error. Making the game is not an easy job. You need to connect.”

“And all of these have been blocked in Palestine. Many of them only try because they love the vehicle, but they are trying in their free time. There are many, a lot of efforts to create studios here in Palestine, but all are unsuccessful.”

The dream on the Launchgood campaign of a pillow takes place until January 13.