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Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan returns on November 9th and 10th, 2024, offering a chance to gain insights into the world’s fastest-growing games market, MENA.
As part of our MENA coverage and run-up to the event, we speak with Table Knight Games co-founder Ghada A. AlHudaithi to discuss creating culturally relevant experiences and opportunities and challenges facing the MENA region.
PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about Table Knight Games and what you’re up to right now?
Ghada A. AlHudaithi: Table knight games is a Saudi game development company, specialising in developing games on mobile phones. Currently, we are slowly expanding the company and exploring new genres for our games.
How many staff do you currently employ and what are you doing to foster collaboration and recruit local talents?
We are a team of 13 people all based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, we do have a couple of the team who work virtually. We try to explore what’s new happening in the gaming hubs that are here in Riyadh, and try to create new ideas for collaborations.
“Ensuring a culturally relevant experience comes with the brainstorming process, as well as constantly updating our products.”
Ghada A. AlHudaithi
Tell us about the challenges you’ve faced in the localisation process.
One of the biggest challenges we have faced is trying to match quality and fun in our games for our audiences, and always keeping them wanting to play our games more.
How have you ensured a culturally relevant experience for players?
Ensuring a culturally relevant experience comes with the brainstorming process, as well as constantly updating our products, and I guess our games are received to the MENA region by Arabic audiences who share some similarity to our culture.
What changes have you made to appeal to the changing consumer behaviour towards games?
We have added online features to some of our games to ensure better gaming sessions for our consumers, and constantly adding more features such as exclusive packs and subscription plans.
“The games industry in the MENA region is at the start of its evolution and what we can do is try to innovate and have a niche style for gaming.”
Ghada A. AlHudaithi
What do you see as the current opportunities and challenges facing the games industry in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region?
Current opportunities is that the games industry in the MENA region is at the start of its evolution and what we can do is try to innovate and have a niche style for gaming and go through that.
However, the challenges faced is how new the industry is, and how it is challenging to innovate and match global standards in game development.
What are your thoughts on emerging technologies in gaming? And do you have plans to incorporate AI into your game development process?
I think they are amazing for the future of gaming; these technologies can be a useful tool to enhance the gaming experience for players. Sadly, we don’t plan to utilise it at the moment but it can be in consideration.
In terms of funding and support for gaming studios in MENA, what has been your experience navigating the funding landscape?
There has been a lot of vast opportunities for funding and support from Saudi Arabia and other venture capitals in the MENA region, however I do not wish to disclose any information about this topic.
What are your plans for the rest of 2024 and the coming year? And are there any specific initiatives or projects on the horizon that we should look forward to?
As we are approaching the end of the year, we will announce some new features for our games and possibly set a release date for our latest project.
