Amin Abbas

TOKYO: Abu Dhabi Gaming, an initiative set up by the Abu Dhabi government to foster and grow the UAE’s gaming sector, featured four local UAE game studios (Hypemasters, Afterwork Games, Khosouf Studios, and Kashkool Games) at Tokyo Game Show (TGS) this year, who showcased their innovative games and talent to Japanese consumers, game publishers, and potential partners.

“Our participation at TGS has been fantastic, as this is our first time to have a booth at the event and we thought that it would be a great idea to showcase some of the projects that’s being produced in Abu Dhabi and some of the games that are being done and bring the teams behind them to allow them to interact with the visitors directly and to showcase their good work,” Marcos Muller-Habig, Abu Dhabi Gaming’s Director, told Arab News Japan.

Habig shared that some of the challenges that he faced while preparing for the event were the language barrier and the time difference. “The team was fantastic and we were able to work through and get everything running without any issues,” he said. “We are so grateful for the support from the organizers of TGS and our partners, as everything worked out as it was planned.”

About the response and feedback from the visitors who came to the Abu Dhabi Gaming booth at TGS 2024, Habig said, “It was really amazing to see how many people were a bit unfamiliar with the Middle East region and how they quickly understood and saw the games and interacted with the game’s makers. Essentially, the visitors were gaming fans and the geographic barriers break down as everyone shares the same passion for gaming. The response has been fantastic and we had quite a lot of people that came by and interacted with us and the popularity was really surprising.”

Regarding Abu Dhabi Gaming’s upcoming plans following their participation at TGS 2024, Habig said, “I think that following TGS, we will continue with the momentum as we want to do more and reach other events and bring Abu Dhabi culture to different places. Also, we want to showcase the games that we are making.

“We were really fortunate to have a lot of partners and game developing studios in Abu Dhabi and we want to keep showcasing them, So I think in the future we will do more of these activities and attend various shows and bring different studios to showcase their games,” he added.

Kashkool Games showcased “Sheba: A New Dawn,” which is an action-RPG game that takes players on a unique and immersive journey to explore a vast, mysterious world filled with challenging gameplay and a captivating storyline packed with unexpected twists. 

“It’s amazing meeting people from the same industry who are in Japan, the origin of the industry. This participation closes the bridges between the UAE and Japan game industries,” CEO and Founder of Kashkool Games Omran Almansoori told Arab News Japan.

About the response and feedback from the visitors who came to their booth at TGS 2024, Almansoori said: “The visitors and business owners were very excited to meet developers from the Middle East and UAE. The genre of the game we presented is very famous in Japan. They were so happy and excited to see such a product presented with Arabic mythology.” 

Regarding Kashkool Games’ upcoming plans following their participation at TGS 2024, Almansoori said: “Because of the acceptance and excitement from the visitors, we will look into partnerships with Japanese companies that could improve our presence in the Japanese market.”

Hypemasters showcased their multiplayer real-time strategy game “World War Armies,” which was released on Steam this year. “We have really enjoyed participating in TGS so far. The business days have exceeded our expectations in terms of the number of booth visitors,” Ekaterina Bazhanova from Hypemasters told Arab News Japan.

“We have heard that the booth was very easy to find because of the lights. The giveaway bags were higher quality than visitors expected,” Bazhanova added. “As for our game, we received some very positive feedback so far, especially on game characters. We are very grateful to Abu Dhabi Gaming for taking Hypemasters here and unlocking these opportunities for us. We have been actively encouraging all gaming studios that we met with to consider opening up an office in Abu Dhabi.”

Afterwork Games showcased their game “Balance Party” in both volumes 1 and 2 at the event. “We decided to come to show our upcoming game ‘Balance Party Vol.2’ which has unique controls where people play the game by tilting their bodies on a balance board. The game is very much inspired by retro Japanese video games and our memories playing and growing up with them,” CEO and Founder of Afterwork Games Nayef Alblooshi told Arab News Japan.

“It was very encouraging for us to come and showcase the game here at TGS to represent some of how video games we played back in the day inspired us. Everything was made easy by the support of Abu Dhabi Gaming,” he added.

Alblooshi shared that the response was surprisingly positive at TGS. “I feel that a lot of people showed interest in the product and we got visitors from international markets and played the game. It was also a great business opportunity because we met with many companies that we might be going forward with for potential business opportunities,” he told Arab News Japan.

Khosouf Studios showcased their flagship title, “Shadow Dreams,” which is set to release in 2025. They are currently development partners and publishers with PlayStation.

“Because we have been working on a game for 6–7 years now and we are ready to show it to the world, we have been trying to contact PlayStation and thankfully they came to our booth to test the game and we showed them that we got it,” CEO and Founder of Khosouf Studios Ahmad Al-Natsheh told Arab News Japan regarding the company’s participation in TGS. 

“It has been a smooth experience for us with the support from Abu Dhabi Gaming and we managed to communicate with Japanese people through simple language since we translated and dubbed the game to Japanese so that the Japanese visitors could enjoy it,” he added. 

About the response and feedback from the visitors who came to the booth at TGS 2024, Al-Natsheh said, “It was amazing, as everyone who came to our booth loved the game and someone played the game for two hours straight.”

“What we showcased at TGS was a one-hour demo of the eight-hour full gameplay. So, the moment we are back, we will finish development of the game and release it on the PlayStation platform after we make a deal with them,” he added.

TGS kicked off in Chiba on Thursday and concludes on Sunday.