Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Darkness Road is the first Arab survival horror game produced by a Dubai-based game developer, Foxrito Studios.

The studio consists of young Emiratis who put a lot of time and effort to deliver a unique digital masterpiece for the gamers around the globe, and to introduce them to the Arab culture through a video game narrative.

The game promises a third-person view survival experience and features realistic-looking characters from all the Arabian gulf territories. It also lets players solve puzzles and riddles inspired by Arab traditions and horror myths.

The upcoming horror game is considered the first game in the world that integrates the Arab gulf aspect in the world of video games, since the storyline takes place in a dark and terrifying gulf environment.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News Japan, Hussain Darwish, co-founder and producer at Foxrito Studios, told the story behind developing Darkness Road, explaining: “The notion of developing video games originated many years ago, however, the lack of resources at that time prevented us from materializing our concepts. Although the research and development for the Darkness Road project started in 2019, things accelerated in 2020.”

“Just after global lockdowns, we had plenty of time to virtually meet as a team. Ever since, our team work hard to meticulously execute what has been planned for the Darkness Road project,” he added.

“If everything goes as planned, the game is expected to be released in Q4 2021 or early 2022.”

Darwish said that they faced several challenges in the development process, varying from technical to logistical issues. “Unlike Japan, Europe and the US, the Middle East is not a huge hub for game developers, therefore, it was a challenge for us to build a team with the required set of skills in order to start developing the game.”

Darwish’s love for video games and designing them inspires him as well as the team at Foxrito Studios. “I’ve been involved in the game development business since 2019, and our concept is to make and release unique gaming experiences for our targeted audience around the globe,” he added.

The company was founded in 2015 as an independent IT consultancy. In 2020, a group of young Emiratis acquired the studio and transformed the business model to concentrate exclusively on console and PC video game development.

Since then, Darwish said, the studio has been briefly involved with a mobile game called Growtopia. “However, Darkness Road is our biggest and most important hit to date,” he told Arab News Japan.

About his inspiration for video games, Darwish said: “From the Metal Gear Solid series to L.A. Noire, to Heavy Rain, there are many great games out there that ‘planted seeds’ in my mind and inspired me quite heavily.”

The producer said that some of the studio’s team members were huge fans of Japanese anime and manga.