Arab News Japan

DUBAI: Aspiring Saudi game developers were given a chance to participate in the 4^th Game Development Program, a 4-day intensive online training program on Feb. 14-17.

The training was co-organized by the Saudi Arabia’s General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) and the Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME), a governmental organization for promoting Saudi Arabian and Japanese investment and business activities.

The 4-day program was exclusively coordinated by Ken Watanabe, a former Nintendo game developer, collaborating with Hamada Takashi, a professional game visual designer. The 10 young Saudi game developers, five males and females, participated in the program, learning how to define a concept and design, as well as develop their original smartphone games.

On the first day, the lecturers and participants had an orientation & introduction session, followed by the lectures of ‘About developing a game,’ ‘Explanation of the sample projects,’ and ‘Select your project.’

On the second, the lecture titled ‘Skill or Luck’ was explained and then participants started their individual work, creating original games using specific software. The lecture, ‘Risk and Reward’, was explained on the third day. On the last day, participants presented their original game. Watanabe and Hamada gave them professional comments from technical, design, and visual points of view. Watanabe also gave a special lecture, explaining what he had learned at Nintendo.

Hattan Tawili, General Supervisor of Video Games and Age Rating at GCAM, expressed his happiness at the success of the training and the importance of holding such training in cooperation with the names of prominent developers such as Watanabe.