My trip to Riyadh and Gamefounders

Samer Abbas giving a speech at the Gamefounders showcase day in Riyadh, 2023.

I while back I was invited by my friend Samer Abbas and GameFounders to come help mentor and judge projects and teams as part of their accelerator program in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I just came back from my trip, and I am so happy I went there. What an awesome country and people. And what is cooler is the experience of getting to know the passionate teams and people building games in the region.

Saudi people are passionate about video games, I have always known this since my old days as a MENA CM. What I did not know, is their passion for making games. I was very impressed with the projects I saw, and I am looking forward to seeing some of these games show up on western markets sometime soon.

One of the most impressive things I witnessed during my time there was that +40% of the accelerator’s participants were women. This was a very empowering experience, and I am so happy to see that Saudi women are out there kicking ass.

Finally, wanted to thank Jussi Autio and Kensaku Nakata for being such awesome mentors at the program. Samer Abbas, thank you for making this an awesome experience.

Best of luck and Godspeed.