Saudi Arabia has no shortage of people who want to make games. Modern tools mean that even high school students in the Kingdom can now build a working platformer or get a 3D character moving around a scene. However, turning that into a company that survives realistic market conditions is a different matter entirely. 

Closing that divide is what the Level Up Accelerator sets out to do: NEOM’s 12-month programme supported by DigiPen Institute of Technology. It has now reached its third cohort and has funded 15 Saudi studios to date. 

Ahead of Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on November 7th and 8th, we catch up with DigiPen Institute senior executive Raymond Yan to discuss what DigiPen looks for in a gaming startup, why Saudi studios need to start thinking like businesses, and what it will take for the Kingdom to build a games industry run by its own people. 

DigiPen has spent six years in the Kingdom running workshops, masterclasses, incubators and accelerators. Over that time, Yan says, the talent has become more serious and more capable. The problem now lies elsewhere.

"There is still a significant gap between being able to make a game and being able to build a sustainable game company," he says.

Getting past a prototype takes a lot more depth. Studios need system design that scales, software that performs reliably and the ability to implement advertising, monetisation and live ops while understanding what each costs to run.

"Then there's the harder part: figuring out how to weave all of that into the actual design of the game rather than bolting it on," he explains.

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