One Palestinian game developer living under occupation is now raising funds for a "pseudo-3D stealth" game that aims to depict the 1948 Nakba, the event in which around 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced from their homes and villages 75 years ago.
A decade ago, Rasheed Abueideh made a name for himself with the critically acclaimed and award-winning Liyla & The Shadows of War, which told the story of children trying to survive through the 2014 conflict in Palestine. Despite widespread love pouring in for Liyla, Abueideh says that he "struggled to carve out a sustainable career in the games industry" in the years that followed due to funding partners being wary about seeming too political. That's when he opened a nut roastery in the occupied West Bank, though Abueideh says the business is now empty as "Israeli colonists terrorize the roads of the West Bank, making travel to his roastery unsafe."
So, Abueideh has turned his gaze back to game development with Dreams on a Pillow, a game that's "inspired by a historical Palestinian folk tale set during the ethnic cleansing that was the 1948 Nakba," according to the fundraiser page on LaunchGood. "Like all oral folktales, the story of Omm has numerous variations, however, all stories share the same fundamental elements: a young mother living in Palestine had her husband murdered by the Zionist invaders, and she ran to her home to retrieve her newborn child from the bed."
The pillow that Omm mistakenly takes and carries through the entire game is a key object. While it's in her hands, she can't fully interact with the environment with jumps, crawls, and rock-throwing, and thus, can't properly evade foes that wish death on her. When she puts the pillow down, however, she's quickly engulfed by nightmares that close in on her. So I'm guessing we'll need to complete puzzles and obstacles quickly in order to make it out alive and with Omm's mind intact. I'm also interested in the promise that the game will include "historical documentation and imagery" in select scenes.
Dreams on a Pillow has already raised $49,000 out of its $194,000 total funding goal with 49 days still left to go, with the aim of being able to pay for "salaries, outsourcing, and asset creation." The game is aiming to launch sometime in 2026.
