About
In my decade-long career in game development, I developed dozens of award-winning games, helped hundreds of others do the same, travelled to meet with & support game creators in all corners of the globe, created free tools that became industry-standard, helped fund experimental games, organized the first-ever octolingual games conference, & supported initiatives to ensure gaming is for everyone.
Work Experience
As member of the Board of Directors, I help chart and execute the strategic and long-term vision of the International Game Developers Association.
Ideation, founding, funding, business development, partnerships, and technical development at gamedev.world, a unique online octolingual games conference.
AbleGamers creates opportunities that enable play in order to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Vlambeer was an award-winning Dutch indie game design company renowned for its games and business. Our work included Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, LUFTRAUSERS, and Super Crate Box.
Projects
Biz-dev, Community Management, Production, & Marketing for a genre-defining roguelike game developed live on Twitch.tv.
Side Projects
Fawzi Mesmar, Osama Dorias, and Rami Ismail discuss games and media and life as a bunch of Arabs living all over the big world.
A week-long public fundraising effort that raised $81,636.13 to reimburse marginalized developers for non-refundable expenses in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
presskit() (pronounced 'do presskit') is the industry-standard tool for generating presskits. Free for everyone, open and easy-to-use for both developers & press.
Awards
Recognizing the career and achievements of an outstanding developer who’s made an incredible impact on games.
The Game Developers' Choice Ambassador Award honors an individual who has helped the game industry advance to a better place.
IndieCade’s Game Changer Award celebrates an individual who has impacted the gaming landscape in a significant way, a positive disruptor who has has brought a paradigm shift to our community.
The Apple Design Awards honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design.
The Apple App Store Awards celebrate the best apps and games of the year. Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing for iPhone won this prestigious award in 2013.
Speaking
An example of my most-popular and often-requested fully improvised talk, where the audience fills the slides.
Teaching the audience Arabic in under 30 minutes to prove how easy it would be to include countless people just across the language barrier.
A room full of indie startups get a tough reality check: much of your competition is better than you, but that's no reason to give up.
Education
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht offers preparatory courses, bachelor's and master's programmes and research degrees in fine art, design, music, theatre, media, games and interaction and arts management. HKU University of the Arts Utrecht is one of the largest art and culture-oriented institutes in Europe.