Agon (Razeen)

Razeen (code name: Agon) is a filtration and submissions management system. It was created as the first product for TAM Development as part of their new organizational expansion that included IT products as a new business line. I was responsible for creating the new product unit, then choosing, strategizing, and building the first digital product for the company. 

Seeing that TAM specializes in contests, events, and award management, I chose Razeen to provide two benefits. First is to overhaul the internal tools used by the operations team and eliminate any costly manual process. Second is to utilize TAM’s extensive knowledge in contests and award management to create the best product for contests and awards management. The roadmap for the product involved branching into similar submission management processes.

Razeen was released in 2018. Internally, it helped the company manage triple the number of last year’s contests in the first quarter of 2019, with the same workforce. It diminished the dependence on the IT team in launching and managing new contests, which reduced the IT cost for a contest by 90%. Those factors more than doubled the company’s profit for 2019. I could not gather data for its external use as I left the company before the launch to accompany my wife in continuing her education abroad.

Link: https://razeen.io

Role: Build the product management unit (structure, processes, job titles, interview process, hiring). Strategizing the first IT product (selecting Razeen and developing its long term roadmap). Develop Razeen’s requirements and wireframes. Coach the development team on Scrum. 

Tools: Trello, Slack, Google Docs, Balsamiq.

Kammelna Baloot

Kammelna Baloot is an online multi-player card game, based on the famous local card game played in Saudi Arabia Baloot. It attracts 150K+ daily players, 500K+ monthly players. The product started with me researching the current competition at the time, then drafting the project’s requirements and game rules. With the help of the development team, we managed to launch a beta version in June 2008. But it was filled with bugs and problems that we had to shut it down and relaunch a better version on January 5, 2009.

The game is still running 11 years after its release, and its user base and profits are still growing. In 2012, Peak Games acquired the game and the Kammelna brand. Remal IT remained as the game developer and operator.

Link: http://kammelna.com

Role: Product manager, Project manager, game designer, customer service, voice actor. Scrumban was used to manage the product’s development.

Tools: Asana, Trello, Assembla, Game Analytics, Unity, Google Docs, Slack, HipChat, Github, Google Analytics, SmartFox Server, Flash, Audacity.

Skilled Driver (Jawlah)

An educational driving game where the players learn the different traffic rules and try to progress through the levels by safely driving their cars. It was a part of a road safety campaign developed by TAM Development for one of their clients.

I was contracted as the game designer and to handle the outsourcing of the game’s art. First, I researched mobile driving games and educational games. Then I developed the game’s high concept, the games design document, and wireframes. For the art outsourcing task, I researched the different art styles possible for the game, then managed to find a freelance artist that has done mobile games art before. I developed the list of graphics assets for the game, then gathered the reference material for the art assets.

The game was developed in Unity and was released on iOS and Android. I couldn’t gather much data due to my contract ending a few months before the game was released. I was told that the client was delighted with the result, and the kids enjoyed the game.

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=salamaep.org.jawlah&hl=en_US

Role: Game Designer, Art Outsourcing.

Tools: Google Docs, Photoshop for wireframes and UI requirements.

Areeb World

An educational MMORPG set in a science fictional future where robots do all the work for humans, but then the robots go rogue. It is the players' mission to figure out why, restore the peace, and reclaim all the knowledge that was lost due to over-reliance on robots. The target audience is elementary level students.

It was a massive project for a small company. The team managed to release the game to Steam and physical stores. The game programming was outsourced, but all the design work and content creation were done by the team.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/sub/76154/

Role: Since it was managed by another team in the company, I provided consultation on game design and artwork, then did parts of the early game design work. Later I helped with the packaging art outsourcing and created storyboards for the game intro scene.

Tools: Google Docs, Photoshop, MediaWiki.

Shout of Survival

Shout of Survival is an online 4-players quick match game. It is played in a barely lit map, and the goal is to find your human teammate (if you played as a human) or to hunt down one of the human players (if you played as a monster). The game was built after the positive feedback from releasing Reunion, where the three of us at Hako Games decided to give it a try and build a commercial game using similar mechanics.

The game managed to be successfully funded in its Indiegogo campaign, and it passed the Steam Greenlight process. Currently still available on the Steam store.

Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=665484362

Role: Game Artist (2D version), funding campaign planning, promotional art creation.

Tools: Photoshop, Trello.