Yon the West Bank city of Nablus, Rasheed Abueideh owns a nut roasting factory, where he works to support his family. He is also an award-winning game developer. A decade ago, as the 2014 Gaza war raged, he created a harrowing video game called Lilya and the Shadows of War, about a man trying to find safety for his daughter and himself, but as missiles rain down on him around, it quickly becomes clear that there is no security. When the game was released in 2016, it was initially rejected by Apple for inappropriate content, decision revoked after a week of protests.
However, despite the praise and attention Lilya received, Abueideh has been unable to raise funds for her next game through conventional means. The game you imagine, Dreams on a pillowis about the Nakba of 1948, told through a folk tale about a mother in the Arab-Israeli war, in which more than half of the Palestinian population was displaced. He tells me that his game has been rejected almost 300 times by publishers and cultural grant providers for being too controversial and too risky. “It was always forbidden to talk about Palestinian history,” he says.
Now, once again, war ravages Abueideh’s house. The promoter fears for his safety and is determined to tell this Palestinian story. With the help of a small team of developers and advisors from the region and beyond, he launched a crowdfunding campaign in hopes of making Dreams on a Pillow a reality.
“Crowdfunding was our only option, but even that wouldn’t work for me because all the major crowdfunding platforms don’t recognize Palestine,” Abueideh says. The team turned to LaunchGooda Muslim-focused platform, where it met its funding goal on January 7. It’s enough to cover at least half of the game’s development costs, and he hopes that once the game starts to take shape, it will be easier to find the rest. “I’m very happy,” he says. “The support on social media and on the campaign page has been overwhelming, which shows how much people care about Palestinian history… I didn’t expect this level of success.”
The folktale that inspired Dreams on a Pillow tells of a mother who runs into her house to retrieve her baby before running away, only to realize that she has escaped with a pillow. In the game, she spends her days trying to reach Lebanon after the Tantura massacre and her nights dreaming of the Palestine she knew as a child. Leaving the pillow allows her to move through the game’s settings more freely, but invites her to have nightmares and hallucinations. Abueideh estimates it will take two years to complete; Heartbreakingly, the crowdfunding page contains the assurance that “a clear plan for the completion of the game has been implemented to ensure continuity in the event of Rasheed’s disappearance, injury or death at the hands of ongoing Israeli aggression.” expansion in the West Bank.” ”.
“The goal is for the player to feel and understand what happened to the Palestinians during this dark era, which is still shaping our daily lives,” Abueideh says. “I want to convey a message that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is an ongoing process that began in 1948. At that time, (players) will be able to understand what is happening today and take a stand.”