ABU DHABI // The first locally trained computer-game designers are about to graduate.
The eight students at twofour54's Gaming Academy are just weeks away from completing their 16-month course.
Some hope to secure jobs here and build up the country's fledgling games industry but others are looking overseas to more established markets.
The academy was set up in collaboration with a French game developer, Ubisoft, responsible for awarding-winning titles such as Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia.
While the UAE's game design industry is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, most of the jobs created will initially be for experienced staff rather than new graduates.
Ubisoft has 28 employees at its Abu Dhabi base but hopes to have 100 in the next three to five years.
In 2011 it became the first major international video game company to open a studio in the region.
It plans to offer internships to some of the graduates and while the number of places has not been fixed, it is unlikely all eight will be accommodated.
Yannick Theler, general manager for Ubisoft in the UAE, said the company would assess the students' capabilities before a final decision was made.
"We are looking first of all at what they know and what skills have they acquired," he said. "We need to know if they will fit into the philosophy of the company and if they will be able to work with our programmers and artists."
The students understand they are entering an global industry that is still in its infancy in the UAE.
Nassib Azar, from Lebanon, was an architect in Dubai for 10 years before he decided to change career.
"I switched to gaming for something closer to home so to speak. I've always been a gamer, since the days of the Atari," he said.
"Creating games and creating worlds is something I've always wanted to do."
Mr Azar admitted he was concerned about his employment prospects.
"Ubisoft really is the holy grail, so to speak. If I don't get in there, it is a little tougher for me because I have a family here," he said. "I need to look at costs of living and if my wife can find a job overseas."
Hadeel Miqdadi, an Emirati graduate of Science in Multimedia Design, said that while her immediate goal was to work for Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, she eventually wanted to work for Sega, "which is a company I really respect".
Her compatriot, Fakhra Al Mansouri, said she had relished her experience with twofour54.
"Ideally I'd love a position with Ubisoft, a lot of their games had a lot of influence on me," she added.
But she would not mind moving overseas if an opportunity was not available closer to home.
Matthew Bell, head lecturer at the Gaming Academy, believes it will take between five and 10 years for the region's gaming industry to flourish.
"This is the start of the road, to try to develop the region's development scene," he said, adding he was confident "we can get a world-acclaimed studio here" that his students could be part of.
He drew a parallel with the industry in Singapore, where Ubisoft opened a similar studio in 2008, under similar industry conditions.
It has gone on to work on some of the company's most lucrative and popular titles.
The Gaming Academy will hold an open day on Tuesday as it starts to recruit its next intake of 12 students.
ksinclair@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Remaining Fixtures
Wednesday: West Indies v Scotland
Thursday: UAE v Zimbabwe
Friday: Afghanistan v Ireland
Sunday: Final
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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