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Saudi Arabia

Game Development in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the largest gaming market in the GCC and one of the fastest-growing in the world. Buried Games Studio is an independent, remote-first GCC games studio, and we partner with clients across Saudi Arabia to design, build, and ship games for Saudi and wider Arab players. What we bring is a studio rooted in the Gulf that understands the Saudi market, works in Arabic first, and shares your time zone and working week — so collaborating remotely feels as if we were down the street.

5
Games Shipped
8+
Years Active
2
Game Engines
100%
Fully Remote

01

A market with real momentum

Saudi Arabia has put gaming at the centre of its economic diversification. Through the Public Investment Fund and its gaming arm Savvy Games Group, the Kingdom has committed major investment to studios, publishing, and esports as part of a national strategy under Vision 2030. For a client building a game here, that momentum is concrete: a young, highly connected, mobile-first audience, growing local infrastructure, and rising expectations for production quality. A game made for this market has to meet that bar.

Our role is to help clients build to that standard without over-building. We pick the right scope and engine for the goal, prototype quickly, and validate with real players before committing to a full production budget.

02

Arabic-first, not Arabic-as-an-afterthought

Most games reach Saudi players as a Western title with a bolted-on translation, and players feel the difference immediately. We design Arabic-first: correct right-to-left layout, typography that respects Arabic letterforms, copy written in natural Modern Standard Arabic rather than machine-translated English, and a tone that fits a Saudi and Gulf audience. This is the same discipline behind our own bilingual titles, where the Arabic experience is built alongside the English one rather than patched in at the end.

03

Store and payment localisation for KSA

Reaching Saudi players is also an operational job. We localise the App Store and Google Play listings — Arabic screenshots, titles, and descriptions — because that is where most installs are decided. We integrate the payment methods Saudi players actually use, including local cards and wallets alongside the global app-store billing, and we price with local purchasing power in mind. Getting these details right is the difference between a game that downloads and a game that earns.

04

How we work with Saudi clients remotely

We work remotely across the GCC and share the Saudi time zone, working week, and culture, which makes collaboration genuinely seamless — overlapping hours and a shared language for both the code reviews and the casual calls. We run projects with clear milestones, regular builds you can play on your own device, and a single point of contact, so distance never becomes a black box. Many of our Saudi conversations start on WhatsApp, and we are happy to keep them there.

05

What we build for Saudi clients

Saudi enquiries tend to be more varied than elsewhere in the Gulf, because the market is bigger and the buyers are more different from one another. Some are studios who need a specific capability added — multiplayer game development for a title that outgrew single-player, or 2D and 3D game art for a team whose engineering is already covered. Some are brands and agencies who want an interactive installation or an AR campaign rather than a storefront game. And some are founders with an original concept who need the whole path: design, art, engineering and launch.

We are equally happy taking one slice or the whole thing. A studio that only accepts complete projects is of little use to a Saudi team that already has one running and needs a particular gap closed.

06

Choosing an engine: Unity, Unreal, or the browser

The engine follows the game, never the other way round. Unity carries most mobile work — one codebase to the App Store and Google Play, mature 2D and casual tooling, and the engine behind KoutQ8. Unreal Engine 5 earns its place where fidelity is the product: high-end 3D, realistic lighting, MetaHuman digital characters, as in Power of Bombs. The browser is the third route and the one most often overlooked in a market this mobile-heavy — a web game needs no download and no store review, which is exactly why Nabsh spreads through a group chat instead of an app listing.

07

What actually drives the cost of a game

We do not publish a price, because any studio quoting one on a web page is guessing at your project. What we will do is name the levers. Scope comes first — the count of distinct modes, screens and rules, not the length of the wish list. Art is second, and it is where estimates diverge most: a stylised 2D game and a realistic 3D one can differ by a multiple for identical gameplay. Multiplayer is third and the most routinely underestimated, because real-time play drags servers, matchmaking, reconnection and anti-cheat into a budget written for single-player.

The fourth lever is the quiet one: how settled the design is before the build begins. A prototype that answers the fun question early is the cheapest work you will ever commission from us, because everything after it stops being a rewrite.

08

How a project runs, week to week

Scoping comes before any contract. We work through what the game actually is — modes, loop, platforms, audience — until the brief is specific enough to estimate honestly, and where the fun is still an open question we propose a playable prototype first. From there the build runs on milestones, and the rule that matters is that each one ends in something you can play on your own device rather than a status report. You see the game in the state it is genuinely in, which is the only dependable way to catch a wrong turn while correcting it is still cheap.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

It turns on four things, and we would rather explain them than quote a figure we would have to retract. Scope — how many distinct modes, screens and rules. Art — a stylised 2D title and a realistic 3D one can differ by a multiple for the same gameplay. Multiplayer — real-time play adds servers, matchmaking and reconnection. And how settled the design is before the build starts, which is why we often propose a prototype first. Send the idea over and we will scope it properly instead of guessing.

Often, yes. A good share of our work arrives as a specific gap rather than a whole game — multiplayer for a title that outgrew single-player, a port to mobile, or 2D and 3D art for a team whose engineering is already handled. Send us what exists and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit for that piece.

No local office — we are a remote-first GCC games studio and we serve Saudi clients remotely. It works smoothly because we share a time zone, a working week, and the Arabic language. You get the same regular builds, milestones, and direct communication as a local team.

Yes. We build Arabic-first, with correct right-to-left layout, natural Arabic copy, and Arabic store listings — not a translated afterthought. Bilingual Arabic and English support is part of our standard workflow.

Usually Unity, because most of the Saudi audience is mobile-first and Unity ships smoothly to iOS and Android on the mid-range devices most players carry. We use Unreal when a project genuinely needs high-end 3D visuals, and we recommend the right engine per project.

Message us on WhatsApp or through the contact page with your idea, target platform, and rough timeline. We will scope it with you, recommend an engine and approach, and propose a plan with clear milestones.