A video game charting the true story of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs in 1948, has secured three-quarters of its crowdfunding goal with over three weeks still to go.
Dreams on a Pillow – a “pseudo-3D stealth adventure game about a land full of people being made into a people without land” – tracks Omm, a young mother from an olive farmers’ family in al-Tantura. With Omm, you’ll traverse historical events and stories of the Nakba as she attempts an escape towards Lebanon in the North.
The crowdfunding page explains that Palestinian game developer Rasheed Abueideh is “asking for your support and blessing as he sets out on his largest game project so far, which has been a dream of his for almost a decade”. To date, it has realised £104.5K of the £155,823 Abueideh seeks to raise and is set to close on 13th January.
“Almost exactly a decade ago, as an Israeli invasion tore through Gaza, Rasheed Abueideh recognised the power of games: they let players step into someone else’s reality,” the description explains.
“Not long after Rasheed began development of Liyla & The Shadows of War, a game that brought to life the harsh realities of living under invasion, apartheid, & occupation. The development was fraught with obstacles and rejections: Apple declared the game ‘too political’, and temporarily banned the game – and while publishing funding in the games industry were aggressively funding games, a Palestinian game was deemed ‘too controversial’. Rasheed persevered, and Liyla became a global phenomenon.”
Abueideh said Dreams on a Pillow is “proof that games can tell the stories of anyone, anywhere”. For more, head on over to the crowdfunding page, where pledges range from £24 to £8000.