Press Start Program by Sandsoft Games is a unique opportunity for local talents in the Kingdom to learn from our experience and speed up their professional development to become one of the leaders in their domain. During the 2 months we have been amazed by the progress of the team, and we are so much looking forward to each new achievement of theirs!
Today we talked to Basem Alasmar, Game Designer and asked him about his experience at Press Start so far.
“I have always loved games since I was a kid, and I got super excited when I knew I can create my own games back in 2013. Now I am working with a team to create an awesome game, and that is a great accomplishment. – told us Basem.
I love competitive first-person shooter followed by third person shooter, I also love games that has strategic aspects, and games with stealth mode option, I play Call of Duty, Overwatch, GTA with friends all the time, and many other games on PS5, PC, and Mobile.”
What made you apply for Press Start at Sandsoft?
“When I first saw the program on LinkedIn, I liked the idea, and the challenge, I always wanted to work in a gaming company. What got my attention more is the people working in Sandsoft Games with a lot of experience, and big game titles they’ve worked with. The program keeps me inspired to make more amazing things, to learn a lot, and to improve in what I do best.”
How does a day at Press Start Team look for you?
“A quick stand-up meeting shares our progress, discusses where we are on a roadmap, then we get to work. We share our thoughts throughout the day because we are excited about what we do. As a Game Designer I am always collecting feedback and do some game testing. We play games together, and we explore new ideas all the time.
We make a lot of hard decisions regarding game design, art, and features, we have a lot of ups and downs, but we always focus on making progress, and we make it.”
Are there already leaders in the team or all the team members are equal participants?
“If you asked me at the beginning of the program, I’d say no we didn’t have leaders, we wanted to know each other’s skills, and see how we can work together, we started making meetings, we assigned tasks based on who’s excited to make them. The team voted for leaders, now we have two, and that is me and Abdulsalam Alshammari. We’re trying our best to make the process more organized and focus on making progress in time.
How the progress looks so far? Are you following the plan?
“We’re in a position where someone passes by our artist’s screen, and says “wow this looks like a good game!” I’d say we are making good progress; we came a long way to be here, and we won’t stop until we make it. Of course, we have a plan, goal, and objectives we’re trying to achieve and we believe that we can do it.”
