Palestinian developer Rasheed Abu-Eideh’s historical stealth adventure game Dreams on a Pillow has hit its first major funding goal with a week to spare. As reported late last year, the title had been the subject of a difficult battle for broader media attention and financial backing in a gaming market predisposed to viewing such stories as lesser. Now, Dreams on a Pillow has surpassed its initial goal of $200,000 USD and will move into production with the aim of producing a vertical slice demo and shoring up the team for the next stages of development.
Crowdfunded via the Muslim organisation LaunchGood, Abu-Eideh and the team behind Dreams on a Pillow are ultimately seeking just short of $500,000 USD, a figure that will allow a fully fledged production and the ongoing security of Abu-Eideh’s family. Despite a passion for video game development, Abu-Eideh also operates a small business amid the ongoing atrocities committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Under these horrific circumstances, Abu-Eideh persists in the utilisation of video games to tell Palestinian stories.
In Dreams on a Pillow, players will be placed in the shoes of Omm, the subject of a Palestinian folktale about a young mother whose desperate escape toward Lebanon will be plagued by Zionist gangs, etheral nightmares, and comforting but fleeting visions of childhood. All of this will be informed by historical docements and imagery, the aim of the game being to bring untold Palestinian history to players and dispell propaganda and myth around the people of the region.
Of the game’s stealth adventure leanings, the LaunchGood page reads “Omm is not an action hero or a soldier – she is a scared civilian marked as collateral by ruthless Zionist brigades and gangs. While she is carrying her Pillow, she is further limited in her ability – while she can walk , she isn’t able to interact with most objects around her. Putting Pillow down, enables her full range of abilities – including a jump, crawl, climbing ladders, and throwing rocks – but it triggers horrifying nightmares borne from the terrors she’s living through.”
You can still head over to LaunchGood to support Dreams on a Pillow as it moves toward its next challenge and goals.
One part pretentious academic and one part goofy dickhead, James is often found defending strange games and frowning at the popular ones, but he's happy to play just about everything in between. An unbridled love for FromSoftware's pantheon, a keen eye for vibes first experiences, and an insistence on the Oxford comma have marked his time in the industry.
