Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In our Season 1 finale episode, sponsored in part by Sony Playstation’s Hero Project and the Knight Foundation, Susan talks to award‑winning creative director, game designer, and author Fawzi Mesmar. They reflect on what it means to turn a childhood dream of Japan and video games into a multi‑continent career, and then use that journey to demystify creativity for an entire region.
Drawing on early years moving between Saudi Arabia and Jordan with an Atari 2600 and MSX, his decision to study computer science and Japanese when almost no one around him believed game development was a viable job, and leadership roles at studios like GameLoft, Atlus, DICE, King, and Ubisoft, Fawzi shares how writing Resident Evil walkthroughs in his school notebook first revealed the invisible hand of game design, why seminal books by Raph Koster, Jesse Schell, and Eric Zimmerman turned “ideas guy” myths into hypothesis‑driven craft, and how being repeatedly promoted at his teams’ request shaped his view of leadership as servitude.
From composing music for a tiny Game Boy Advance team in Amman to authoring the first Arabic‑language game design textbook now used in universities across five countries, creating free courses with partners like the Queen Rania Foundation, and collaborating with Global Game Jam organizers across the MENA region, he talks about placing himself in destiny’s path, saying yes when the train stops, and why he now sees his role as being the mentor he never had so aspiring developers in Arabic‑speaking communities can feel that their dreams are possible too.
🎮 Guest Bio: Fawzi Mesmar is an award winning Creative Director, Game designer, author and public speaker who has been in the gaming industry for over two decades in a career that spanned the middle east, New Zealand, Japan and Europe working for companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision Blizzard, Gameloft and Atlus to name a few. He has worked on many titles that have been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide including entries in Beyond Good and Evil, Mario Rabbids, Battlefield and Star Wars franchises. He is also the author of "Al-Khallab in the art of game design" the first Arabic language text book on game design and “demystifying creativity on originality in game development”. Fawzi was also the recipient of the Ambassador award in 2024.
Join our Substack - tinyurl.com/GGJPodcastSubstack
GGJ Podcast Sponsors:
playstation.com/en-in/india-hero-project
playstation.com/en-in/china-hero-project
playstation.com/en-in/mena-hero-project
Check out Hero Project game "Meteora: The Race Against Spacetime"on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/1155220/METEORA
https://com.miami.edu/department-of-interactive-media
Stay tuned for Season 2 of the GGJ Podcast this fall!
In our Season 1 finale episode, sponsored in part by Sony Playstation’s Hero Project and the Knight Foundation, Susan talks to award‑winning creative director, game designer, and author Fawzi Mesmar. They reflect on what it means to turn a childhood dream of Japan and video games into a multi‑continent career, and then use that journey to demystify creativity for an entire region.
Drawing on early years moving between Saudi Arabia and Jordan with an Atari 2600 and MSX, his decision to study computer science and Japanese when almost no one around him believed game development was a viable job, and leadership roles at studios like GameLoft, Atlus, DICE, King, and Ubisoft, Fawzi shares how writing Resident Evil walkthroughs in his school notebook first revealed the invisible hand of game design, why seminal books by Raph Koster, Jesse Schell, and Eric Zimmerman turned “ideas guy” myths into hypothesis‑driven craft, and how being repeatedly promoted at his teams’ request shaped his view of leadership as servitude.
From composing music for a tiny Game Boy Advance team in Amman to authoring the first Arabic‑language game design textbook now used in universities across five countries, creating free courses with partners like the Queen Rania Foundation, and collaborating with Global Game Jam organizers across the MENA region, he talks about placing himself in destiny’s path, saying yes when the train stops, and why he now sees his role as being the mentor he never had so aspiring developers in Arabic‑speaking communities can feel that their dreams are possible too.
🎮 Guest Bio: Fawzi Mesmar is an award winning Creative Director, Game designer, author and public speaker who has been in the gaming industry for over two decades in a career that spanned the middle east, New Zealand, Japan and Europe working for companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision Blizzard, Gameloft and Atlus to name a few. He has worked on many titles that have been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide including entries in Beyond Good and Evil, Mario Rabbids, Battlefield and Star Wars franchises. He is also the author of "Al-Khallab in the art of game design" the first Arabic language text book on game design and “demystifying creativity on originality in game development”. Fawzi was also the recipient of the Ambassador award in 2024.
Join our Substack - tinyurl.com/GGJPodcastSubstack
GGJ Podcast Sponsors:
playstation.com/en-in/india-hero-project
playstation.com/en-in/china-hero-project
playstation.com/en-in/mena-hero-project
Check out Hero Project game "Meteora: The Race Against Spacetime"on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/1155220/METEORA
https://com.miami.edu/department-of-interactive-media
Stay tuned for Season 2 of the GGJ Podcast this fall!
