I have successfully crossed 30 and this is the age limit, that everybody is scared about like nobody will marry you (especially if you are in Pakistan), you will hit a Midlife crisis, anxieties about your career, and the sudden feeling of that you haven't accomplished anything. Things change gradually till the age of 30 but I am highly grateful for what I have achieved in my life and I am happy for the things which I wanted but did not happen/achieved in my life.

I have always been a very ambitious person, even when I was 4 years old. Once my grandfather asked me to pick up a tree and I spent my entire afternoon pulling its roots so that I can pick it up. I didn't really think how big it was. Just like that, a lot of times people ask me how did you get into such a male-dominant video game industry? My honest answer is, I really didn't think about that.

I am more like a “just jump into the water and then figure out how to swim” kind of a person. It doesn't work very well in my favor sometimes but mostly it has helped me to achieve the most difficult goals in my life.

PixelArt games academy held a seminar last week which aimed at educating parents on the importance of being involved in and understanding the gaming habits of their children. This was important to do as many people, especially in Pakistan, don’t have a lot of understanding as to the prevalent nature of Games and also lack the knowledge best suited to handle the different issues a parent might face in molding their children’s gaming habits.

The session was organized at the WECREATE Centre in F-11, Islamabad and in collaboration with RiseMom which aims to help working mothers keep better care of their children at day cares while they work. The Parental Education Seminar was executed in two parts. The First part of the seminar was conducted by Haider Shishmahal; he identified the different types of games that people play and their benefits. The second part of the seminar was conducted by Sadia Bashir where she talked about the different things parents should be aware about when their children get into playing video games.

Haider did an excellent job of keeping the audience engaged in the discussion and made sure that the people sitting in the audience understood the information he was trying to bring forward. He started by identifying what people believed about video games and displacing myths about them. He highlighted the ways in which different game genres target different aspects of the brain and how much play time and what type of playing is beneficial. When he went on in detail to explain the cognitive, socio-emotional, kinetic, and physiological impact of playing games on areas of the brain and body, such as amygdala, pre-frontal cortex, vision, and chemical releases such as dopamine, he left many of the audience members totally surprised. He also described the benefits each different genre of games has on the development of different of different skills. An example of this is that First person Shooter (FPS) games help with the hand-eye coordination of the players and Role-Playing games (RPG) Help in fostering the players Creativity.

The Second half of the session was handled by Sadia. After Haider identified the benefits and the types of games, Sadia let the parents know what they should be looking out for in their or their children’s video game journey.

Sadia started off by talking about what online games are, and how they can be problematic, especially when social media is involved and access needs to be granted to the game in order for it to be used. The basic problems with hoax and phishing games was discussed and it was told how they store the user data and can be used in many nefarious and underhanded ways.

Sadia further went on to explain what types of games the kids should actually be playing. To illustrate this, she had to explain to the parents about the ESRB system where different ratings were provided to different games to show which games would be appropriate for the different age groups. To her surprise, the parents didn’t have any idea about the different rating systems. This made her understand that there was a serious gap when it came to the Pakistan video game market.

Going further, Sadia talked about the different issues parents could face while their children played games, and encouraged the parents to have open dialogues with their children, especially when it came to gaming and the cyber bullying associated with online Gaming. Sadia felt it was important for the children to be able to talk to their parents about anything so that they can help mold their children’s development in an ideal manner and combat any potential negativity.

Lastly, Sadia introduced the parents to the different parental control systems they have available to them especially when it comes to the different platforms and consoles like the Nintendo Switch and the iPphone and how they can access these settings.

Ultimately, the Parent’s Guide to Video Games was a memorable seminar and this type of advocacy is much needed in Pakistan. PixelArt Games Academy plans to now bring this workshop to the school level and help educate the children and the parents to understand gaming as a holistic activity. Only through education and knowledge can parents be equipped with the proper resources to combat the addictive trait of Gaming and to promote a healthy gaming lifestyle.

(To bring this seminar to your school, please contact info@pixelartga.com)

It was a two player car racing board game, I coded it in C++ so you can imagine there were no graphics at all and the game was all text based. Funny thing is I still managed to create all roads and cars through dotted lines and alphabets but what about the game design? This where I took inspiration from my friend’s game who was coding snake and ladders. I thought it would be fun to merge it with my game. The board game wasn’t actually on the board, it was coded in C++

So the game was a two player game, the primary objective of the game was to reach the final destination of a road which was numbered from 1 to 100. Every time the dice rolls (which was basically a random number generation function) each player would have to move the car towards that number. Here is the fun part, few numbers would pack a reward for the player. The surprise can make you either jump ahead or go backward, or go back to start.

It was all about the luck of the player!

Just when I thought the game was ready for submission, for a first semseter student it was like an achievement but… some magic, a grave tragedy happened and all roads got messed up. The only output that appeared on the screen was a text that I wrote in between just for testing purposes;

Seemed like a joke had been played with me right before the submission deadline! I spent all day to fix the roads, turned out it was just a missing semicolon which messed up all loops! Life of a programmer, its always a single semicolon silently plotting it’s revenge. :D

I completed the game and got an A in the project, the appreciation from my teacher was priceless.

After many years, while studying Game Design Principles, I tried to re-create this game with a bunch of rules & new features, still it wasn’t that good.

Creating games is really hard!

This was the refined version of that board game.

The most important thing that this game did to me was that it developed my interest in programming. I enjoyed spending time and creating logics for that game which i never enjoyed while coding algorithms to find smallest number in the array for no reason at all!

My university teacher was very dedicated to teach us coding by giving us so many surprise quizzes, assignments and the most horrifying Lab quizzes!

Video games can add a lot of fun in simple coding

They can also improve logic building. I think this was the only reason I became a good programmer as compared to several others in the same class. We should use video games to teach coding and logic building. After graduation I worked as a programmer for one year but after some time I decided to quit because I had more interest in the field of art and video games.

Sadia Bashir

(All rights Reserved)

Originally published at sadia-bashir.blogspot.com.

I used to study in an Urdu Medium Government School, there were two schools in one building and the other school was English Medium (typically known as Islamabad Model college). I would always envy those English medium kids for their uniforms, their beautifully decorated classes, and how politely their teacher’s talks to them in English. In my whole break time, I would sit in the corner and observe the English Medium kids, playing different sports and having lots of swings in their ground and hoping that one day I will also study in English Medium School. On the other hand life at Urdu medium school was sad. One day I went to the English Medium school asked their teacher that I want to study here, she told me that they don’t take kids from Urdu medium and shattered my dreams by telling my teachers that I crossed the building without permission. I passed my primary education and got admission in high school that too was an Urdu medium school but I got lucky somehow. One day we heard a news that school is turning into an English medium school. First, they selected all toppers of all class and put them into English medium classes. I was the top performer of my class so I got selected. I was super excited to start my 8th grade and when I looked at my course books, to my surprise, they were all in English, except Urdu. After studying in Urdu all my life it was a shock to me, that year I studied all books in English, and in Urdu along with an Oxford Dictionary. We were the first class of the school and we had so much pressure to perform well that I had to leave the school band ( I used to be a drummer). Finally, I passed my exam with B grades but I was happy because our school turned into an English Medium School.

Next thing was the selection of courses in Metric. I wanted to go into arts but they don’t give any option of arts in English Medium. However, they introduced we can take Computer Science instead of Biology. All those who know me must know that I always loved computer and video games. I started studying computers but my happiness ended very soon when all girls in my class failed the first sessional exam, except me who scored full marks. They ended the course and asked us to take biology classes. My interest in IT and Computer was so strong that it really disheartened me. It was the time when I made the best decision of my life, I went to my principal and told her that I only want to study computer Science otherwise I want to leave the school. She got furious and asked to give me write an application for school leaving certificate right there. She thought I would get scared and would go back to my class and study whatever they would offer or they will tell my parents. But I wrote an application got my school leaving certificate in the middle of 9th class, went home and told my parents about it.

First, they went into a shock but they always had trust on me as I was the intelligent one in my siblings. They asked me what I want to do and I told them I want to study in English Medium Model College. I visited many schools and gave entry tests, finally, I got the admission in a Model College. The dream came true.

But… It was horrible. The model College I went into was full of Elite class girls and they were mean to me. I was new and I tried my best to fit in but they will always treat me as the odd one. They would bully me, make comments on my clothes at the funfair/functions, make fun of my broken English. They shook my self-confidence by degrading me on so many levels. I would hide in the empty rooms. I had no friends, I used to eat my lunch alone in break times or sit in the library to read books while all girls would eat at the canteen. Sometimes I would get so dishearten and question myself If I made the right decision. It was difficult 2 years of my life, I still performed well in studies but I can imagine the pain of lower class. The difference of English medium, Urdu Medium, Private and Elite schools is killing our education and spreading poison in the roots of our culture.

The quality of education depends on what income class you come from in Pakistan.

Poor kids can not go to best schools. They can’t afford lunches on canteen, going out with friends on parties, expensive extracurricular activities, concerts and trips. They can’t adjust to their class. Every child is born with eagerness and curiosity to learn, sadly we are unable to give them the right environment to grow in.

Originally published at sadia-bashir.blogspot.com.

Telenor has just launched Gamebird: A gaming community for both game developers and gamers. This could be great, especially for indie game developers, as Telenor would provide them with the opportunity to publish their games on GameBox and will also help them with marketing their games in Pakistan’s local market without incurring any marketing cost. I have seen many game developers, especially independent developers, make games on our local, political and cultural themes. If you are looking for game publishers from Pakistan, Telenor’s gamebird would be the place to look; making it a step in the right direction. Moreover, the gamebird community will only be for game developers but also will facilitate gamers by providing a mobile wallet for in-app purchases and is also planning on doing E-sports gaming tournaments in Pakistan.

Game Summit: Lahore has been known as a major hub of the ever-growing game industry in Pakistan. I have met many industry heads from Lahore game industry but I was hoping to meet more game developers and people of the Indie Game Scene in Pakistan. However, the event was invitation only and that also to a handful of game studios. I believe we really need to have more open event like Game Emerge Conference organised by PixelArt Games Academy every-year for game developers/studios from all over Pakistan.

It was wonderful to meet Umar Saif during the event. Despite having very little information about the current state of the game industry; we had good conversation regarding some future work that can be done for the industry.

The event was, overall, a brand launch for Gamebird: A gaming community created by Telenor. The other part of the event was aimed at teaching tools and techniques for mobile games. Specifically teaching the best monetization techniques and methodologies using google ADmob.

Game Design workshop:

I was invited as a part of the Fireside chat panel at the game summit; but I really wanted to give my audience an overview of what game design is all about. During the event, many people asked me if Game design was related to drawing up the art for the game or designing the levels for the game. This let me know immediately that the workshop would be perfect for this audience.

I started the workshop with a roll and dice game and the audience had to make a game in 10 minutes using dice rolls as a movement mechanism.

The audience response was cooperative and many wonderful ideas were created within the 10 minutes. We invited two volunteers to share their game ideas and the first game idea was “Fat to fit”. In this game you have to move from Fat body to Fit body while crossing all the obstacles of unhealthy and Fast food. If you land on unhealthy food you go back to your Fat body state. The second Idea was our own very desi (traditional) game “Chor police” = Police and thief. In this game you have to get away from the police using one of the three different paths. Police would keep chasing you with steady speed based on the dice movements and there you would face many hurdles in between. This included unexpected reduction in speed, jumps and roadblock which would get you in jail. Both ideas were fun and well executed.

We moved to our second exercise where we asked the audience to include cards along with the dice roll in the game. Although most of the players could not get an idea regarding how they have to use cards in the game, they still improved their game designs very well. The “Fit to Fat” game evolved into an improved version called “food monopoly” and had an element of luck. You would choose your cards and it would tell you how many calories you would consume and burn. Based on your luck and some strategy, you can move from FIT to FAT.

We had only 45 min for this workshop but it actually provided a very practical experience to all the attendees.

I was also the part of the Speed panel discussion with three other panelist. The speed chat was about gaming on the go and reaching your users around the world. The audience asked many question regarding monetization and user retention. One of the interesting question from the audience was how to manage user retention? I had similar question asked by one person on facebook as well. He asked he has spent lot of money to promote his game over social media but he wasn't able to get many users/revenue for his game. The answer is, we need to make games with our own unique ideas. Many people in Pakistan have been cloning and re-skinning games, which is not only bad for the overall industry but is also not be a sustainable business model. We need to create our own IP’s and orignal games. It will take sometime but as a community of game developers: we need to work towards this goal together. There is a huge lack of game design paractices/learning opportunities in Pakistan. Even people who wants to work on unique ideas do not get proper guidance and help, this is one of the reason I started PixelArt Games Academy, to teach best practices of game development, design and production to aspiring game developers. These trainings will help them to work independently on their ideas but will also empower them skills to become future entrepreneurs of game industry.

For the future, I would like to be part of more events which are open to the public so that we can provide more useful information to new entrants in the field of game development. The event could have been improved by including more diverse representation from the industry. Not only the game studios but also aspiring game developers especially those from the Independent development scene in Pakistan.

Telenor Gamebird: https://propakistani.pk/2018/04/23/gamebird-holds-pakistans-first-ever-game-summit-for-developers/

Today I woke up to this wonderful news, It’s a huge honor for me to be selected among Forbes 30 Under 30 in Asia in Enterprise Technology.

As a woman in the technology field, I’ve been asked a lot of questions over the years about my job (Game Developer/Designer) and the Industry I work in (Games). How did you get into games? everyone knows the amazing story of how I loved playing games when I was young but the other part of the story is dark. To be honest, it was not an easy journey, there were many times when I dealt with discrimination & discouragement during my career. Many awkward moments when a group of male forgets that they have a girl in their midst or act differently when I am around, Many times people would give me wired stares in disbelief that “a Girl, working in games?” “ in Pakistan?”. It was my passion that kept me going, I was passionate enough to quit my school at the age of 13 because they weren’t teaching computer science. I want to see that passion in every girl of Pakistan.

Its been 8 years working in the Industry now and more than two years since running my startup PixelArt Games Academy, along the way, I represented Pakistan on many platforms, availed opportunities to teach the world about, what Pakistan is all about, and how women are breaking barriers in every industry here. However, there is still very less representation of women in Tech and my goal is to do my part to enable more women in Tech in Pakistan. I am currently working on few projects and will share the details soon. Throughout my studies and career, I was very persistent about achieving my dreams and I did it despite all hurdles. There is still a long way to go, where I actually want to be and one day I will be there.

The best thing my parents taught me is the hard work but there are many people who worked hard behind my success as well and never let me give up. You know who you are, and I feel blessed to have such mentors, friends & family. I love you all. ❤
My efforts and work have been recognized internationally many times before but I am truly humbled to be in Forbes 30 Under 30. Achievement Unlocked!

#Forbes #30Under30 #AsiaList #Changemaker#Enterprenure #WomenInTech #WomenInGames#Techwomenfellow #TWImpact #PAUNalumni#Exchangealumni #GamDev #PGA #Pakistan

Friday, 15th December 2017: It all with various youngsters, wrapped in warm jackets and hoodies, arriving at National Incubation Center on the cold damp morning. The conference kicked off with Sadia Bashir, CEO and founder of PixelArt Games Academy which organizes GEC, giving the opening presentation. The participants were given a run-down of what activities they will be participating in at GEC, especially about the Game Impact Jam which would be the main highlight of the day.

After Ms. Bashir was finished with welcoming the participants, she invited representatives of IBM, GEC’s silver sponsor, to the stage. Joining GEC as representatives of IBM, Mrs. Sakina Fatima and ________ went on to brief the participants about various packages and services that IBM provides to students.

After the opening speeches, the participants were briefed about Game Impact Jam. This is one of the major events held annually as part of GEC, in which participants make games related to social impact, all within 2 days. Participants were then assembled in teams of 3–4 members, with the organizers making sure that each team had members each with a unique skill set and experience, in order to maximize the learning outcomes for fresh and inexperienced team members. In total, 5 teams were assembled.

Soon after, at 10:30 PM, the topic for GGJ 2017 was announced. The participants were to make a game on Water Pollution in the next 48 hours. A task for which, each team immediately set off to work. Some teams tinkered with board games provided at the venue by Team PGA, whiles others brainstormed ideas on a sheet of paper, all to develop playing mechanics which they would later fashion into fun and entertaining games. The topic of Water Pollution also gave them an opportunity to increase awareness about the ever-increasing drainage problems and pollution of Pakistan’s water ways.

While, the participants of Game Jam continued their work throughout the day, more attendees joined one by one, as GEC moved into Friday afternoon. At 3:00 PM, a scheduled ‘Game Design Workshop’ hosted by Sadia Bashir, took place. In this workshop participants were first tasked with playing the multitude of board games, to give them an idea of the feel and taste of professionally designed games. Participants played various games including Scrabble, Cluedo, Jenga etc. Once that was done, participants were given a presentation which focused on professional Game Design techniques and methods. Later Ms. Bashir was joined by Haider Ali Shishmahal, a Game Developer and Producer at Cyberjack Studios. Haider went on to give the participants game design tasks, in which the participants had to name their favorite …………

The Game Design Workshop ended at 5:30 PM, and was followed by a panel session titled “Making Games Collaboratively” by Cyberjack. Haider Ali Shishmahal was joined by his team member Hassan Fajri, as they went on the give participants insights into the workings of Cyberjack Studio, which is a game studio where employees work remotely to make games. Making games is a team based effort, and Haider emphasized the importance of seeking out help from artists, sound composers, programmers or anyone whose skills are required to make the game more engaging. He described the international game industry as a charitable and humble community which is always willing to help out fellow game developers.

“I have met big game developers like Ken Levine, Brie Code, Rami Ismail. And what struck me the most was how humble and helpful they were” — Haider Ali Shishmahal said, during his panel session at GEC 2017.