Reine Abbas

Reine Abbas
NationalityLebanese
EducationUniversity of Balamand
Occupations

Reine Abbas is a Lebanese video game designer and artist. She is one of the first female game designers in the Middle East. Abbas co-founded Wixel Studios in 2008, one of the first independent game studios in Lebanon.

Biography

In 2000, Abbas earned her Master's degree in Visual Arts from the University of Balamand. From 2002 through 2008, Abbas attended the DigiPen Institute of Technology, located in Redmond, Washington. She later established the art department at DigiPen in Lebanon, serving as the department head over a period of 6 years.

In 2008, Abbas co-founded Wixel Studios, the first independent game studio in Lebanon. The name "Wixel" was chosen as it stands for "weird pixel" in recognition of being the only game studio in the region at the time. The studio's first released game was Douma, where the player controlled government leaders as puppets, and was considered a "political football" at the time. Abbas took inspiration after witnessing political violence in Lebanon.

Abbas is a co-founder of SPICAtech, a school that teaches young people skills needed to design and produce video games. Originating out of a request from her 4 year old son to learn how to create a video game, Abbas was motivated by the popularity of digital games within the MENA region. One of the academy's goals is to encourage designers to create original video games rather than Arabizing existing games. Abbas also teaches a course on Game Design and Development at Lebanese University

Abbas regularly gives talks at workshops and conferences, and advocates for women to join the video game industry.

Awards and honors

  • In 2010, Abbas won the "Innovation in ICT" Award, presented by the Women in Information Technology
  • In 2013, Abbas was recognized as one of the "5 most powerful women in gaming" by Inc. magazine
  • In 2019, Abbas was a finalist for the Cartier Women’s Initiative which recognizes women entrepreneurs

Abbas was selected as one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Arab Women two years in a row by Arabian Business.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Marie, Meagen (December 4, 2018). Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play. DK Publishing. p. 160. ISBN 9780744019933. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Salman, Ranim (September 16, 2019). "This Lebanese Woman Is One of the World's Most Powerful Women In The Region". The961.com. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Wolf, Mark J.P., ed. (May 24, 2021). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. ABC-CLIO. p. 1. ISBN 9781440870200. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Elias, Monica (December 19, 2018). "Founder's Journey: Reine Abbas". ArabNet.me. Retrieved January 29, 2025.
  5. ^ "These Five Women Are Destroying Gender Stereotypes In The Gaming World". GirlTalkHQ.com.me. March 28, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  6. ^ Takahashi, Dean (April 29, 2015). "Lebanon's Wixel Studios expands from Middle East drama to games that fight kids' cancer". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  7. ^ ""We can change children from consumers to producers and young entrepreneurs"". TheirWorld.org. March 8, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  8. ^ "Bolstering Lebanon's game development: Translating passion into a career". Executive. April 27, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  9. ^ "Gamer, mother, advocate: Meet the woman taking the tech industry by storm". Al Arabiya. March 7, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  10. ^ Dalakian, Glen (May 21, 2013). "Lebanese entrepreneur named one of the five most powerful women in gaming". wamda.com. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  11. ^ Michael, Maya (March 7, 2019). "Here are the 21 finalists of the Cartier Women's Initiative 2019". PrestigeOnline.com. Retrieved January 31, 2025.
  12. ^ Bradley, Dave (October 21, 2022). ""I'm not only an entrepreneur, I'm an activist." Reine Abbas talks games and education in Lebanon". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved January 27, 2025.