Saudi game studio turns supermarket chaos into indie hit
Fourcast Studio’s story starts with a familiar leap: leaving corporate careers behind to build something of their own. For the Saudi indie studio, that decision has quickly turned into an unexpected opportunity to test whether a small local team can make a global impact with its first game.
Hani Audah, Co-Founder and CEO of Fourcast Studio, says the team had spent years working in the corporate world before deciding to pursue game development. The founders had already met through gaming, and their shared interest eventually became the foundation for the studio.
“We've been wanting to do something where we're actually building products instead of just working as part of this larger organization,” Audah said. “We're focused on social co-op games, and that's the type of games we're currently building.”
That ambition found an entry point through the NEOM DigiPen accelerator program. Fourcast began developing its first project as part of the programme, initially treating it as a deliverable that would help the team progress through its various stages.
Fourcast Studio’s first game finds an audience
Fourcast’s debut game, Loss Prevention, began to show signs that it could become something bigger. Audah says the team received positive feedback from players, along with encouraging Steam metrics such as wishlists, which indicate purchase intent.
“That was actually getting some traction from players and getting a lot of good feedback,” he said. “So we decided, okay, let's kind of focus in on that and make it actually our main flagship project.”
After releasing a demo on Steam, Fourcast was contacted by PlayWay, a publisher known for games in the social co-op space. The partnership has since become an important part of the studio’s plans for the game’s release later this year.
Loss Prevention puts players in a deliberately unusual situation. Set across supermarkets, the game allows up to four players to take on the role of shoplifters, while another player acts as the shopkeeper attempting to identify them among ordinary NPC shoppers.
Audah describes it as a “‘shoplifting with friends’ type game,” a simple pitch that appears to have helped the project stand out. “The idea of that different concept kind of resonated with people and made them think, ‘Okay, that sounds like something I'd want to try,’” he said.
The response has been considerably larger than Fourcast initially expected. Audah estimates that the game has already been played by around 350,000 players, creating infrastructure challenges for a team that was still finding its footing with multiplayer development.
“We were not expecting our first project to be getting up to this point,” he said. “These are numbers we were not, initially, even prepared to handle that kind of a load because it's a multiplayer game.”
For a studio that started its first project as part of an accelerator programme, the scale of that response has changed the trajectory of the company.
Saudi Arabia’s indie game ecosystem is taking shape
Fourcast’s experience also offers a close-up look at the development of Saudi Arabia’s gaming ecosystem.
Audah has watched the market evolve from the ground level while larger investments and acquisitions have drawn international attention. What stands out to him is the growing range of support available to developers, from accelerator programmes aimed at newcomers to major investments involving established studios.
“It’s been really interesting seeing them focusing on the whole spectrum. All the way from the really tiny indie studios like our own, all the way up to these AAA acquisitions that we hear about,” Audah said.
For Fourcast, programmes such as NEOM DigiPen helped make game development feel attainable for people who had previously been outside the industry.
“It was very encouraging for people that were outside this industry to actually think, ‘Okay, this is something not just for AAA studios and already established studios; we can actually hit the ground running even as a newcomer, as an indie studio.’”
That matters because building a sustainable games industry requires a pipeline of developers and companies alongside investment in established businesses. Fourcast’s own journey is an example of how those entry points can encourage professionals from other industries to make the jump.
Funding pressure creates an opportunity for MENA developers
The wider global games industry is facing a tougher funding environment, according to Audah, with publishing deals and investment becoming more difficult to secure. For studios in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region, however, he sees an opportunity in the support that remains available locally.
“I would say that's a unique opportunity for us in the region, that kind of support still exists,” Audah said. “Whether we're talking about support in connecting us with publishers or local investors and these accelerator programs, those are things that are getting harder and harder to come across outside of the region, and we still have that available here.”
That support is arriving alongside a growing local talent pool. Audah says Fourcast is increasingly seeing applications from people already working in games in Saudi Arabia, something the studio rarely encountered when it was starting out.
He also points to the indie title Sort Them Ducks as an example of the kind of local success story that can encourage other independent developers. According to Audah, the game came from a similarly small studio and achieved significant commercial success for a debut indie project. “It feels like the momentum is there, and we expect to see more success stories like that going forward,” he said.
He also highlighted UMX Studio as another commercially successful Saudi developer, while acknowledging that its mobile-focused business operates in a different market from Fourcast’s PC games.
For Audah, these projects provide something particularly valuable for emerging studios: evidence that success from a local team is achievable. “These things aren't just pipe dreams; they are available even to local studios.”
Why Fourcast is targeting global players
Despite being based in Saudi Arabia, Fourcast has deliberately avoided building Loss Prevention around regional themes. Audah believes a global audience provides the strongest route for the studio because the team wants to minimise barriers between the game and potential players.
“For us that's been our philosophy from the start: to target global audiences,” he said. However, that does not mean Fourcast is disconnected from its local market. Rather, the studio sees its Saudi base as a starting point from which it can compete internationally.
Audah argues that regional players are just as demanding as audiences elsewhere, meaning local developers cannot assume that being homegrown will lower expectations around quality. “You wouldn't get a pass; we never felt like you would get a pass by being a local studio targeting local themes.”
That global approach also fits the design of Loss Prevention. Its premise is easy to understand regardless of where a player lives, while its multiplayer structure is built around the social experience that originally brought the Fourcast founders together.
The next step for Fourcast Studio
For the studio, the next challenge is visibility. Audah points to Fourcast’s appearance at Gamescom, with NEOM sponsoring the team’s trip and providing a booth, as an important opportunity to meet publishers and put a Saudi indie studio in front of a much wider industry audience.
“The more visibility that we can get, the more coverage we can get, even from news portals like your own at Arab Gaming News, that kind of support really helps put us in front of industry heavyweights outside of the Kingdom,” he said.
That visibility could become increasingly important as Fourcast looks beyond its debut. The studio wants to use the momentum around Loss Prevention as a foundation for its next stage of growth, with Audah describing the longer-term ambition as moving from an indie operation towards a potential AA studio.
Saudi Arabia’s games industry is still young, but Fourcast’s experience shows how quickly an emerging developer can move when local support, international exposure and a game that connects with players come together.
For Audah, the direction is clear. The region already has developers willing to build. It now has an expanding pool of talent, investment, accelerators, and international opportunities to help those developers take their ideas further.
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