TEHRAN-Two Iranian video games are among the finalists of the MENA Games Industry Awards 2024.

“Fake Emperors” from Pershaland Studio and “Mafioso: Godfather of Mafia City” from Paeezan Studio are the two Iranian games nominated for this year’s edition of the event, Mehr reported.

The shortlist is being voted on by a judging panel made up of more than 80 industry experts and the winners will be revealed on May 2, as part of the Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024.

“Fake Emperors” and “Mafioso” will compete for awards at the MENA Game of the Year and the Best Arabic Localization Award, respectively.

Other than “Fake Emperors,” there are 11 more nominees in the Game of the Year category, such as “DC Heroes & Villains” and “West Hunt”.

Developed by animator and game developer Mehrdad Rezai, the PC and mobile game “Mafioso” is competing with seven other games in the Best Arabic Localization category including “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage,” “EA Sports FC 24,” “Hogwarts Legacy,” “Resident Evil 4”.

MENA Game of the Year award recognizes the finest game experience released last year based on creativity, play mechanics, technological, artistic, and aural achievement, innovation, audience engagement, and both critical and commercial success.

The Best Arabic Localization Awards recognize studios that supported games last year in the areas of localization, ensuring that both new releases and updates go live with as few hiccups as possible, and are localized appropriately for the target MENA market.

“Fake Emperors” is a challenging but fun point-and-click adventure game with more than six heroes that players can switch between, more than 8,000 hand-drawn animated frames, and many cut-scene animations.

A comic story in a classic animation style, it is about Morris whose detective mission is to fetch a fabulous diamond from the Ghost Palace.

It has so far, won several awards including Best Adventure Game and Best Artistic Achievement at the 9th Fajr Game Festival 2024, where it also finished runner-up in the category of Best Game of the Year. Moreover, it was the winner of Best PC Game, People's Choice Award for the Best Trailer, and People's Choice Award for Best Game at the GCG Iranian Game Festival 2024. In 2023, the game was a nominee for the Best Game at the Tokyo Game Show in Japan.

Its latest achievement was winning the Best Mobile/Tablet Game award at the Game Development Awards, Game Connection America 2024, in March.

“Mafioso: Godfather of Mafia City” is a multiplayer turn-based strategy game, narrating a course of events when Mafia groups seized control of different city districts.

In the game, players can select three characters from a pool of heroes to start online PVP battles against other opponents. They can also build up teams from classified different groups of heroes, such as Tank, Supporter, and Attacker. Each hero has unique characteristics based on the abilities that are exclusively designed for them. The key to victory is the proper selection and combination of heroes and using their abilities in time.

Innovative, engaging gameplay and iconic characters with unique art styles make “Mafioso” an appealing experience for all players.

The game was the winner of Excellence in Art at the 2nd International Mobile Gaming Awards, IMGA MENA.

MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 celebrates the best businesses and individuals driving the games industry forward in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The awards in 13 categories aim to shine a spotlight on the game developers, publishers, monetization services, tools providers, investors, and legends that are enabling the magic to happen across MENA's rapidly growing games market.

The GameExpo Summit powered by Pocket Gamer Connects will take place on May 1 and 2 alongside the larger Dubai Esports and Games Festival event in partnership with the Dubai Economy & Tourism department to bring an unmissable games conference experience to the city of Dubai, in the fastest growing region of the international games industry.

SS/SAB