Gimzat Studios co-founder Khaled Mansour talks hybridcasual strategy, platform priorities and MENA opportunities

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Pocket Gamer Connects Aqaba returns on November 8th and 9th, 2025, offering a chance to gain insights into the world’s fastest-growing games market, MENA.

As part of our MENA coverage and run-up to the event, we caught up with Gimzat Studios co-founder Khaled Mansour to discuss the studio’s publishing shift, the value of regional storytelling and tapping into the African mobile games market.

PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about Gimzat Studios and what you’re up to right now?

Khaled Mansour: Gimzat Studios began in 2015, founded by a passionate team driven by a shared love for games. Our debut title, Speed Maze, marked a major breakthrough, achieving over one million organic downloads. That early success helped us establish a strong foundation for growth and innovation.

Following that, we launched multiple titles tailored to the Arabic-speaking market, such as Drift Legend – Arabic Car Game, Spot It – What’s the Difference, Speed Race – Xtreme Gear and Platform 6 – Online Arabic Racing Game.

Our mission has always been to create high-quality games that are culturally localised for the Middle East in both language and theme. More recently, we’ve partnered with Unico Studio, one of the world’s top mobile publishers.

How many staff do you currently employ, and where are they based?

We operate remotely, with a small and agile team primarily based in Egypt. In addition to our own titles, we also offer full game development services through outsourcing projects, from Ludo, chess and domino games to a full-featured 8 Pool title that includes multiple play modes.

We’ve also worked on a bowling game with dynamic physics and multiplayer support. 

Another key highlight is our work with MTC Marketing in the UAE. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a VR simulation project for the launch event of Tremphya, a pharmaceutical product. 

The VR experience allowed doctors to explore the medication in an immersive environment and communicate with each other virtually, providing a unique digital alternative to physical conferences.

Your team includes veterans who’ve worked on triple-A games on console, iOS and Android. How do you decide which platform to target for a new game?

One of our founders has professional experience at Ubisoft and Microsoft, particularly in gameplay design. Combined with the broader team’s mobile expertise, we typically analyse market trends and regional demand before selecting platforms. 

For the MENA market, where mobile usage is dominant, we prioritise Android and iOS first. However, we remain platform-flexible depending on the game’s genre and target audience.

Has there been a shift in how the studio operates over time. If there have been changes, why?

Yes, we’ve evolved our strategy to partner with established publishers like Unico Studio. Together, we’ve launched Colour Sorting, which amassed over four million downloads on Google Play and Water Sort, our latest Google Play hit. 

This collaboration allows us to focus on game design and development while benefiting from the publisher’s robust marketing infrastructure. Since we are a self-funded studio, this model allows for sustainable growth without the need for large advertising budgets.

With over 10 titles localised for the Arabic market, how have your games been received internationally outside the MENA region?

While MENA remains our core focus, we’ve localised many of our games into multiple languages and tested them across various global regions. In some cases, we’ve seen strong engagement, which has encouraged us to expand marketing and user acquisition efforts in those territories.

Africa has a vast number of mobile users. What do you think is the key to tapping into this audience? And why do you think some still overlook the market despite its growth potential?

To reach Africa’s growing mobile audience, localisation and device optimisation are critical. Many developers still overlook this market due to infrastructure concerns and misconceptions about monetisation potential. 

However, we believe that culturally aware content, lightweight builds and ad-based revenue models can unlock significant success across the continent.

In your view, what are the key ingredients for a successful mobile game in today’s market?

A modern mobile game needs:

• Accessible yet addictive gameplay.
• A strong visual identity.
• Efficient monetisation through rewarded ads and smart IAPs.
• Localisation and cultural adaptation.
• Continuous updates and user-driven improvements.

What has been your experience navigating the funding landscape in MENA? And how do you think the African games market could attract more investment?

The funding landscape in MENA is still developing. As a self-funded team, we’ve taken a lean approach and focused on partnerships to grow. To attract more investment into the African games market, success stories need to be amplified. Investors need to see the untapped potential in user growth, content diversity and relatively low production costs.

What are your thoughts on emerging technologies such as AI, AR and VR in games? And do you have plans to incorporate AI into your game development process?

We’re enthusiastic about the possibilities AI offers, particularly in game balancing, procedural content and QA. While AR/VR is still a niche in our region, we’re open to exploring new technology when it aligns with our gameplay vision.

We’ve already delivered a successful VR project with MTC Marketing in the UAE during the pandemic. That experience reinforced our belief in the power of immersive technology to bridge real-world constraints and enhance engagement.

AI will likely play a bigger role in streamlining our future development processes.

What are your plans for the rest of 2025 and the coming year? Will you be exploring new platforms? And are there any specific initiatives or projects on the horizon that we should look forward to?

We will continue to grow our catalogue of hybridcasual games and deepen our partnership with Unico Studio. Additionally, we plan to enhance our existing titles and potentially explore new platforms depending on the opportunity.

Our development roadmap also includes expanding our client service offerings and experimenting with new interactive gameplay mechanics.