“Your first title’s purpose is to fail” says Khosouf Studio CEO Ahmad Al-Natsheh

• Al-Natsheh says failure can help demonstrate resilience to future investors.
• He advises developers to build B2B skills and acquire client work alongside their own games.
• Al-Natsheh is currently on his 27th title after 10 years of game development.

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Khosouf Studio CEO Ahmad Al-Natsheh has urged aspiring developers to focus on finishing and releasing their first game rather than waiting for a publisher or investor.

Speaking during an online event organised by UAE Games and moderated by founder and creative director Munna Aziz Rahaman, Al-Natsheh said the purpose of a first title is not necessarily commercial success, but learning through the process of completing a game.

“Your first title’s purpose is to fail,” said Al-Natsheh. “The purpose of your first title is to just breach the point where you think you can’t release. That’s the true success of the first project.”

Building first

He went on to add that developers without existing experience, networks or financial backing should make and release a game themselves rather than waiting for external support.

“Now, I could be wrong,” he added. “Someone else could make a game that could work on the first try, but you must have other foundational elements that I didn’t have at the time: previous experience, networking, investors, your dad’s rich, whatever the case may be.

“That wasn’t the case for me and that’s why, if you don’t have any of the other fundamental blocks, the best advice I could give you is to finish your game and don’t finish it with the intention that it’s just a small game, no one cares about it. 

“Finish it as if your life depends on it, and then your second game may work. Your third game may work, fourth, fifth, sixth.”

Resilience through failure 

Al-Natsheh pointed to his own path as an example, noting that he previously worked as a guitar maker and that Khosouf Studio began as a metal band before transitioning into civil engineering and eventually game development.

Whilst encouraging developers to build business-to-business skills and acquire client work to generate income to develop their own games, he added that previous failures can make a developer more attractive to investors and publishers. 

“Believe it or not, they’re looking for failures, not winners,” said Al-Natsheh. “Because failure as a construct is not a negative thing. Success is a byproduct of failure. It’s not the other way around. You don’t succeed and then you fail by accident. No, you fail and then you succeed by accident.

“They need someone who has failed once, twice, thrice. But the point being, you need to fail so many times that they see you as someone who cannot be put down – and that’s where they might invest in you.”

He added: “Right now, I’m on my 27th title and just now after 10 years, something good happened.”

Founded in 2020, Khosouf Studio develops PC and console titles alongside its VR offerings. Earlier this year, the team secured $600,000 from Merak Capital to support its expansion and relocation to Saudi Arabia.