Palestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 Nakba

GamesPalestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 NakbaWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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Dreams on a Pillow - Campaign Trailer - YouTubeWatch On

Dreams on a Pillow - Campaign Trailer - YouTube

Rasheed Abueideh, a Palestinian game developer whose previous release Liyla and The Shadows of War followed a young girl trying to survive amidst the horrors of the 2014 Gaza War, has raised more than $200,000 to support a new project calledDreams on a Pillow, “a pseudo-3D stealth adventure” based on a Palestinian folk tale that takes place during the 1948 Nakba.

The United Nationsdescribes the Nakba—“the catastrophe”—as “the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.”

Lilya and the Shadows of Warwas acclaimed but Abueideh says he had trouble finding support for new projects, as publishers felt his subject matter was “too controversial.” He opened a nut roastery near his hometown of Nablus to support his family, but with Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza forcing him to abandon it, he decided to return to games, relying on crowdfunding to enable the development of Dreams on a Pillow.

In the game, players will experience “historical events and stories of the Nakba” through the eyes of Omm as she attempts to escape toward Lebanon. Carrying her pillow, she is able to walk but other actions are limited; when she puts it down, she can jump, crawl, climb ladders, throw rocks, and interact with objects, but its absence “triggers horrifying nightmares borne from the terrors she’s living through.”

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“The swirling terrors reveal dangers of the mind, and shroud the dangers of the real world,” the crowdfunding page says. “Unsure of what is real and what is not, Omm has to ensure she completes her objectives and makes it back to Pillow, before her mind is lost to her guilt and trauma.

“Throughout the game, Omm, Pillow, and the player will experience often untold stories of Palestinian history. As Omm travels from the massacre of al-Tantura to the concentration camps of Atlit, she will later encounter the campaign of terror that led to the fall of Haifa, the bioweapon poisoning of Acre, and the Zionist attacks on refugees towards the Lebanese border.”

In anAMA on Reddit, Abueideh said he decided to use this particular story as the central concept for Dreams on a Pillow because “because it mirrors the emotional depth of the Nakba and reflects the persistent desire to return to one’s homeland.”

“The Nakba is not just about the physical displacement, but also about the dreams and memories of home that persist despite the passage of time,” Abueideh wrote. “This folk tale beautifully captures those emotions, and we felt it would provide a powerful framework for telling a story of resilience, cultural identity, and the struggle for justice.”

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(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)(Image credit: Rasheed Abueideh)