Neom Graduate Rafif Kalantan Wins A Prestigious Gaming Award
Neom Graduate Rafif Kalantan Wins A Prestigious Gaming Award
Rafif Kalantan, a NEOM graduate, has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first female director from Saudi Arabia to win a Yugo BAFTA Award in the Games Category. Her winning submission, ‘Eros Xavier’s Love Solutions,’ is a narrative-driven puzzle-like game that revolves around the story of a retired cupid opening a match-breaking business.
The Yugo BAFTA Student Awards is an annual event that recognizes the work of talented storytellers from around the world, and this year, it received 754 submissions from 103 schools across 30 countries.
Finally dragged myself out the house for this wonderful @BAFTAGames masterclass with @JumpOvertheAge and @newjorg!
Loved hearing both of their approaches to dystopia in their games and how they deal with important narrative elements in dystopian worlds! pic.twitter.com/C7D6lVFj2b— Rafif 👾 رفيف (@_rafifk) July 26, 2023
Neom Graduate Rafif Kalantan Wins A Prestigious Gaming Award
Rafif Kalantan’s accomplishment is particularly noteworthy because she is not only the first female director to win in this category but also the first non-European to receive this honor
She was supported by Neom to attend the National Film and Television School (NFTS) for a Master’s program in Games Design and Development.
Hello, am I a gamer yet? pic.twitter.com/IwijNFxjb8
— Rafif 👾 رفيف (@_rafifk) January 28, 2022
Rafif Kalantan’s accomplishment is particularly noteworthy because she is not only the first female director to win in this category but also the first non-European to receive this honor. She was supported by Neom to attend the National Film and Television School (NFTS) for a Master’s program in Games Design and Development.
The game, ‘Eros Xavier’s Love Solutions,’ is the outcome of a rigorous two-year training program at NFTS that equips students with the skills and knowledge to create games from start to finish.
Neom Graduate Rafif Kalantan Wins A Prestigious Gaming Award
Here’s a small sneak peek into our game, officially debuting at @EGX London 2022 in TWO days!
Come find us at the Rezzed Zone at @EGX & try our game! 💘🔍#exlsgame #egx2022 #gamedev #indiegamedev #indiegames pic.twitter.com/rJEQrBc4E6
— Eros Xavier's Love Solutions (@EXLSgame) September 20, 2022
Neom Graduate Rafif Kalantan Wins A Prestigious Gaming Award
In her acceptance speech, Rafif expressed “I am honored to have been selected as the winner of such a globally renowned award, especially being the first female director and first non-European to win this category. This wonderful achievement also showcases the capabilities of the developers from the Kingdom and the Middle East as a whole, and how the game industry in the region has a lot of potential.’
