Our History

Over the past decade, countries like Turkey, which are very similar to Pakistan in terms of demographics, have excelled and made a mark on the global game building landscape by producing unicorn start-ups left, right and center. However, Pakistan has been slow to catch up in the rat race, as the industry is not seen as a financial “power house” along with certain social stigmas attached to it. For this reason, Mindstorm Studios has established M-Labs to challenge the status quo and help catalyze game building in Pakistan. Our mission is to lay the foundation of a game-centric ecosystem through a carefully designed intervention logic after analyzing the macro-environmental factors that have an impact on the overall technology sector, which can, in turn help the country to transition into a knowledge society. Not only will this aid in pointing us in the right direction by providing a better understanding of the game building industry, but will also assist in promoting a “product mindset”, something that is critical for our technology sector to make a mark on the global scene. While doing so, we envision bringing huge socioeconomic benefits to the country by working from the ground up and strengthening the base on which the ecosystem can be built upon.

As a meso-step, we designed an 8 week-long nationwide Summer Internship and Fellowship Program back in 2020, tailored for students to cover all facets of game building such as game design, game programming and game arts. Till date, we have catered to and trained 3000 students from 125 educational institutes situated all across Pakistan, making it the largest industry led knowledge management initiative in the country. Furthermore, we also run the country's largest game building community, which is 4000 members strong. We have also established partnerships with 20 universities all across Pakistan and are in talks with 20 others. The entire premise of establishing these partnerships has been to work closely with the academic sector to solve any game building relatedissues.

To further bridge the gap between industry and academia, a 2-month long Training for Teachers (TOT) Programme has been launched this summer in which 78 educational leaders from 22 universities all across Pakistan have registered to be trained on the essentials of game building. Furthermore, we have also developed a course curriculum related to game building that has already been shared with 8 universities all across Pakistan and will be introduced as an elective in the Fall semester of 2022. Lastly, we are also co-advising 12 Final Year Projects (FYP’s) in various universities all across Pakistan.

To put learning to practical use, we also started two initiatives, called the Rookie and Winter Game Jams, which have since become Pakistan’s largest Student Game Jams. While doing so, not only do we provide them with mentorship by the most experienced game development professionals in Pakistan, but also expose them to internationally used SOPs and KPIs that we use to build games. Till date, 1699 students have taken part (grouped in 743 teams) in the Game Jams. Through these initiatives, we provide exposure opportunities to change the industry’s perception and make it a top career choice for youthful learners who are passionate about game building.