Tamatem Games, a mobile games publisher from Jordan, continues to dominate the Arabic app market with its latest game release “A Dumb Question”, which managed to become the #1 downloaded app in Saudi Arabia in just four days!

“A Dumb Quesion” is an Arabic language game that presents the user with a series of graphical puzzles to solve. This success comes after Tamatem Games managed to reach 2 million downloads in 2 months during last summer. Having produced more than 35 games, the company now has more than 6.5 million downloads in total, and one of its games “Delivery King” was awarded “Best Game of the Year 2014” in the Saudi, Egyptian and Emirati marketsby Apple this December.

CEO Hussam Hammo doesn’t have plans to celebrate just yet, however. In a recent interview with Wamda, the Tamatem Games mastermind told them: “We’ll celebrate when we hit 10 million.”

Have you tried any of Tamatem Games’ apps? Let us know what you think of them in the comments below!

Article By Mustafa Al Hayali
Baraka Bits

After landing two million downloads in two months last summer, Jordan’s Tamatem Games has closed out 2014 with more big numbers: the gaming startup has reached a total of 6.5 million downloads in the year since it launched.

What’s behind the startup’s continuing growth? “This month one of our games [the recently launched A Dumb Question] reached #1 in Saudi and a few other countries in the region,” says CEO Hussam Hammo from London when Wamda caught up with him on Thursday. “A Dumb Question has spurred the increase in downloads to an extent, but all of the games are growing,” says Hammo.

A Dumb Question, released last Thursday, reached #1 in Saudi Arabia, the biggest market for gaming in the region, in just four days, the CEO says (as depicted in the chart to the right). “It climbed the ladder in the fastest way we’ve ever seen.” While the team has spent a limited amount of money on marketing, Hammo mainly attributes the game’s surge in popularity to viral word of mouth as well as the game’s title, which he says makes people want to prove how smart they are to their friends.

The Arabic language game consists of a series of image-based brain teasers, with cute graphics and interactive gameplay (as pictured in the screen grab above; the Arabic reads ‘click on the biggest bird’).

But it’s not just A Dumb Question that’s getting attention. The gaming studio’s titles from last year are also seeing renewed interest, which the CEO attributes to the added functionalities and social tools his expanding team is continuously adding to new versions of the games. Hammo says: “We’re using social networking tools inside the games, allowing people to share their scores and interact with their friends on Facebook, Twitter” and other social networking sites.

Up next for the Jordanian startup, whose team now numbers 13? “We’re now focusing on more complicated, more time consuming games,” Hammo says, in terms of development as well as playing time. “The games from the last few years have been small and easy to deploy; this will be changing soon.”

The CEO is also hoping to spread the word about the promising Jordanian – and regional – gaming scene. In London to speak about the Jordanian gaming ecosystem at the Pocket Gamer Connects conference taking place there Thursday, Hammo says there isn’t a very big regional presence, or, for that matter, knowledge of the gaming renaissance going on in Jordan and the wider region. “[The organizers] told me this morning that this is the first time anyone has spoken about these topics at the conference. So many people look at the MENA as an insignificant market; we want to put it on the map, we want people to believe there’s a huge potential in the Arabic speaking market.”

How will they celebrate the milestone? “No parties yet,” Hammo laughs. “We’ll celebrate when we hit 10 million.”

Article By Stephanie d’Arc Taylor
Wamda

The runaway success of a mobile game featuring a food delivery guy racing around the potholed streets of Amman recently helped Jordanian games publisher Tamatem to hit the six million download mark.

Tamatem said its King of Delivery game, which was produced in collaboration with the Kharabeesh animation studio, has been downloaded more than 1 million times since its release over the summer. “This game has been a huge success thanks to its local aspect and the way it plays with some Jordanian stereotypes,” said Hussam Hammo, founder and CEO of Tamatem.

With a 35-game portfolio running both on Android and iOS mobile platforms, Tamatem has swiftly become a flagship company in the Middle East gaming sector, topping 40,000 downloads a day and raking in investments worth $500,000 from both regional and US investors. Tamatem backers include Kai Huang, the co-creator of the billion-dollar Guitar Hero franchise.

Tamatem has 12 employees spanning content developers and web designers, to marketing and business development strategists, the latter based in the company’s office in the Silicon Valley. “We are not only a gaming company but also a publisher,” Hammo said. “I want to help other gaming studios in the region to acquire more visibility. I will advise them on how to improve their products and then launch them, investing in marketing channels and creating a base of connected users by taking advantage of Tamatem’s six million users.”

Having already secured new rounds of investments for this year, discussions on future deals with companies from China, the United States, and Europe are also underway, with the Jordanian startup ready to launch five games in the Arab market throughout the year.

“We would like to expand in the U.S. by bringing more American games to this region, translating and customizing them for this market, and we are also thinking of breaking into the Arab world by opening an office in Dubai,” Hammo said.

Article By Reine Farhat
Wamda