A Week in the Life of Babar Ahmed

Issue 90 March 2012

In the fast-paced world of video games, Babar has had to master many skills. Having grown up in the UAE and USA, he also had to adjust to life in Pakistan, where he moved to launch his company.

People think running a video games company is lots of fun, but the truth is that it is a very tough business. The industry on the whole suffers from burnout, and pushing a game through the door can be a very draining process. The additional challenge is running it in Pakistan where we are subject to electricity outages 12 hours a day, as well as a very relaxed attitude within the workforce.

 A typical working week for me goes from Monday to Saturday, and during these six days I have to wear many different hats. I have to play the role of CEO, games designer, art director, programmer, and sometimes the pizza boy when we work late nights—whatever it takes to get the game created and shipped. I start each day with breakfast at the office, whilst catching up on the latest news from the industry, answering emails, and looking over sales reports from our products. Once my team gets in, I have meetings with the product managers, artists, and engineers to make sure we are on track for our upcoming releases. I then have lunch with my wife, who works with me at the company as an iPhone games developer, and the afternoon is spent sorting out what my team needs, be it customer support, coding, bug fixing, or game design. The day ends at 9pm, at least the office part of it, because I usually have Skype calls with our US publishers at around midnight.

Read more.