The Studio
We’re building
the games we wished existed.
Mission
DeenOD Studio draws its source material from the Qur’an, sira, and the broader Islamic tradition, the way Studio Ghibli draws from Shinto folklore, or Naughty Dog draws from American myth. We are not an Islamic app company. We are not an edtech company. We are a games studio that happens to build from this well.
Our north star is simple: make work that stands next to the best games in the world, without compromising on either craft or principle. Every decision routes through that.
The work
One title at a time, finished properly.
Our first title is Sira: The Companions, a narrative anthology following the lives of the sahaba. A vertical slice is in development through the year.
Behind it sits a longer slate: a metroidvania set in al-Andalus, a choice-driven RPG in Abbasid Baghdad, a life sim centered on a community and its masjid, an anthology of shorts from the Qisas al-Anbiya. They’re sequenced, not promised. We finish things one at a time.
Principles
What we test every frame against.
01
Ihsan in every frame
If a screen, a line of dialogue, or a sound cue isn't worthy of being shown to someone we respect, it does not ship. The bar is Studio Ghibli, Naughty Dog, Supergiant. We hold ourselves to it first.
02
No exploitation
No microtransactions. No gacha. No energy timers. No FOMO loops. No manipulative push notifications. Premium one-time purchase, or free with patron support. The audience is treated as guests, not whales.
03
Halal by construction
No depictions of Allah, the prophets, or angels in any form. No haram instrumentation in core experiences. No gratuitous violence, no romance arcs that cross adab, no alcohol or drugs played for laughs. The constraints are honest, not cosmetic.
04
Respect the source
Every narrative beat traceable to a classical source: Ibn Hisham, Ibn Kathir, al-Tabari, Bukhari, Muslim. We do not invent dialogue for the Prophet ﷺ. We do not editorialize the sira. Where traditions disagree, we pick the strongest with citation, or stage the disagreement honestly.
05
Constraints become the aesthetic
The things we cannot show become our visual signature. Off-screen presence, calligraphy as motion graphic, geometric pattern as character. Features, not workarounds.
06
Player dignity
No tutorials that talk down. No difficulty modes named easy/normal/hard. We name them with intent. No grinding for grinding's sake.
The team
DeenOD is one person right now. Mahmoud Youssef, working from Toronto. Contract artists, audio designers, and writers join as titles need them. There is no “we’d like to introduce ourselves” here. The work is small and honest until it earns the people to make it bigger.
The Year-One goal is a polished vertical slice of Sira: The Companions. After that: funding (Kickstarter, Vision-2030 cultural-IP funds, family offices, patron support in parallel), and the team grows around the work.
The patron model
We chose the patron model because it lets us build without the shapes that distort the work: ad sales, dark patterns, quarterly KPIs, and the soft pressure to make games more addictive than they should be. Patrons fund the runway. The Bible Project and Kurzgesagt are the honest references.
When tiers go live, supporters get devlog access, behind-the- scenes art and audio drops, beta access to vertical slices, and their name in the game credits. None of it gates the games themselves. The games ship to everyone, premium one-time purchase, the day they’re ready.