PUBLISHED
December 14, 2025

KARACHI:

The room is small and quiet. A desk pushed against the wall. A chair that has seen better days. A young game developer sits in front of a screen, eyes fixed, fingers move almost without thought. On the screen, a character jumps, lands, and moves again. Somewhere in the background, a fan hums.

He knows what he can do. He knows the engines, the tools, and the logic behind how a game should work. He has spent years learning it. What he does not know is how far this skill can really take him. The world wants games. Studios need developers. But from this room, that world still feels distant.

For a long time, this was the reality for many Pakistani game developers. Talent existed, but the path did not. Work came in fragments. A small project here. A short contract there. Payments were uncertain. Trust was thin. Game development, as a career, was hard to explain to families and harder to sustain.

This was also the period when Pakistan was only beginning to step into the game development space. There were few studios, limited training options, and little structure. Most developers worked alone, learning through online tutorials and trial and error. The skill was there, but the ecosystem was not.

That gap has narrowed over time.

Training institutes began to appear. Local game development companies started to take shape. Slowly, Pakistani teams began working with international clients. At the same time, global payment solutions made it easier for developers to receive money, raise invoices, and plan beyond a single project. The fear of not getting paid began to fade.

Today, Pakistan’s game development industry is no longer on the sidelines. It has grown into a regional force, now ranked as the second largest mobile game developer in its region, behind Vietnam. A young population, growing digital skills, and increasing interest from investors have all played a role. What was once a niche skill is now a growing export.

On one side, global studios are looking for teams that can deliver quality work without stretching budgets. On the other, Pakistani developers are finding stability, repeat work, and confidence. As payment systems improved, so did trust. Projects turned into partnerships. One off jobs turned into long term collaborations.

The industry’s story begins in rooms like this. Quiet places where developers sit, build, and wait for the world to notice. Increasingly, it is noticing.

Finding Pakistan on the global map

Over the past three to five years, global demand for game development has not only increased but also become more defined. Studios are no longer looking for teams that can simply build a game and move on. Expectations have shifted towards long term performance, player retention, live operations, and monetisation strategies that evolve over time.

Nousherwan Malik, CEO of Apex Logics, says this change is visible across the kind of work now coming into Pakistan. “In the last three to five years, demand has grown but also become more focused. Clients don’t just want a game anymore. They want strong retention, live ops, monetisation, and teams that understand player behaviour,” he says. “We now see a steady demand for mobile free to play, UGC platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, HTML5 and web games, Telegram style mini apps, and even gamified products for non gaming businesses.”

Alongside this shift in formats and platforms, Malik points to a growing comfort among international studios when it comes to outsourcing.

“At the same time, international studios are far more comfortable fully outsourcing projects and long term content pipelines to remote teams with a proven track record,” he adds.

This evolution has gradually changed how Pakistan is positioned within the global outsourcing landscape. Once viewed primarily as a low cost option, the country is now being assessed on quality, delivery, and value.

“Pakistan has moved from being seen mainly as a cheap resource market to a serious quality option, especially in mobile and PC games and art,” Malik says. “Many studios here have shipped titles with millions of downloads. We are still behind some regions in branding and visibility, but in terms of talent and value for money, Pakistani teams are very competitive once clients actually work with them.”

That growing confidence is reflected in the level of responsibility being entrusted to local studios. Where earlier work was often limited to asset creation, porting, or small scale development, Pakistani teams are now contributing across the full lifecycle of a game.

“Earlier, most work was limited to support tasks like assets, basic development, or simple mini games,” Malik explains. “Before, Pakistani companies were mostly doing small or mid core titles. Now they are part of AA and AAA projects as well. Teams here are contributing not just to mobile or web, but to PC, Xbox, and other console titles too. In many cases, we are trusted with full responsibilities, from concept and prototyping to core gameplay design, production, live ops, and analytics driven updates.”

For Malik, this trust has been built by approaching projects with a broader perspective. “We think like publishers, not just as a service vendor,” he said. “Because we have our own titles with tens of millions of downloads, we understand the full lifecycle from prototype and soft launch to retention, monetisation, and live ops. We talk to clients in terms of KPIs, not just features. We offer very strong quality at a comparatively lower price, with internal standards close to AAA, and clients usually mention our speed, honesty, and team stability as reasons they stay with us.”

This shift towards higher trust and deeper collaboration is supported by a broader ecosystem that extends beyond individual studios. Lahore, in particular, has emerged as a key centre for game development, even if that reality is not always visible from the outside.

Ali Ihsan, CEO of FRAG Games, says international clients are often surprised to learn where his company is based. “Whenever I tell people, especially our international clients, that we’re based out of Lahore, they’re always curious,” he said in an interview. “The assumption is that we are a lone anomaly studio in an otherwise unsupportive ecosystem, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

He points to the city’s educational and cultural foundations as a major reason behind its strength. “As a function of Lahore being one of the most populous cities in the world, we have at least eight colleges focused on pre art and five top tier engineering universities,” Ihsan said. “Engineering might be relatively common in the developing world, but it’s the influx of art, because Lahore has historically been an art and cultural centre, that enables an ecosystem where you can get strong graduates on both sides.”

The scale of that ecosystem is often underestimated. “There are around 18,000 people employed in the game development industry in Pakistan,” Ihsan notes. “Volume wise, that probably puts us among the top 25 game employment ecosystems in the world. In a city of this size, it can be hard to contextualise, but when you realise that there are close to a hundred game studios operating in one city, you start to understand why Lahore has become such a strong base for game development.”

Together, these shifts explain why Pakistan is increasingly being seen as a serious player rather than a peripheral option. As global demand becomes more specialised and studios look for teams that can deliver consistently at scale, Pakistan’s game development industry is quietly moving into the mainstream.

Inside Pakistan’s gaming workforce

For many Pakistani game developers, the journey into the industry did not begin with a business plan or a formal degree. It began with curiosity, long hours spent experimenting, and a desire to build something that did not exist before.

Muhammad Sufyan, CEO and founder of HitoStudios, started out the same way. Like many others in the industry today, his entry into game development came through play rather than professional training.

“I’ve been playing games since I was five years old,” he said. “The long dark spreadsheets and other coding skills were never as fun. In game development, your code makes things that never existed before. Every game I made as a hobby was ninety percent different from the last. Compared to web or apps, where everything feels very similar, this was exciting. That’s what got me hooked.”

In the early years, work came in pieces. Small freelance projects, short contracts, and one off assignments were the norm. Developers often worked alone, juggling multiple platforms and learning as they went. Over time, however, that fragmented model began to change. As skills deepened and portfolios grew, freelancers started turning into teams, and teams into companies.

Sufyan’s own journey reflects that shift. What began as independent work gradually evolved into a studio offering structured services to international clients. Finding those clients was rarely straightforward.

“They usually find us through our website and social media ad campaigns,” he said. “But mostly, we reach out to them ourselves, through platforms like Upwork, LinkedIn, email marketing, and other sites.”

As work became more consistent, so did the need for more specialised skills. Pakistani developers are no longer expected to know a little bit of everything. Instead, studios are increasingly built around dedicated roles, from gameplay programmers and technical artists to animators and designers fluent in industry standard tools.

For Sufyan, access to those tools came less from formal instruction and more from experimentation.

“Unity, Unreal, Blender, Photoshop, and a whole pile of pirated software,” he said, without hesitation. “YouTube is more than enough to get started. I never believed in course sellers or newsletters.” At the same time, he points to gaps that still limit growth. “There’s huge untapped potential in international conferences and exhibitions, but visa issues and the lack of proper incubation centres make that very difficult.”

While many developers still rely on self learning, formal education has slowly begun to catch up. Universities and private academies are now offering courses in game design, animation, and interactive media, helping legitimise a field that was once seen as unconventional. This has also had a ripple effect at home, where families are increasingly viewing game development as a viable career rather than a risky distraction.

Ihsan, CEO of FRAG Games, says that change in mindset has been years in the making. His own path into games was shaped early on, long before game development was recognised as a discipline.

“I’ve been playing games since I was under five years old,” he said. “Game design wasn’t even a discipline back then. Computer science was the calling. I chose my O level subjects on that basis. I went to college on that basis. The idea was always that at some point, we would make games.”

When Ihsan returned to Pakistan after spending time abroad, he found an industry that was still taking shape. “There were no real opportunities for people to work in games, but studios were just beginning to come up,” he said. “Tintash had been founded a couple of years earlier. Mindstorm was working on that really ambitious cricket game. When I saw that young people were actually getting a chance to make these games, it made me realise that this could be a tangible business life.”

That belief led to the founding of FRAG Games in 2013, at a time when building a company around games was still considered a gamble. Since then, studios like FRAG have helped prove that local talent can deliver products for global platforms. “Pakistan’s first ever PC console release came out of Lahore,” Ihsan said. “It was made by FRAG Games. It was a farming simulation adventure RPG, globally published, and available on the PlayStation store.”

These milestones have helped shift perceptions both inside and outside the country. What was once dismissed as a hobby has become a profession, and what began as freelance experimentation has grown into an industry built on specialised skills, structured teams, and long term collaboration.

For many developers like Sufyan, the growth of Pakistan’s gaming workforce has brought stability that did not exist a few years ago. Freelance work has turned into repeat collaborations, and isolated projects into ongoing pipelines. Yet as studios expanded and teams took on larger responsibilities, another question began to matter just as much as skill or passion. How reliable were the systems supporting this work? For an industry built on remote collaboration, the ability to deliver, invoice, and get paid on time would soon become as critical as the games themselves.

Trust and payments: The turning point for Pakistani developers

As Pakistan’s game development industry began to mature, the conversation around growth increasingly shifted away from talent and towards systems. For studios and independent developers working with international clients, the question was no longer whether work could be delivered, but whether the financial infrastructure around that work could support scale, predictability, and trust.

From the perspective of payment platforms, the change over recent years has been visible in volume as well as behaviour. Nagesh Devata, Senior Vice President APAC at Payoneer, says payment flows connected to Pakistan’s digital creative economy have grown in step with broader export trends.

“Payment volume linked to Pakistan’s digital creative sector has risen noticeably alongside export growth in IT and related services. Pakistan’s IT/ITeS and freelance exports reached record levels in FY2024–25 (combined reporting shows ~US$4.6bn for IT/ITeS and significant freelance contributions within the same period), which correlates with increased cross-border payment flows to developers and studios. This growth is reflected in higher transaction counts and increased onboarding of developer teams onto global platforms.”

Earlier, however, international clients approached these transactions with caution, often because of uncertainty rather than unwillingness. “Historically, international clients cited delays in payment settlement, uncertainty over timing and visibility of receipts, and administrative friction when reconciling cross-border invoices. These concerns reduced trust for longer-term engagements and increased contract friction.”

Over time, improvements in payment visibility and settlement have helped reduce that friction. “Payoneer has focused on clearer payment visibility and faster settlement through multi-currency receiving accounts, consolidated balances, and streamlined withdrawals to local bank accounts,” says Devata.

Devata links these developments to a broader shift towards more structured, recurring work. “Yes, market signals indicate an increasing share of longer-term and recurring engagements as foreign studios gain confidence in local providers’ delivery, reliability and payment processes. While Payoneer does not publish contract-type breakdowns, broader industry reporting shows Pakistani talent is securing progressively larger, repeat business across design, art, and development services, consistent with longer-term contracting trends,” explains Devata.

At the developer level, this shift has changed how risk is perceived. Muhammad Sufyan, CEO and founder of HitoStudios, rejects the idea that payment access itself was ever the main obstacle. “It’s a hoax. I always felt that when there is a will, there is a way. The payment methods were there from day one. The people I saw struggling with these services were mostly involved in some shady work or shortcuts.”

That does not mean the process was always smooth. “Yes mostly client side. Once the work is done they refused to pay or X reasons. But once they cleared their invoice via Bank Transfer, Payoneer or whatever. There is a process you have to setup once. The starting process of banking process is not the most efficient but in the long run it makes sense as they to filter out real one’s from the scams.”

For Payoneer, formalisation has been a key factor in improving confidence on both sides of a transaction. “Improved documentation and transparent invoicing reduce disputes and shorten payment cycles by clarifying deliverables and amounts owed. Verification and professionally presented billing increase buyer confidence when engaging teams in emerging markets,” he says.

The tools developers use reflect this increasing emphasis on clarity and control. “Developers most frequently rely on multi-currency receiving capabilities, consolidated account balances to group receipts across platforms, and clear settlement statements for reconciliation. They also use integrations that reduce manual bookkeeping and provide timely visibility into incoming funds.”

These systems have also enabled developers to manage operational costs more independently. “In addition, many game developers benefit from using their Payoneer balances through Payoneer Cards to pay for essential expenses such as advertising on global platforms, a crucial capability for gaming studios that depend on continuous user acquisition campaigns to scale downloads internationally,” explains Nagesh.

For Sufyan, the contrast between international and local work environments has become clearer over time. “Yes I do. They honour their word and are willing to pay for solution findings and engineering. Locals are always very reserved and there is a lack of professionalism. Late replies, ghosting and not willing to talk openly or frankly is a red flag for me personally. Can’t chase a Seth or his accountant for an endless loop after delivering from my side.”

Regionally, Payoneer sees Pakistan becoming more competitive as payment practices mature. “Pakistan is increasingly competitive on talent and cost metrics and is improving rapidly on payment reliability as more studios and freelancers adopt professional invoicing and global payout platforms,” says Devata.

Looking ahead, Devata believes further operational readiness will determine how far the industry can scale. “Key needs include continued digitisation of business processes (invoicing and bookkeeping), broader familiarity with multi-currency settlement options, and better operational readiness for recurring international contracts (clear scopes, SLA-style agreements, and timely reporting),”

“Over the next five years, we expect more developers and studios to sinvoicing, use consolidated multi-currency accounts, and adopt operational practices that support recurring, higher-value contracts,” he adds.

As payment systems have become more predictable, trust has followed. For Pakistan’s game developers, that trust has transformed one-off opportunities into long-term relationships, quietly reshaping how the industry works and how far it can grow.

A market ready for its next level

Pakistan’s game development industry now sits at an in between moment. The momentum is real, but so are the gaps. Talent continues to grow faster than the systems around it, and while studios have learned to operate globally, the local ecosystem is still catching up.

Ihsan, CEO of FRAG Games, believes the progress so far matters because it has been product led, not theoretical. “We tend to forget that the entire gaming industry is product driven. We’re not services driven at all,” he says. The fact that more than 50 games made in Pakistan have crossed the one to five million dollar mark, he added, shows that local studios are already competing globally.

At the same time, scaling remains uneven. Payment systems have improved, trust has stabilised, and long term work is now possible, but challenges around regulation, financing, and business culture persist. According to Malik of Apex Logics, predictable payments have allowed studios to plan and hire with confidence, yet gaps remain in areas like growth capital, user acquisition funding, and industry aligned education. “Things are better, but not perfect,” he says, pointing to the lack of access to global tools and financing options as a constraint.

Still, the direction is clear. Global studios are no longer testing Pakistan. They are returning to it. Young developers are no longer asking whether a career in games is possible, but how far it can go.

The next big success may not come from a boardroom or a headline making acquisition. It may come, quietly, from a small room where a developer is building something new, somewhere in Lahore, Karachi, or Islamabad, unaware that the world is already waiting to play it.