Commissioned by Thinkwell, I led the creation of a two-and-a-half-minute cinematic trailer for the Gaming & Esports District within Qiddiya City — Saudi Arabia’s ambitious entertainment, sports and culture mega-development near Riyadh. Developed entirely in Unreal Engine, the film was designed to showcase one of more than twenty unique districts planned for the city, bringing to life Qiddiya’s vision of a world-class destination for gaming, competition and immersive entertainment.

As a real-time project, establishing an efficient production pipeline was crucial. We leveraged Unreal Engine as the central hub for environment assembly, lighting, layout and final rendering, enabling rapid iteration throughout development. Character creation was accelerated through the use of MetaHumans, which provided a strong foundation for populating the world while maintaining a high level of visual fidelity. Hero character performances were animated in Maya, allowing for greater control over acting, timing and cinematic storytelling before being integrated back into Unreal. Alongside this, complex water simulations and environmental effects were developed in Houdini, then optimised for real-time playback within the engine. This hybrid workflow allowed us to combine the flexibility of traditional VFX pipelines with the speed and scalability of real-time production, helping bring the ambitious vision of the Esports District to life.

The campaign achieved significant global reach, helping establish the Gaming & Esports District as a flagship component of Qiddiya City’s vision. Across digital and social platforms, the films generated more than 2 billion video impressions, accumulated over 5.8 million YouTube views, and reached an audience of more than 350 million unique gamers worldwide. Beyond the numbers, the project successfully translated a complex masterplan into an engaging and accessible narrative, creating excitement around a destination that had yet to be built and demonstrating the power of real-time storytelling to connect with a global gaming audience.