In the rapidly evolving world of digital entertainment, Yango Play has emerged as a pioneering force, blending music, video, and gaming into a single immersive platform. At the heart of this innovation is Ahmad Fardous, Gaming and Gamification Lead at Yango Play, who is shaping how users across the MENA region experience interactive content. We sat down with Ahmad to dive deep into how Yango Play is merging casual gaming, social engagement, and AI-driven personalization to build a next-generation entertainment ecosystem.
Questions/Discussion Points:
Q1: Yango Play offers a unique blend of entertainment and gaming. How do you identify which types of games resonate best with your audience?
A:
We rely on a combination of market research, data analytics, and cultural understanding to identify what our audience enjoys and more importantly why. On the analytics side, we monitor performance metrics across our current game portfolio: what users play, how often they play, how long they stay. These behavioural signals help us determine which games truly engage users and which ones fall short.
And in a region like MENA, understanding cultural preferences is just as important as reading the data. Players here respond particularly well to social-competitive games, whether it’s classic games or more immersive genres like strategy and 4X games. The common thread is a sense of progression, achievement, and social recognition that allow players to showcase their progress, tend to perform best.
We also launch and test new games on a rolling basis, monitor player behavior, and listen to community feedback to determine which games should be promoted or reworked.
Q2: How is Yango Play reimagining the traditional gaming experience for users in the MENA region?
A:
At Yango Play, we’re using gamification to connect entertainment streams like movies, series, music, and games into one unified experience. Instead of treating these as separate activities, we link them through gamification mechanics like quests and challenges that reward users with in-game currency, game boosters and items for watching, listening, or playing.
Our City Builder is a great example, it evolves based on your activity across the app, turning your engagement into progress. This approach creates a more engaging and rewarding experience.
Q3: What does Yango Play see as the “next big shift” in mobile and casual gaming — and how are you preparing for it?
A:
We’re seeing a big shift toward AI-powered and socially connected gaming. More games are starting to use AI to personalize quests, rewards, and experiences based on how each person progresses through the game. Something like a shift in player journey, different challenges based on how skillful a player is. At the same time, players are looking for more ways to connect through gamification mechanics, whether through co-op modes, or competitive PVP challenges.
Web games are also taking off as people want quick, easy sessions without the need to download the game or have a high-end device. These games work instantly on both web and mobile, which makes them perfect for casual play on the go.
At Yango Play, we’re all in on this. We’re bringing Web games into our entertainment world, we’re redesigning challenges, quests and rewards and we’re integrating this with our entertainment streams whether it’s watching, listening or playing.
Q4: Maintaining player interest over time is a major challenge. How does Yango Play design quests and in-game events to foster long-term player loyalty and avoid fatigue?
A:
At Yango Play, we focus on a few key things to keep players coming back. First, we’re constantly adding new, high-performing casual and classic games based on engagement and retention data to keep the experience fresh. While it’s great to see players hooked on a specific game, our goal is to always give them something new to discover — whether it’s a quick challenge or a completely new game.
At the same time, we’re putting effort into building gamification features that tie everything together things like quests, challenges, and progression systems that link not just games, but also what users watch or listen to on the platform.
And of course, we make sure the rewards we offer actually mean something to our users. Whether it’s coins that can be later redeemed for gift cards, extended subscriptions or special items, or in-game rewards like boosters that improve level progression, we want every session to feel rewarding.
Q5: With new technologies like AI and AR entering the scene, what excites you most about how gamification might shape the user experience in the future and any plans for their integration into Yango Play’s games?
A:
What excites me most is the ability of these technologies to make experiences smarter, more personal, and more immersive.
AI, in particular, can reshape how we approach gamification by adapting user journey, quests, rewards, difficulty and content suggestions based on each user’s behavior. For a platform like Yango Play, that means creating dynamic experiences where the system learns how users engage with each function or feature in the app. Whether they prefer short game sessions, watching series, or listening to playlists and adjust challenges and incentives accordingly. This kind of personalization can greatly improve usage and retention.
AR, on the other hand, offers interesting creative possibilities that we can leverage, like location-based rewards or real-world interactions that unlock in-app items. However, it’s not a core focus for us at the moment.
At Yango Play, we see these technologies as tools to enhance the user journey. Our focus is on gradually integrating AI to support smarter quest design and content delivery, while keeping an eye on AR for high-impact, event-driven use cases in the future.
Q6: How do you ensure that the gameplay remains both accessible and challenging, catering to both casual and hardcore players in a dynamic gaming environment?
A:
There are a couple of key factors that ensure gameplay is easily accessible at first while becoming more challenging over time.
It starts with simple and intuitive onboarding, which helps players quickly understand the core mechanics and feel rewarded early. From there, we design experiences that keep players in a state of flow where the game’s difficulty scales with their skill level, keeping them engaged without feeling overwhelmed or bored.
Games like Match and Merge are great examples. They’re easy to get into, offer instant gratification, and introduce deeper mechanics gradually, making them appealing to both casual users and more dedicated players. Addition of well-designed match making systems for social-competitive games like Ludo, Domino, and Chess also play an important role.
Just as important, features like leaderboards, rankings, competitive play, and light social elements add a layer of motivation and connection. Together, these elements create a balanced experience that supports both quick sessions and long-term engagement.
Q7: You have a strong background in game economies and player engagement. What are the key elements that make a game economy both sustainable and rewarding for players?
A:
A good game economy depends on two key factors: how players earn and how they spend, often referred to as the system’s “sources and sinks.” The challenge lies in finding the right balance between the two, all while making sure the experience remains fun. Players should feel fairly rewarded as they progress, especially relative to the time and effort required by challenges or quests.
And that reward whether it’s coins, items, or upgrades should hold meaningful value in the eyes of the player. In other words, what they receive in return should feel equal to, or ideally greater than, the time and effort they’ve invested.
Q8: What excites you most about the future of gaming, and how do you plan to continue innovating within this space at Yango Play?
A:
What excites me most about the future of gaming is how AI and gamification are coming together to completely reshape the player experience. We’re moving toward a world where games adapt, evolve, and respond to how you play, what you enjoy, and how you spend your time. AI will make it possible to tailor challenges, quests, and even content suggestions in real time so no two users experience the platform in exactly the same way.
But what makes this even more powerful is when gamification expands beyond just gameplay and this is what we are planning with Yango Play. We’re working toward building a fully gamified entertainment ecosystem, where every interaction, whether you’re playing, watching, or listening, ties into progression and reward. The combination of AI personalization with platform-wide gamification is incredibly exciting because it means users feel seen, rewarded, and continuously motivated, and that’s the kind of experience we believe defines the future of gaming.
Closing Thoughts
Ahmad Fardous and the team at Yango Play are charting a bold path forward — one where entertainment isn’t just consumed but lived through dynamic, gamified journeys. With a deep focus on player behavior, cultural insight, and emerging technologies like AI, Yango Play is not just playing the game — they’re redefining the rules for an entire region. The future of gaming, it seems, is not just about what we play, but how everything we do can become part of the game.
