Abu Dhabi’s push to become a serious gaming hub has mostly made headlines through studio deals, esports events and investment announcements. Its latest move is quieter, but it may matter more in the long run: training the people who teach the next generation of developers.
Abu Dhabi Gaming, the government-led initiative coordinating the emirate’s games industry strategy, has wrapped up a three-week Unreal Engine Train the Trainer programme with Epic Games. Fourteen university educators took part, drawn from arts, computer science and game development departments at Abu Dhabi University, Zayed University, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE University and the Higher Colleges of Technology.
The format was hands-on rather than lecture-driven. Participants worked directly in Unreal Engine, built capstone game projects and ran weekly teach-back sessions where they practised delivering the material themselves. That last element is the key one. The aim is for these educators to carry Unreal Engine skills back into their own classrooms, so a single cohort could eventually reach many more students than Epic could train directly.
There is also a notable first here. Epic has previously run this programme at its Unreal training facility in Serbia, and this is the first time it has been delivered elsewhere. Bringing it to Abu Dhabi suggests both the strength of the partnership and a willingness from Epic to treat the Gulf as a market worth investing in at the education level, not just as a place to sell engine licences.
The choice of engine makes practical sense. Unreal Engine powers Fortnite and a long list of commercial games, but it is also used in film, architecture, automotive design and other real-time 3D work. Graduates with Unreal experience are not locked into game studios alone, which matters in a region where the local games industry is still developing and the number of studio jobs remains limited.
Talent has long been the weak link in Middle East gaming ambitions. Attracting publishers and hosting tournaments is one thing; building a pipeline of local developers who can actually ship games is far harder and takes years. Abu Dhabi Gaming says it has a network of more than 100 partners across development, publishing and esports, and programmes like this are clearly designed to feed that ecosystem with homegrown skills.
What remains unclear is how quickly this translates into formal curriculum changes, how many students will ultimately be taught by these 14 educators, or how outcomes will be measured. Abu Dhabi Gaming says it is exploring future cohorts depending on interest from institutions. Whether this becomes a recurring pipeline or stays a one-off pilot will be the real test of its impact.
