Arabia Felix consists of a variety of digital and analogue activities that give you the chance to engage with stories of peaceful coexistence, become a game app developer in one of our Hackathons or learn about non-violent conflict transformation by watching our Serious Soap Opera.

The “Serious Games” are a series of mobile games that aim to transport educational content set in the Yemeni context. So far, eleven Serious Games have been developed by SPCY to support peaceful coexistence in Yemen. The first and second Game Apps, “The Secrets of Arabia Felix I and II”, are thematically focused on peaceful conflict transformation, and spreading peace and dialogue. The third Game app called “Eduo Run!” is very popular with younger players, aged between 12 and 18 years old. In the game, players are tasked with collecting symbols of peace and cultural artefacts from Yemen, while avoiding violence and arms, thus encouraging them to discover the diversity and pride of the Yemeni culture and rich history. This journey continues in the following Game App, “Eduo Quest”, as well as in Game App 6, “Arwa’s World”, that aims to raise awareness on the topic of education and gender through a puzzle challenge. Game App 5. “Republic of Sheba”, built upon the other games by addressing democracy and state building. In Game App 7, young players are asked to rebuild a destroyed Yemeni town with the help of IDP’s and through that, learn about peaceful coexistence and acceptance in society. To sum up, the games inspire users to contribute to the peacebuilding process and face the various challenges in conflict transformation through puzzling, treasure hunts, entertaining quests and decision-making strategy.

The first games were launched on the Google Play Store in 2017. Each game has since then reached around 10.000 downloads, which add up to 100,577 downloads (May 2023). All games are linked to an active Facebook community, where an exchange is taking place through discussions about Yemeni culture, history and topics around peaceful coexistence with more than 67,170 followers (May 2023). In 2021, SPCY has developed the eighth Arabia Felix game, called “Paper Shelter”, which is the first multiplayer game addressing peaceful coexistence and building up life skills!

In 2023, SPCY has published its ninth Arabia Felix Game called, Al-Gaddah Challenge. It’s a game about non-violent communication and how it can help players transform everyday issues into meaningful encounters.  

The first Arabia Felix Hackathon was launched in the Republic of Yemen by the “Supporting Peaceful Coexistence in Yemen (SPCY)” project in 2019 to gain feedback for the Arabia Felix Games and to give young developers an opportunity to share ideas and connect with others who share a passion for game development. A Hackathon is a competitive contest that brings together young developers. The main goal of the seven teams was to develop games for the Yemeni society around the theme of the hackathon: coexistence support for Yemen.

In 2021, SPCY organized the second Arabia Felix Hackathon Hackathon which has become an even the bigger Serious Game Hackathon event in Yemen! It was unique as it consisted of participants from all over Yemen. Two winning teams were chosen to develop  two Arabia Felix community game apps “Riftless” and “Carred”.

Furthermore, the “Supporting Peaceful Coexistence in Yemen” project planned and conducted an Arabia Felix short film competition with the aim to bring people together around a shared interest in film making in order to promote peaceful coexistence in Yemen. As a result, 10 best ideas were developed into short film animations, fiction and documentary films.

The “Supporting Peaceful Coexistence in Yemen” project also worked on the “Arabia Felix Magazine”. The different editions are distributed online as well as in a printed version. In order to learn more about peacebuilding and non-violent conflict transformation, an Online Quiz is available. Last but not least, another project allows you to have fun while widening your mind in regard to the potential of conflicts and the positive change they can achieve: The Serious Soap Opera! It contains 10 episodes with additional video clips addressing non-violent conflict transformation, peaceful coexistence and amplifying the voices of vulnerable groups.

And more activities are yet to be launched! Find more information by following our Arabia Felixon Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube account!