Dreams On A Pillow’s developer on the challenges of making games from the West Bank

Crowdfunding success aims to tell the story of the 1948 ethnic cleansing

Image credit:Rasheed Abu-Eideh

“I sometimes joke about it, but it’s like I need a war to start a new game,” Rasheed Abu-Eideh tells me over a call. “The specific thing that made me make Liyla And The Shadows Of War is the attacks on Gaza in 2014, and the specific thing that made me make Dreams On A Pillow is the attacks on Gaza in 2023.”

Dreams On A Pillow is a stealth adventure that tells the story of a young mother during the Nakba - the 1948 ethnic cleansing, displacement, and cultural suppression of Palestinian Arabs by Israel. As its funding campaign puts it, it’s a game about “a land full of people being made into a people without land.”

The campaign still has a few days to go, but surpassed its initial goal earlier this week. Abu-Eideh says the reaction has been overwhelming. “I know people care,” he says, but he never expected so much support, and so many kind words. The funding launched with the acknowledgement that he’d need more than twice the goal to fully “pay for salaries, outsourcing, and asset creation”. But this does mean he and a small team of artists, calligraphers, and coders can begin production.

“We needed talented people who believed in this project,” Abu-Eideh says. “That’s like the basic requirement for something like this, because it’s not a normal project. You need people that believe in your cause”. While the team and he prepare to move on from pre-production, I ask what his day-to-day currently looks like from his home in the West Bank.

“It’s very hard, daily life. Just taking your kids to the school is a big deal because you don’t know which road you should take. You don’t know where the checkpoints are and if they’re going to block the roads today or not. On a daily basis, there are multiple attacks in different villages in cities by the soldiers or by the settlers. Burning houses. Cutting trees and burning trees. Destroying the main roads. So it’s kind of the daily hustle that we live in.”

“We’re seeing the increasing speed of the settlements growing around us and taking more land,” he continues, “occupying more of our land and making into settlements. So it’s kind of not safe at all just to move around. There are always attacks or things like that in the main cities. Sometimes you can just be in a road and you see an ambulance, but somehow this ambulance turns into special Israeli forces sneaking your into city. Kidnapping someone or assassinating someone. So, it’s like…terrible. It’s terrible, actually.”

Omm, the oral folktale that Dreams On A Pillow is based on, is widely known in Palestine. “I knew it from a young age. People usually use it to show how the Nakba was a terrible event. There are many stories about the Nakba and Palestine, but I think this story by itself captured the emotions that I want. It shows actually the suffering of the Palestinian. Both the physical suffering and the emotional suffering from what happened to them in 1948.”

Image credit:Rasheed Abu-Eideh

Dreams On A Pillow’s young mother has fled her home after the murder of her husband, accidentally grabbing a pillow instead of her child. The pillow remains a source of comfort, but she won’t be able to interact as freely with the world until she puts it down. Abu-Eideh says he wants to make sure the game offers a “complete harmony” between this story and its gameplay, rather than having these elements pull in opposite directions.

“Merging them was essential. The pillow itself is the secure object. When she holds the pillow, she’s somehow safe in her mind. But still, the environment around her is very dangerous. When she puts the pillow down to solve a puzzle, to move something, she will lose that security. She’ll start seeing the nightmares around her.”

“It’s the emotional aspect of the Nakba itself,” he continues, “which shows not only the normal danger that Palestinians have, but also the psychological impact of losing their dream. The Palestinian did not only lose their homes and their land, but they also lost everything. They lost their memories, their history and their future.”

Abu-Eideh first got into game design through studying computer engineering, which turned into a job. “Until like 2010, when there’s a huge trend for mobile apps, the expansion of the App Store and Google Play, things like that. There was the new platforms you can actually use to make games. I started playing with these things, and discovered that I love making games. From there, I was inspired to read and to study more. About not only game development but also game design”. He says he loves games like Limbo , The Walking Dead , Shadow Of The Colossus and The Last Of Us , games with “a heavy story”.

Platforms like Google Play have historically not recognised his region as existing

Apple’s App Store would later play a much different role in Abu-Eideh’s journey as a designer. In 2016, they rejected Liyla And The Shadows Of War from their ‘games’ category, telling him that “it would be more appropriate to categorize your app in News or Reference for example”. Abu-Eideh felt this was a decision based on the political content of Liyla - which centers a Palestinian family facing armed attacks in 2014 Gaza. Public backlash followed, and the App Store reversed their decision.

But this isn’t the only obstacle Abu-Eideh and other Palestinian developers face. As he mentions in Miziziziz’s 2022 video , platforms like Google Play have historically not recognised his region as existing, making connecting to payment gateways difficult. Which is why Dreams On A Pillow is being crowdfunded via LaunchGood, a platform founded on the principle that “Muslims have incredible stories to tell”.

Image credit:Rasheed Abu-Eideh

“I think we’re lucky that we have LaunchGood, because I couldn’t do it on any different platform. It’s the same problem. They do not recognise this region at all. I’m not sure if they are willing to support a project like this, or at least to put it on their platform. But luckily, we have a crowdfunding platform focused more on the Middle East. They have their ways to overcome the obstacles, for the creative people, for any campaign on their website.”

Liyla And The Shadows Of War was a “great success”, Abu-Eideh says. He spoke at GDC in 2017 . He wanted to turn the exposure the game brought into a career. He first started work on Dreams On A Pillow the same year, but couldn’t reach a point where it became sustainable. “I dropped that project many times. Life here is difficult. You focus on the basic things more than any other thing. You need to survive on a daily basis. You need to provide for your family and you have no security at all. At that time, I wanted to do something that at least I can sustain my life somehow. And maybe, if I can, I will come back to this game.”

“I can remember many nights when I am coding for Liyla, I was coding with my tears”

Abu-Eideh opened a nut roastery near his hometown to support his family, while continuing work on small game projects. Roasted cashews, pistachios, and watermelon seeds were most popular, he tells me, but people would often buy almonds too. There’s a traditional Palestinian dish named Msakhan that uses lots of them, alongside sumac chicken and caramelized onion flatbread. He makes it sound unbearably delicious.

“Today,” reads the funding campaign, his roastery “sits empty” due to travel to the business being unsafe. “With what’s happening right now,” Abu-Eideh tells me, “I thought, like, I should do this. Because I feel now I’m more responsible, and that I have a responsibility to do this. It’s more of a duty. Something that I have to do.”

“When you do something authentic, and when you express yourself in a game, and when you show a personal experience, people will react to it. People will feel it. I had this idea that games have a power before I released Liyla. But after I released the game, I saw that as a fact. It’s not a theory anymore for me. So when you put your emotion in your game, in your thing, people will feel it. I don’t know how, but we feel it. I can remember many nights when I am coding for Liyla, I was coding for Liyla. I was like, coding with my tears. So I think that somehow turned into something that people felt while they are playing later.”

Image credit:Rasheed Abu-Eideh

I finish the interview by asking Abu-Eideh if there’s something he wishes more people knew about Palestine’s game making scene.

“You know, this is like the personal story for me, trying to make games as a reflection of the reality here in Palestine. Many, many talented students here want to make games, but it’s not possible. It’s not that easy. Yesterday, I was giving a session for students from Palestine, and some of them in Gaza. They were asking me, ‘how can we make games with lots happening around us. There is a barrier for everything. There is a barrier for life. How can we do this?'”

“So I think that the lack of game studios we have here in Palestine,” he continues, “is because people just want the basic things in life, and there is not much room for trial and error. Making games is not an easy job. You need to experiment many things, and you have to make many iterations to reach something that is beautiful and people can actually enjoy. And to do this, you need an ecosystem that helps you. You need publishers, you need investors. You need to build your talent. You need connections.”

“And all of that is blocked in Palestine. Many of them are just trying because they love the medium, but they are trying by themselves in their free time. There was many, many attempts to create studios here in Palestine, but all of them did not work out.”

Dreams On A Pillow’s LaunchGood campaign runs until January 13th.

Dreams On A Pillow

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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