Ismail was born in the Netherlands to an Egyptian father and Dutch mother, and was raised as a Muslim.
Vlambeer
Ismail had attended the Utrecht School of the Arts where he met Jan Willem Nijman. The two paired up during a game development course, producing what they thought was a potentially marketable game. When the school demanded rights to the game, both dropped out of the school and co-founded Vlambeer in 2010 as to produce more games without this type of interference. While many of Vlambeer's games were critically well received, the studio was propelled by the overnight success of the 2013 mobile game Ridiculous Fishing, which brought in more than in revenue within six months, helping to financially stabilize Vlambeer and both Ismail and Nijman. Through Vlambeer, Ismail led the development of presskit and distribute, free online tools for independent developers to prepare and distribution press kits and marketing materials, demo-ready copies of games, and other materials to press members.
Views
As a Muslim and frequently in contact with members of the video game industry outside of Western and Asian nations, Ismail has spoken about better reaching programmers in developing countries. He has also been strongly critical of policies like the Trump travel ban, which not only has affected his travels into the United States, but which he states puts a great cost towards these programmers from developing countries to attend important industry functions. In 2018, Ismail issued more criticism at the travel ban, as several non-Western or Asian developers were prevented from obtaining travel visas to attend the Game Developers Conference in the United States. In January 2019, Ismail announced the establishment of gamedev.world, a new game developer conference aimed for independent game developers from these affected countries; the inaugural conference was held via online streaming and other virtual conference services in June 2019. In the wake of the cancellation of the physical 2020 Game Developers Conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gamedev.world ran several charitable events to help developers who had lost non-refundable payments for attending the conference to help recoup costs.
Accolades
Ismail was given the Ambassador award from the 2018 Game Developers Choice Awards for his activism towards encouraging diversity within video games and helping to support game developers from less-developed countries. Variety named Ismail one of the Most Influential in Videogames in 2018 for his work in creating free tools for independent creators and GamesIndustry.biz named Ismail one of its People of the Year for 2018 for his continued support for engaging with developing countries.
Personal life
Ismail lives in the Netherlands. For five years, he had lived with his wife Adriel Wallick, another game developer, whom he met through his work in video games. With the help of Bungie, the two were virtually engaged within Destiny in October 2016, and were married by November 2017. The two separated by August 2018 and remain friends.
