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- Israeli Indie #6 - Open Day (יום פתוח)
Israeli Indie #6 - Open Day (יום פתוח)
Rafael Ben-Ari just wanted to make his friends laugh—he didn’t expect to spark a cult following. But his satirical RPG, Open Day, became a surprise hit thanks to its sharp humor and nostalgic charm. We caught up with Rafael to hear how his game captured the hearts of Israeli players.
Rafael Ben-Ari
Three years ago today, on June 22, 2022, Israeli YouTuber and retro gaming enthusiast Rafael Ben-Ari released his first commercial game: יום פתוח (Open Day). A solo passion project eight years in the making, Open Day is a uniquely Israeli, fully voiced indie RPG bursting with absurd humor, pop-culture references, and inside jokes only locals would truly appreciate.
Rafael, a software engineer by day, spends his free time preserving gaming history. He collects retro games, moderates Facebook gaming groups, and runs the Hebrew YouTube channel אולדסקול (Old School), where he dives deep into classic games and forgotten gems. |  Rafael, while developing Open Day |
Open Day’s Development began around 2014 as a personal in-joke between Rafael and his friends, drawing inspiration from his real-life experiences as a student. Set in the fictional "Buzaglo Institute of Engineering", the game follows Tene Spitzer who has been rejected by every other academic institution in Israel, as he attends an open day at the questionable institute, he becomes entangled in a bizarre conspiracy.
Open Day wasn’t his first game. Rafael actually created a couple of games and he even used to run a game development club as a teenager, so when he started working on Open Day he had a general idea where to start, but he had no idea what this project had in store for him: eight years of development, and lots of hilarious stories and experiences he’ll gather along the way. We caught Rafael for a quick chat about his experience.
Tene Spitzer in Open Day, an Israeli RPG (2022)
יום פתוח (Open Day)
How did Open Day came to be?
“Around 2014 I had a bunch of complaints about my university, so I made a silly game to make my student friends laugh. They loved it, and the project kept growing. By 2017, I thought I had like 70% of a real game and decided to take it seriously. I was so naive…”
“I worked on it whenever I could—on trains, weekends, etc. In 2018, I took a cheap laptop on a trip, and during the flight I thought, why not take advantage of the people here that are locked with me on this plane and have them playtest my game?” he laughs. “That was the first time a stranger played it, and I realized how far it was from being done.”