Africa Game Developers’ First Virtual Game Demo Day
Have you ever attended a virtual game demo? Africa Game Developers (AGD) first-ever virtual Game Demo Day meetup was held on the 18th of April 2020. It was organized by LudiqueWorks and moderated by Douglas Ogeto.
This meeting reminded me of an article I read on Liquid Telecom’s blog by Ben Roberts titled Did corona just kick start the digital economy? Ben writes about digital transformation and how this pandemic is accelerating it on the continent.
Held on Google Hangouts, this meeting was a great start, and a peek at the chat section would let you know you were in the midst of passionate Game Enthusiasts as insightful feedback flowed freely. Representation was a true reflection of the Pan-African unity of the gaming community.
Henry Ford believed that there are blessings that come with doing good for the largest number of people. Africa has the largest number of young people in the world with an average age of 19 years. These young people have a lot of free time on their hands. As some seek education or employment, there’s a need to use gamification to train them because the future of this generation depends on it.
That is why I was excited when I saw 2 education-related gamification solutions during the virtual demo day. The following is a summary of what went down in the order with which the games were presented.
1. Cosmo Math was presented by Raul and Angelina who made up one of the teams that won in Nairobi during the Global Game Jam. They presented an educational gamification solution with 4 levels. As the name of the game suggests the player is in outer space. The theme of the game is on repair so the player needs to answer universal math questions so that the universe repairs a planet. The player progressively does this until the planet is fully restored.
In level 1, the player needs to do a sum off-head before the timer expires and once it expires they lose a life. When they answer all the level 1 questions successfully they proceed to level 2 where they go to mend a different planet. On this level, the player gets an equation with an answer and they are supposed to say if the answer is correct or not.
The team is creating a comprehensive plan on how to finish the game while also planning for in-app payments.
2. Un-Tag by Larry Weya. This was about tag. However in this case, he called it Un-Tag. Basically it’s a multiplayer game where the characters have to chase each other in a space with a ramp and a raised stop position. The space also had boosters for speed and such. His session was breaking due to internet connectivity issues but when asked he confirmed that it is like Tag (icho icho a famous Kenyan childhood game).
3. Bingiman by Edwin Nyaluogo. He shared how he has collaborated with artists from Nairobi Railways Museum. The artists focused on the cultural element in the game like the artwork on the walls and the sculptures outside the building while he focused on programming. He also used music from a Luo musician to add to the cultural aspect of the game.
The setting of the game is inside a club with an art gallery. The objective is to stay alive and to collect coins in order to buy upgrades. He was advised to look into the story of the game so that it motivates the players to care about the character enough to do all it takes to keep them alive. He was also advised to add mechanics to encourage players to play more aggressively.
4. Mzito Math by George Ahere is the other education-based gamification solution that was presented on that day. I loved the concept of rewarding wins with mini-games. Mzito Math works this way: when a child answers 3 questions correctly they get to watch a fun animated story. So far the game has addition and subtraction only. The objective is to make math easy by balancing fun and learning. George and his team watched a lot of children’s cartoons for inspiration.
Some Game Developers suggested they should look into placing ads for comic books because their target audience is children between 5 and 8 years. They will be uploading Mzito Math on the Play Store soon for feedback and they are thinking of partnering with book publishers as a monetization strategy. Finally, George mentioned that his team was looking for a 2D Artist and Animator. They are also working on a rhythm game called Riziki.
5. Nairobi Rush Hour (NRH) by Bradley Omondi. Here, the player drives around Nairobi with the objective to avoid collisions.
There were suggestions that he can partner with driving schools to create a game that can be used to teach users how to drive on Kenyan roads. His graphics make you feel like you are in town, a very welcome feeling now that we are on lock-down and it’s been weeks since many of us left the house let alone went to the city center.
6. SangoBeatz developed by Arome Ibrahim and Ralph Ryan of Experis Immersive and Urban Devs in Nigeria. It is a mod version of beat saber, the VR game. What I found interesting about their game is the fact that they want to use it to showcase African music and mythology like Sango the Yoruba god of thunder. When asked about dealing with copyright, they said they intend to work with DJs who can do remixes of the songs so that it’s like a cover and they do not have to pay a lot in the form of royalties.
All in all the game demos were interesting to watch. I was inspired by the way the experienced Game Developers among us were so eager to give suggestions on how the African Game Developers presenting their games could improve on them going forward. It felt like a community of people who truly care about each other. Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in making this first virtual game demo day the success it was and thank you LudiqueWorks for organizing it.
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LudiqueWorks is a video game publishing and video game development company based out of Africa. With a network of 150+ studios in 30 countries across Africa.
LudiqueWorks invests in nascent video game development studios on the continent through training and funding, as well as building a growing video gaming community through the Africa Game Developers network.
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