Going ‘Glocal’ — Nairobi Game Jam 2019
#NairobiGGJ #GGJ19 #Gamedevs #AfricaGameDevelopers
Not many people are aware that not only do people in African countries play video games, but that they also produce them.
For example, Kenya-based games developer, George Ahere of Weza Interactive Entertainment, recently launched Mzito — a fictional universe based off five ancient spirits, each symbolizing a pillar of African culture (nature & our land, right of passage, rhythm & harmony, willpower of the people, and leadership & wisdom). While developed primarily for an African audience, the game is being positioned globally. The team came up with the term ‘glocal’ — something with a very local concept that can grow globally.
Nairobi’s First Global Game Jam!
With these and several more video games being developed in Africa, it was a natural segue (and about time :) ! ) that Nairobi held its first Global Game Jam.
Global Game Jam is a 48hr hackathon that gets together video game developers, designers and enthusiasts to create games in one weekend in hundreds of locations worldwide. This year’s theme was: what home means to you.
In Africa, the event was held simultaneously in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Réunion, Togo, Cameroon, Madagascar, Angola, South Africa, Ivory Coast & Namibia.
Highlights From Nairobi GGJ!
Day 1
We kicked off the event with an opening speech from Ben Roberts, Liquid Telecom’s Group CTIO. Telecom is Africa’s largest independent fiber and cloud provider in Africa, and is committed to growing video gaming communities and talent across the continent.
Thereafter, teams deep dived into sharing ideas, learning each others skill-sets, networking and forming teams around their areas of interest. The diversity of ideas was reflected in the diversity of the teams — enthusiasts came from as far as Kampala, (and Ukraine) for this GGJam! It was great to have a cool mix of ‘old school’ and ‘new school’ developers and video gamers!
Day 2
George Ahere, Founder of Weza Interactive — kick started the second day, sharing his journey, insights and experience building a video game studio.
Day 3
The D-day to present their projects to the rest of the teams and also to the Amazing Jury (Ben Roberts (Liquid Telecom), Dennis Waita (PSG Kenya) & George Ahere (Weza Interactive) )
A Few Things We Learnt
- Storytelling is as important as the game — calling all writers ! There is definitely more space and opportunity for video game studios to work with writers, capturing the elements to weave a well-told story throughout the game
- Smartphone vs. PC — while the market signals a rise in mobile video gaming, there was a skew towards developing PC games
- The games that stood out were those that you could relate to — with the theme what home means to you , the video games that picked an element that one could relate to stuck out overall, the technical notwithstanding
Thank you’s:
We can’t thank all the participants enough who came together bound by a shared love of video games to share , and bring to life creative game ideas!
Thank you to Liquid Telecom, who were the major sponsors for Nairobi Game Jam, Nairobi Garage, who provided the venue, and Moniko’s for fueling us with food & coffee through the jam days , Whats Good Studios for capturing the moments & Unity for the Awesome t-shirts, stickers and badges!
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.
