Companies
developing games for mobile phones are springing up in East Africa. Although
the mobile gaming market there is growing, financial returns are still small.
But the developers aren't easily discouraged.
Deutsche Welle, 15 Aug 2014
On the
display of 11-year-old Kanini's mobile phone, a matatu - one of those notorious
Kenyan share taxis - is roaring along a straight road. The yellow-striped
minibus passes a stop sign and more cash is clocked up on the taxi meter.
"Cool" says Kanini. "You have to dodge all the other road users
- trucks, motorbikes, old cars." Then, all of sudden, another minibus
appears, a black one. The game ends - in a crash!
The mobile
game is Ma3 Racer. "Matatus here in Nairobi drive like maniacs
anyway," said Mwaura Kikore who had the idea for it. Kikore is one of the
co-founders of Planet Rackus, the company that developed Kenya's first gaming
apps.
 |
| Mwaura Kikore is planning a more ambitious game with better graphics |
The first
version of Ma3 Racer (tatu means three in Kiswahili), with low resolution
graphics for basic mobile phones, was released three years ago. The game's
developers didn't have very high expectations of it. "If the game had been
downloaded 10,000 times in the first year, we would have thought that
great," Kikore said. "But then we reached that target in the first
three days. In the first year we had notched up over a million downloads."
Preserving
African culture
Basic
mobile phones are common in Kenya. 80 percent of the population uses them
because Kenya does not possess an extensive, reliable landline network. The
same is true elsewhere in East Africa. The mobile games market is
booming."We're counting on it," said Daniel Okalany, head of Kola
Studios, a game development company in Uganda."We are hoping that
smartphones will sell faster than all other mobile phones. That's why we are
making apps for mobile phones and not for PCs or the Internet," he said.
Kola's
games include Mosquito Rush in which you have to swat some rather aggressive
insects. They also offer apps that simulate traditional African card games.
"We are helping to preserve African culture" said Okalany.
"Everything that isn't digitalized these days gets quickly forgotten.
That's why we want to preserve these games."
 |
| Ma3 Racer exceeded the developers' wildest expectations |
African
heroes
Kikore said
African games differ slightly from their European or American counterparts.
"That doesn't necessarily mean that these games are just for Africans.
They have universal appeal. But we have African heroes, the settings are
African or involve Africans in non-African settings," he said.
At the
moment it is not profitable to develop games solely for the African market.
Most Africans cannot afford even the more inexpensive smartphones, let alone
gaming apps for these devices. App stores are international anyway. The market
for apps is worth billions of dollars (euros) and the competition is tough. "Nobody
on this continent can earn his living from developing games. We all have day
jobs and we develop games when we have time," said Kikore.
Kikore has
a job in an advertising agency. But he doesn't want to stay there forever. He
is working on an adventure game. It will have ten levels, 3D graphics and be
sophisticated enough so that gamers will be prepared to pay to use it.
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