Unite Europe 2016 - Building a culture of gaming in Africa The role of pioneering studios

Niels Monshouwer (WeirdBeard) and Geertsje Postma (WEB.foundation) talk about the uprising culture of gaming in Africa. Considering all the challenges and the fast growth of mobile devices and infrastructure on a continent of 1billion people with great cultures and rich traditions, innovative industries are ready to spawn. Leti Arts has pioneered since 2009 the gaming industry which has served as a motivation to spawn a lot more in the sub Saharan region. From their talk at GDC 2013 titled the Emerging Landscape of African Game development, they wish to share how the growth has been since 2013 especially with skillset and the various tools being used including UNITY on the continent and how the gaming culture had improved and showing promise of monetization. (http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1....018024/The-Emerging- Below was the description from our GDC 2013 Talk. They give an update on how it has improved and share how they as Leti Arts have innovated around their challenges. For African audiences, video games are only a new medium to play what has already existed for centuries before. A video game developer in Africa must be able to design across the cultural boundaries, and educate the player in using new interactive technologies. There has been tremendous growth in mobile technology and the number of mobile users, so mobile phones have become the most popular gaming platform. However, political issues have affected many communities on the continent, which has led to any media, such as newspapers, television, and radio, being sensitive about the content they release to the public. Video games are no exception to this rule, and thus game creators must be careful about the themes and ideas behind their games.

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