Game Development In the Heart of Africa

Peace Corps Online writes "The Internet has been credited with 'flattening' the world economy, giving anyone anywhere with the requisite skills the opportunity to build a game or create an app on Facebook. Now the Mercury News reports on a new game for the iPhone called iWarrior. It was produced by two 26-year-old developers in Africa, Eyram Tawiah (a Ghanaian) and Wesley Kirinya (a Kenyan), who created every element of their game — the mechanics, the graphics, the music — overcoming considerable obstacles to develop their first product. The game is 'a feed 'em up game, not a shoot 'em up,' says Tawiah, where you 'defend your village by feeding and driving away the animals before they crash it and feed on your livestock and garden!' with threats including thundering elephants, mighty rhinos, swift cheetahs, and crafty hyenas. The developers' company, Leti, which means 'star' in the Ewe language, was nurtured by the philanthropic arm of San Francisco-based Meltwater Group, an Internet business services company, which in 2008 founded the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, Ghana. 'We believe talent is everywhere,' says the Meltwater founder and CEO."

Comments

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sopssa]

Another great indie game from countries with a lot less standard living costs is Mount&Blade from a Turkish developer and his wife. I love open sandbox games and had a lot of fun playing it back in 2008, and it seems like they have now published a multiplayer expansion pack. The great thing for the developers in these countries is that they can make significantly more than with an usual job in the country, and it's easier to fund their life as an independent game developer. It doesn't work the same way for those in the US or other countries where living costs are a lot higher.

Re:Promo BS

[BearRanger]

Perhaps, but without the blood and severed limbs I'm more likely to allow my kids to play it. I say good for them for transforming their arms into ploughshares.

Re:The Land of Opportunity

[sznupi]

The US as a shining beacon of opportunity seems to be, for some time, a convenient lie that's fed to you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mobility#Social_system
Despite this formal opportunity for social mobility, recent research suggests that Britain and particularly the United States have less social mobility than the Nordic countries and Canada.[6][7] These authors state that "the idea of the US as the land of opportunity persists; and clearly seems misplaced."
[6] http://www.suttontrust.com/reports/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/apr/25/socialexclusion.accesstouniversity

Though I guess the myth will persist..."nanny states" leading as the Land of Opportunity?! Can't be...

Yes there is a hidden truth there.

[SmallFurryCreature]

Culture. It is very important and you can see it very clearly in game.

Try this for an exercise: Compare a Japanese, eastern European, American or British game with each other.

• Japanese games, typical Japanese games tend to be rather unforgiving. Hard to the point of impossible with no such concept as levels.
• Eastern European games tend to push the edge in some areas, but fail horribly as well rounded games. Tend to have their difficulty all over the place. Take the old Nival Interactive game Silent Storm. Great game, but hopelessly flawed with unclear mission objectives and a dis-jointed structure and even pulling a Jagged Alliance 2 but add unwanted, hated and despised sci-fi elements that totally upset the game balance. We haven't see the kind of fully destructible environment as in Silent Storm since, but also not the "lets switch from one era to another without putting it on the box".
• American games tend to be more rounded. They push the edge less perhaps, but they are a more finished product. There is a reason Hollywood dominates the movies. No other nation could have produced Star Wars. The brits would have shot it all in a powerplant and a quary because that is where you shoot Sci-fi. The sweeds would have filled it with personal reflection. The koreans would have swung widely from comedy to ultra-violence for no particular reason. Indians would have added dance.
• British games? Tend to be quirky. The odd ball games that you didn't think would work but do. The moment a British developer has enough money, he becomes an American developer.

  • The above could also be done with movies of course. You can see this very clearly with the change in Jacky Chan movies as he switches countries. His asian movies often haven't got an ending. He bad guy is finished, cut to credits. He doesn't "get the girl", often "the girl" ain't even a love intrest. Unheard of in American movies, and his American productions added the epilogue. The bad guy is defeated, now go get the girl.

    It will be intresting to see what African games bring. Just so I can labelled a racist, it is intresting to see russian developers develop games on hardware I dumped out the door. Cutting edge games, on cheapo CRT's. An iPhone game when your neighbour is dying from hunger... well that has to come from a certain mindset. Somehow I don't think ethics are going to be a strong element, anything to survive motto perhaps? Or not.

    I have been to Africa and while they do indeed have cities, and there are areas were it almost looks western, there are also huge differences. It is as simple as going from the EU to the US. There may be areas that look the same, and then you see someone walking with a gun and you know it is not.

    And the biggest danger? Westerners going all mushy and falling into "well ain't you a clever little african, you can code too, ain't they almost human" mode. Like the article. Wow, two people coded a simple game. In Africa. That this is news, is in a way disturbing.

    Think about what is worse racist statement: "Blacks can't hold a steady job" vs "Blacks are really good at dancing".

    The second is worse, it sounds like compliment but while you can fight the first stereo-type, there is no getting rid of the second one and its hidden "that is all they are good at" message.

    There aren't a lot of games coming from Belgium. Would a game coming from there merit the same attention?