VIDEO GAMES IN KENYA

Video games have evolved from the days of the Atari to today’s sleek Xboxes,Wii’s and quad core smart phones which spot more processing power than the original ‘mainframes/supercomputers’. The evolution has not only been technology wise…financially video games have also become some of the most profitable entertainment products with games such as call of duty and grand theft auto estimated to have grossed more than 1 billion dollars each(imagine being given 80 billion Kenya shillings!!Compare that with Safaricom's investments/profitability and you’ll see that video games are just the ish!!).It was therefore to be expected that Kenya would soon join this industry hoping to get a piece of the pie that everyone seems to be digging into. Being the ICT powerhouse (arguably) in the region has its benefits such as the availability of skilled labour, availability of fast Internet e.t.c enabling online collaborations and research and more importantly giving exposure to the IT savvy generation,  growing rapidly in Kenya are some of the pillars that are shaping this industry.

One of the first if not the first video games that came out of Kenya is Adventures of Nyangi created around 2006-2007,by Wesley Kiriiny who at that time owned a company by the name Griwamgrafix.It is a  3D action-adventure video game where the main character, Nyangi, has to find some rare African artifacts.The game may lack the high end looks that commercial games like GTA have,considering it was a one man show hence sacrifices had to be made in some areas. The fact that makes the game stand out is that Kiiriny, created the game engine that powered Adventures of Nyangi.Today Wesley and a Ghananian partner,Eyram Tawia currently run Leti Games located at East legon in Accra, the capital of Ghana.What we admire about  Leti games is that it is a global team.The two main partners are from different countries(Kenya and Ghana) and they came together to try and develop something from Africa and are succeeding.The two recently presented a talk on "The Emerging Landscape of African Game Development" at the 2013 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Wesley led the way and today a few other game companies have started in Kenya.One of the teams that is exploring this ‘new frontier’ for Kenyans is University of Games who just released Election Thief an Android based video game a few weeks ago-March 2nd just before the General elections held on March 4 at the PAWA 254 Hub,Nairobi.

The University of Games comprises of brothers Brian (Lead Programmer) and Blaise Kinyua (Marketing), Joseph Kariuki (Project Manager) and Herbert Kimacia (Artist).Brian Kinyua was able to secure funding/seed money from the Kenya ICT Board 'Tandaa' round 2 grant.Using these funds Brian brought together the rest of the team and formed University of Games.
As the name suggests Election Thief's plot was inspired by the 2007 disputed elections that resulted in post election violence.The game,which is free, challenges users to track down and chase a bad guy who has stolen some votes during the presidential elections by playing the character Omu in the game.UoG also has web based games on their website that anyone can play so do check it out.

Another force in the local games development industry is Planet Rackus made up of Joe Murithi Njeru - Business Development,Roger Tenenmberger - 3D/ Motion Designer,Fred Kioko - Producer and Jimmy Gitonga - Content Developer.The Nairobi-based mobile game development company launched its racing game Ma3Racer,and last year won the entertainment category plus overall in PivotEast(mobile startups pitching competition) 2012. The free game is currently available at Nokia’s Ovistore and an Android version is currently in the works.

HomeBoyz animation were also involved in a video game project with WarnerBros/Virtual Heroes Inc back in 2008-2009.The project's deliverable was the video game called Pamoja Mtaani.I'm not sure if the game really did reach and have an effect on the intended target but it was a good start.The game even won Warner Bros an award in the core competence category in June 24, 2009, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC) presented their 2009 Business Excellence Awards to eight standard-setting companies, including Warner Bros., for their innovative programs working to combat global disease.


However the rate at which the industry is developing is quite slow which may be attributed to several factors beyond the scope of this article.Some of the things which may need to be addressed to accelerate the industry include setting up of specific courses and even colleges that will be focusing on training Multimedia artists,CG artists and Game programmers among other related professionals. In addition professionals and scholars who have done mathematics/electronics/engineering/physics e.t.c will also be required if we are to create high quality stuff for the market. Their knowledge will be invaluable in creating new tools/adopting new tools and techniques as necessary and leading in Research and Development. Not only that, our Government will also need to give incentives to local developers/game creation companies to stimulate growth and attract talent from other countries which will enable knowledge sharing, technology transfer among other benefits. Matters such as piracy and copyright protection will also need to be looked into to ensure that they are not a bottleneck to local content developers seeking to bring their games into the market. The Kenyan citizens will also need to play their role by buying the products and contributing to the success of such ventures in any way they can.Maybe the Jubilee coalition should start by having the computers that will be distributed to primary school students preinstalled with the open source Blender 3D for a start. Basically it is a whole new eco-system that will need to exist for the industry to have an impact and contribute to economic and social development as it should and companies such as University of Games,Planet Rackus and Homeboyz have taken the lead in that direction.

The next big, chart topping, block buster, fanatic attracting and purely awesome video game may just come out from Kenya so for readers outside our physical borders watch this space!!As for our brothers and sisters in Kenya keep up the spirit and always remember…You are the industry!


Onto other news:
This years animation festival is set to take place in 9.30am - 4.30pm, Friday 10^th May -Saturday 11^thMay 2013.However unlike previous years the lead/main organisers Kenya Film Commission will be hosting it together with a one-day National Film Conference,we'll know what it's all about exactly on that day.So get your stuff ready,prepare your Sunday best clothes(yes toa ile jeans ya black ulipewa Christmas) and make sure on that day ume Toklezea.