Africa is a growing market for games ranging from board games to virtual reality and that is the emphasis at an art exhibition, Africade, which will showcase concept art from games developed in Africa.
Hosted at The African Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel (nowhere close to Africa) will highlight the mass growth, which according to industry analyst, Newzoo, is expected to reach $442 million this year. Nigeria and South Africa have the biggest market on the continent, expected to generate $174 million and $120 million respectively.
While the continent faces multiple roadblocks like technical, economical and infrastructural challenges like slow and expensive internet pricing, power outages and economic ratings, it becomes more challenging to develop, publish and monetize a game in Africa.
According to Africade’s co-curator, Ben Myers, the biggest challenge developers face is being located in Africa.
“These days with digital marketplaces like Steam, you can sell online from anywhere! But there’s stuff you can’t do online: you need to meet press; distributors; platform holders; and fellow developers. So you have to spend money going to events like PAX, GDC, and E3 — which is around a 16-hour flight or something — not cheap.”
While he points out gaming festivals like The Africa Game Show and West African Gaming Expo, more locally in South Africa, we have rAge, EGE, ICON by the Sea, GeekFest and FanCon that will continue to grow the gaming communities right here at home.
These are the games entered into Africade this year:
- Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan (Kiro’o Games, Cameroon)
- After Robot (Shapa Studios, South Africa)
- Broforce (Free Lives, South Africa)
- Wrestling With Emotions (Team Lazerbeam, South Africa)
- Rangi (Funsoft, Morocco)
- Lantern of Truth (Diaa ElHak, Algeria)
- Throne of Gods (Akdogan Ali and Umusu Samson Iruo, Nigeria)
