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 To achieve this, Olakunle Ogungbamila is preparing to take on a
lineup of challenges as daunting as any of the muscular opponents on
his new app, even the game's arch foe the Dark Lord of Oti.
Industry analysts have long hailed the explosive growth of mobile
telecoms in sub-Saharan Africa - 635 million subscribers by the end
of 2014 climbing to 930 million by the end of 2019 according to a
report by Ericsson.
But size isn't everything. It is the quality of those mobile phone
connections, subscriptions and surrounding infrastructure that is
holding up Africa's nascent games development industry, not the
quantity of handsets.
The number of expensive smartphones that can run sophisticated games
and applications is low. They will account for only 14 percent of
African mobile connections by the end of 2014, about half the global
average and less than a quarter of the penetration in north America,
says research group Ovum.
"That is the number one obstacle. It is changing rapidly though,"
says Ogungbamila, sitting in the office of his Kuluya Games - two
long rows of desks squeezed into a glassed-off partition on part of
a floor of a Lagos office block.
He would like more deals with telecoms companies to let him process
payments, more skilled developers, better, cheaper mobile broadband
and, one day, more funding to make full-blown console games for the
Xbox and PlayStation.
He would also like more of his customers to have bank cards and
accounts, to make it easier for them to send in small payments for
charge-ups and extra characters in games.
"Collecting money is still an issue," he says.
Around 80 percent of Kuluya's revenue currently comes from making
branded mini games and apps for other companies, rather than adverts
and purchases in its own titles, says Ogungbamila.
On the other side of the continent, in the cramped office of
Nairobi's Planet Rackus, Mwaura Kirore splits his time between
designing games and running an advertising company.
Those well-paying advertising clients get the bulk of his time at
the moment, he concedes.
"I don't think anyone in Kenya can make a living out of gaming yet
... We're just at our infant stage in terms of what we're doing. But
we are in for the long haul."
AFRICAN STORIES
Planet Rackus's game MA3Racer sends rickety minibus taxis
zig-zagging across a motorway next to a lion-infested park.
Kenya's careering "matatu" minibus taxis are a national institution
and the game's name plays on their nickname stemming from the
Swahili word "tatu" meaning "three", which derived from either the
number of fare coins or seat rows, or both.
Planet Rackus's first edition of MA3Racer, a 2D mobile game, had
more than a million downloads on Nokia's Ovi platform, reflecting
strong demand.
The company's designers are also working on a new sci-fi adventure
where the evil lords will have character traits of African strongmen
past and present, including Uganda's Idi Amin, Congo's Mobutu Sese
Seko and Zimbabwe's own Robert Mugabe.
Kuluya's website lists just short of 50 titles. Highest ranked in
the Google Play Store include Afro Fighters, Keke – where you guide
a rickshaw taxi down a dirt road, a big hit in India says
Ogungbamila – and the adventure game Masai.
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Ghana's Leti Arts offers mobile comic strips combined with games -
Africa's Legends, staring Pharaoh and Shaka, and Ananse: The Origin,
based on a character from West African folklore.
The idea is to draw in local players with local content, always
looking out for a storyline that could turn into a franchise popular
enough to cross borders in Africa and beyond.
If possible, they also want to change the way Africa is portrayed
when it does appear in Western games - generally as a bloody
backdrop for shoot'em-ups - such as the excursion into the Niger
Delta in 'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier'.
"In the West, they take Greek history or Greek mythology and they
spin it into multi-billion dollar entertainment entities," says
Kuluya's Ogungbamila.
"There are lots of African stories that haven't been told. With
Ananse, you have a very cunning character with spider-like powers
from the days of ancient Africa ... before Spiderman existed," says
Leti co-founder Wesley Kirinya.
CHEAPER SMARTPHONES
For all the challenges, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
One is the spread of cheaper smartphones.
An iPhone 5 or a Samsung Galaxy S5 might be out of reach for many.
But a Chinese-made Tecno M3 handset, with Google's Android operating
system, was on offer for 13,000 naira ($80) at Abuja's open air Emab
shopping mall.
In February, Chinese chip designer Spreadtrum Communications
unveiled the innards of what it said would be a $25 smartphone.
But many of the cheaper smartphones still lack the power for more
ambitious games, says Ogungbamila.
Even the cheaper smartphones are still out of reach for the vast
majority of customers with small incomes and pre-paid mobile
accounts - many of them charging up call by call on scratch cards.
Ovum puts average revenue per user (ARPU) in Africa at $6 a month,
compared with $48 in north America.
But Africa's economic growth should lead to a bigger middle class
with more money and time to sit back with their handsets and push
around pixels for fun.
"African games developers have to gamble on the growth of smartphone
devices – and that growth is there," said Johannesburg-based Ovum
analyst Thecla Mbongue. "But there are challenges. Is the future
bright? I would say it is mixed."
(Additional reporting by Helen Nyambura in Johannesburg; Editing by
Pascal Fletcher and Anna Willard)
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