Hardware to build or test games on incredibly expensive. What do you think are the greatest challenges that face an indie developer in SA? Access to the internet is overpriced and under-delivered. I look forward to more snarky, funny South African games in the future. Looking at disparate success stories like Desktop Dungeons, Broforce and Genital Jousting I think this is true. Tell me about some of the gaming trends in SA that you are excited for? Humour, biting sarcasm and satire are common threads running through different South African games. Top tools: Unit圓D Engine, Photoshop and Adobe After Effect Studio: Co-founder of Cowabunga Industries and Team Lazerbeam. So my career highlight was seeing my friends play it on the school computers during lunch break. It’s a sci-fi first person shooter and is entirely free to play. What’s been your career highlight so far? While developing Light Bringer, I completed a smaller project just to showcase what I can do as a young game dev. I use the things around me to bring my games to life: houses, people and vegetation are all based on my surroundings. Light Bringer deals with the economic and political imbalances in our society in a way that is relatable and not degrading of image. Games made by Emile: Light Bringer, an open-world action game that deals with the social issues that plague South Africa.Ĭan you tell us more about Light Bringer? It’s concept and setting are based on South Africa and its social issues. Top tools: Game developing platform Unit圓D Engine, Photoshop and JavaScript for coding languagesįavourite platform to design for: Windows Representation is important, thus we make sure that our graphics and art speak to it.
In our games you will find characters like black girls with their natural hair, you will pass the beauties of South Africa like Table Mountain, you will ride cars in the village, pass across cows and stuff like that. We have built games that are centred around many lived experiences of South African children. With the many platforms available nowadays it is easy for people to access content through the mediums that they already use. Games are more interactive then a book - you can engage with your content. You can use that time to push important educational skills throughout the interaction.
You don’t struggle to get the attention of the player. Games provide a space to be able to rectify your errors. If your avatar dies you get another chance at life. It’s a good message to motivate learning in young people - that it is fine to make mistakes. What functions do video games serve? Games provide a safe space for failure. Regina KgatleĬompany: Founder and game designer at Educade and 67games We caught up with eight talented local indie developers designing expressive and experimental video games that reflect their experiences, to hear their thoughts on our expanding industry.īelow, Emile Ferriera, Danny Day, Shaz Greenwood, Regina Kgatle, Ben Rausch, Andrea Hayes, Cukia Kimani and Dominique Whittaker share the joys and challenges being part of the indie game dev community in South Africa, crafting computerised characters and worlds, and the importance and purpose of developing games.
From fun and educational games with diverse characters to more serious projects aimed to highlight social issues plaguing our country, South African video game makers are breaking into the global industry with their nuanced stories.
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