5 African Games You Should Be Playing Now
With more game producers and players on the continent, African gaming has become increasingly popular in recent years. African video games are finding a position in the global gaming market, from smartphone games to PC and console releases.
Even while African game production is still in its infancy, it is already having a significant impact thanks to games that highlight distinctive cultural influences and address significant social challenges. These games are not only enjoyable, but they also promote African culture and increase awareness of the problems facing the continent.
We will examine five African games that everyone should be playing now in this post.
Sweave
Sweave is the latest baby of Leti Arts. It is a beautiful calm-gliding, hyper-casual, African-themed creativity game, that takes inspiration from the creation of our traditional Kente, specifically, how the Kente loom works. The whole idea of the game is to Sweave through unique beautiful and colorful patterns and avoid challenging ring formations and obstacles you encounter. These obstacles come in the form of African symbols like the Gye Nyame, Epa, Dono, etc. The beauty of Sweave is that users can interact and learn about these symbols which pave way for them to imbibe our rich heritage and culture.
Tap here to play Sweave
Shkorey
Shkorey which means ‘darling’ in Tigrinya is an educational game about sexual health, pregnancy, and birth care. It was created in June 2021 in Leeuwarden (Netherlands) in collaboration with Leti Arts. In a culture-sensitive digital game environment, Eritrean people gain access to knowledge and information on topics such as the human body, safe sex, pre-conception, pregnancy, and raising young children.
Users are also easily guided from the app to local healthcare and service providers and other relevant sources of information. Shkorey also focuses on healthcare and service providers who work with Eritrean clients.
Tap here to find out more
Mama Atingi Shop
Mama Atingi Shop, designed by Leti Arts and three other gaming studios is a ‘Serious Game’, designed to teach young adults popular concepts in African entrepreneurship. The player is invited to run a curio shop, selling popular trinkets and cultural artifacts to passing tourists. Its scenario mirrors a commonplace scene in many popular African destinations. Players complete challenges related to inventory management, investment, and growing their virtual business are relatable to real-life scenarios.
The game has colorful characters and exciting gameplay that let the player forget the daily grind and learn about customer care, pricing, and stock management on the go. And for those who want to take their knowledge to the next level, a whole universe of additional content is always just a click away on atingi.org
Tap here to play Mama Atingi Shop
Africa’s Legends- Reawakening
Afrca’s Legends-Reawakening is the flagship property of Leti Arts. It is a game designed to reflect on how game design can be used to correct media misrepresentations about Africa, discuss current issues, and ignite imaginations of African cultural heritage.
The game features a vast near-future superhero universe steeped in real mythology, culture, and history from across Africa – all brought up-to-date to tackle the modern-day issues which affect every African.
It is a multiplayer story-based superhero adventure RPG, targeting Ghanaian, Kenyan, and Nigerian youth. The different characters in the game represent cultures and mythologies from across the continent. In the game, players travel across Africa playing different, relatable characters. On their way, they meet different characters and unravel a huge pan-African conspiracy steeped in current issues, mystery, and ancestral knowledge. Players explore serious themes like ethnic violence, drug addiction, misogyny, the lasting effects of colonialism, foreign aid addiction, and more.
Mzito
Mzito is an African video game about an ancient folk story. The Mzito is a gifted being given the duty of awakening the Sleeping Lions, referring to Africans. The Mzitos would travel all over Africa and use the skills they have to spread the reawakening of the continent.
This game is a 2D adventure game for mobile platforms. You enter the game to play as one of the two Mzitos and go around Africa on an epic journey to save the African continent.
The game was developed by Weza Interactive Entertainment, a popular African game developer, in 2016 and it’s still available to play on the Google Play store. However, the last update on the game was in 2020.
Tap here to play Mzito
