Ben Myres: Africa Is Not a Genre: Game Design Movements From Lagos to Casablanca
9While the developing 'canon' of independent games rolls forward, enveloping Western creator's delightful vignette and personal games, we hear little of the important work emerging out of Africa.
Moreover, games coming out of the continent are often written about with the unfortunate 'Africa is a country' trope. This talk will unravel the rich tapestry of diverse creators and works coming out of Africa. From Nigeria's prolific pastiche pastures to Cameroon's search for an iconic African RPG, this talk will explore cultural, economic, and social contexts that nurture certain design movements around Africa.
Contextual issues we'll explore include creators' issues with selling directly to local players, many of whom might not be interested in playing locally created works. Some studios survive entirely off selling to their country's Western-based diaspora.
This discussion will both be a crash course in the history of games development around Africa as well as an analysis of African creator's visions and processes. For the most part, we'll focus on why certain design trends are emerging from specific countries.
Ben Myres | https://benjamming.itch.io/
Nyamakop | South Africa
Ben Myres is a game designer, curator, and digital artist. He is the co-founder of South African indie studio, Nyamakop; programme manager of A MAZE. / Johannesburg; and co-organiser of [Resting] Glitch Face, a Johannesburg experimental games party.
Ben has never played a Zelda game (sorry).
A MAZE. http://a-maze.net
A MAZE. / Berlin http://amaze-berlin.de
Twitter http://twitter.com/amazefest
Facebook http://facebook.com/amaze.festival
Video recording by SAE http://sae.edu
Video editing by Nomi http://www.thenomi.com