KENYA: Young Kenyan Entrepreneur create his country's first video game.

Record ID: 361019

  • Title: KENYA: Young Kenyan Entrepreneur create his country's first video game.
  • Date: 31st August 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF A CUSTOMER PICKING UP A COPY OF THE VIDEO GAME
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA6XF6GBS7ZOLRFZO13EH4BGF66
  • Story Text: After years of being exposed to computer games from different parts of the world, a young Kenyan decided to create his own game but one with a distinct African theme.
    It may be slow, it may be quiet: even borderline mute except for the occasional gunfire… but this video game could be the beginning of a whole new gaming world in Kenya.
    Meet Nyangi, the heroine of a three-dimensional video game, on a quest for 10 priceless African artifacts. She can scale walls with her bare hands and carries a large gun which she uses with deadly precision to make sure nothing gets in her way. Behind the tough sci-fi female is 24-year-old Wesley Kirinya. He created 'The Adventures of Nyangi' video game over a period of two years.
    "What inspired me to make them is it's a different form of Art. I like doing creative things so in games, cause I have a background in programming so video games were like a natural choice and it's also a unique thing in Africa and Africa also has a lot of content in it in terms of African stories so I saw it as a big opportunity," said Kirinya.
    Kirinya taught himself how to program video games while he was working on a computer program for the Catholic Church. Father Luigi Anapaloni was his boss then and also mentored him on creating the game.
    'The Adventures of Nyangi' is already catching local game enthusiasts' attention. A leading media store has agreed to sell the game in their outlets in return for a percentage of the sales. The game sells for eight US dollars and has sold fifty copies in the last three months.
    Computer animation is just starting to gain popularity in the country.
    Wesley has been touching base with other amateur animators trying to build the industry here. Majiqmud is an animator working on a 3D animation of a Kenyan folk tale. Kirinya is already working on a new game and hopes it will be even better with the help from his colleagues.
    The video game industry is big business in developed countries like America, Japan and Britain. Games developed by programmers and artists, often sell hundreds of thousands of copies world-wide. Kenyan animators hope they can tap into an emerging local market by developing their games around African stories.
    "It's said that there are kind of like over 4,000 cultures in Africa hopefully you know us guys can't tell all those stories but we hope to at least tell you know a few really good ones and get to present them to kids and youth in Africa in the best way possible in the most vivid colours, in the most vivid interactivity game consoles that Wesley comes up with," said Majiqmud.
    The market in Africa is dominated by foreign-made video games. Young people spend hours mastering some of the most complex moves on games like football that can be played with just a touch of a button. Wesley often visits local gaming centres to convince players to try out his game.
    "It's a good game, I think the person who made it had a good idea because it is played in the PC and many people have it maybe in the offices, at home and at least in your free time maybe at lunch time you can do it," said Bernard Safari, an avid video game player or "gamer".
    Kheri Juma Said, is also a "gamer", and has tried out 'Adventures of Nyangi'.
    "I congratulate him because he is the first guy to produce something like that; it's a good game and an eye opener. We now know that we can play African games. It gives people morale, and if he puts in more effort he can create an African game of football. We would play it a lot," said Said.
    'The Adventures of Nyangi' feels a bit sluggish, even awkward, for video-game experts used to the faster pace of imported games. But for Wesley it is a start, in a country where all video games are made abroad.
    He hopes this will open up a new industry in Kenya that will be fun for video game players here and also put local programmers in a league with the best in the world.
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