Kenya's 1st Games Festival
The first Kenya Games Festival last Friday 28th August did something important: it brought together the people who play games and the people who make them.
Jiwe had the privilege of powering the game-development section—creating a space where eight Kenyan studios could showcase their work directly to players, receive feedback and introduce more people to the games being built here.
What players encountered was not one narrow idea of what a Kenyan game should be. There were fighting games, racing games, augmented-reality experiences, entrepreneurship games, social-impact projects and casual games inspired by our languages and cultures.
-Roben Studios showcased Project Rogue.
-OHBS Studio presented their Matatu Racer.
-Sike Studios showcased ARgo, represented by Joanna Oluoch, Wesley Kanyeria and Irina Djirackor.
-Atianyi Interactive, represented by Andrew Atianyi, showcased Vita: Absolute Fighting Tournament—a fighting game inspired by traditional African warriors and folklore.
Play it on Jiwe:
https://jiwe.io/games/absolutefightingtournament
♟ - Jiwe shared work emerging from our community and our growing stable of culturally grounded casual games, including KENTE PUNK, Sheng Word League and Jiwe Chess.
-Kerubi Canvas, represented by Allan Oluoch, showcased social-impact games including Dereva Academy and Matatu Manager.
- Old Mates Studios, represented by Philip Katana, showcased Entrepoly, their entrepreneurship game.
A special shout-out to Barbah Games for coming out and being part of the community.
The Kenyan games industry is not waiting to be created. It is already here—being built project by project by developers, artists, designers and studios experimenting with what games from Kenya can look and feel like.
Bringing gamers and developers into the same space matters. Developers get to watch people experience their work, hear the questions that analytics cannot answer and discover what excites—or confuses—players. Gamers get to meet the people behind the games and see themselves, their languages and their everyday experiences reflected in interactive worlds.
This is the role Jiwe wants to keep playing: connecting African creators with players, collaborators and opportunities, both online and in person.
Thank you to every studio that participated, everyone who played the games, and the Kenya Games Festival for trusting Jiwe to power the game-development showcase at its first edition.
This is only the beginning. Let’s keep building—and keep playing—African games.
Discover games from African creators:
https://jiwe.io
#JiweIO #KenyaGamesFestival #KenyanGames #AfricanGames #GameDevelopment #IndieGames #MadeInKenya
