Kayfo Video games: Internet gaming “has been a recreation changer”

Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan returns on November ninth and tenth, 2024, providing an opportunity to achieve insights into the arena’s fastest-growing video games marketplace, MENA.

As a part of our MENA protection and run-up to the development, we stuck up with Kayfo Video games’ founder and CEO Julien Herbin along COO and lead developer Thierno Ndiaye to talk about the corporate’s focal point on web-based video games, navigating the investment panorama, and alternatives in Edtech.

PocketGamer.biz: Are you able to let us know a little bit about Kayfo Video games and what you’re as much as at the moment?

Julien Herbin: Having spent 17 years within the video games business, I based Kayfo in 2019 in Senegal to pioneer the West African gaming scene.

Our studio specialises in growing informal cellular video games and academic video games that resonate with African markets, serving to to carry extra culturally related content material to avid gamers around the continent.

These days, our major focal point is on Kayfo Play, an online quick video games platform adapted in particular for African avid gamers. We’re creating a rising library of HTML5 video games for the platform, designed to run seamlessly on low-end gadgets.

As well as, we’re partnering with different studios to distribute their video games on Kayfo Play, and we’re increasing our achieve by way of making our personal video games to be had via their platforms.

What number of workforce do you now make use of, and what are you doing to foster collaboration and recruit native skills?

Thierno Ndiaye: We are a small, hardworking, and dynamic staff of 10 other people, with many contributors having been with us because the studio’s early days.

Through the years, we’ve evolved a various vary of cellular video games and actively collaborate with different studios from the Pan Africa Gaming Workforce (PAGG) around the continent. This collaboration is helping us percentage experience and sources whilst strengthening our ties with the wider African gaming ecosystem.

We’re co-leading the Sport Hub Senegal challenge along Masseka Video games, with toughen from key companions like DER F/J and the French Embassy in Senegal. This programme is designed to coach and mentor younger builders, giving them hands-on revel in on actual tasks.

This initiative contributes to the improvement of younger ability, giving them the chance to paintings with us on more than a few tasks and in the end sign up for our studio on the finish in their coaching.

Your video games are localised for the African marketplace. What are one of the largest demanding situations you might have confronted within the localisation procedure?

Ndiaye: Because the overwhelming majority of our staff contributors have been born and raised in west Africa, we’ve all the time been in a position to create video games that resonate with African avid gamers. With regards to localisation, content material introduction hasn’t ever been an issue for us.

In fact, there may be the technical problem of making light-weight video games optimised for the low-end smartphones usually utilized in our area. However it is one thing to which we’ve got develop into accustomed, and to which we are a lot more attentive than we was once.

Our actual drawback with localisation has all the time been the loss of distribution channels tailored to the truth of our avid gamers, i.e. providing native content material and permitting avid gamers to pay the use of native cost strategies (e.g. cellular cash).

Communicate to us about your participation in Supercell’s Video games First initiative in Helsinki. How does it really feel to be a part of the delegate studios?

Herbin: We’re extremely joyful to be a part of Supercell’s Video games First initiative, along such a lot of different gifted African studios. Being integrated on this match is an incredible reputation of the paintings we’ve been doing in West Africa.

It’s a novel alternative not to best show off our video games but additionally spotlight the immense attainable of African markets. We’re excited to percentage our insights, construct connections, and inspire extra world collaborations that may assist raise the African gaming ecosystem to the worldwide degree.

What attainable do you notice in EdTech for Africa’s long run? And does Kayfo Video games have any ongoing or deliberate tasks associated with EdTech?

Ndiaye: There’s an enormous alternative for EdTech in Africa, given the continent’s younger inhabitants and rising web connectivity. It provides a extra enticing and relaxing studying revel in whilst offering cost-effective coaching for jobs that most often require dear apparatus.

This means would possibly cut back prices and build up get admission to to specialized training, serving to to organize the adolescence for long run careers. At Kayfo Video games, we recognise the significance of EdTech and we now have a devoted staff taking part with PAGG Studios to create impactful video games. 

For example, we partnered with Usiku Video games to supply the Electrical Blue: Geck Sprint cellular recreation, with the purpose of elevating consciousness in regards to the endangered electrical blue gecko species. 

The sport not too long ago handed 500,000 downloads on Google Play alon. We’ve extra instructional video games in building, all set for free up between This fall 2024 and Q2 2025.

You may have evolved cellular video games and web-based titles. How do making a decision which platform to focus on for a brand new recreation? And the way have your video games been obtained the world over outdoor the African area?

Herbin: Since our core target audience is on cellular, we all the time design our video games with a mobile-first means. Then again, over time, we realised that local distribution platforms have been too restrictive for our wishes.

Even greater Western studios face demanding situations with unpredictable coverage adjustments, long approval processes, obligatory SDK updates, and restricted monetisation choices. For us, the hassle required to supply and deal with local video games merely wasn’t value it.

As cellular browsers and web-based recreation engines have developed, we’ve an increasing number of shifted against internet video games. This transfer has been a game-changer, providing us extra flexibility, achieve, and monetisation alternatives. We’re discovering extra doorways opening up with this means.

Globally, our video games were well-received, particularly since there’s an absence of visual African video games. Avid gamers outdoor the continent appear to revel in finding African cultures and tales via our video games, which has been extremely rewarding for us as creators.

Africa has an infinite collection of cellular customers. What do you suppose is the important thing to tapping into this target audience? And why do you suppose some nonetheless put out of your mind the marketplace regardless of its expansion attainable?

Ndiaye: Corporations and traders from outdoor Africa incessantly depend on information from conventional distribution channels, which is able to seem unpromising because of restricted visibility and cost programs that don’t swimsuit the African video games marketplace. 

Then again, new platforms are rising to take on those demanding situations by way of that specialize in native content material and cost answers designed in particular for African customers. This shift provides us the danger to succeed in a lot better engagement metrics and attach at once with our target audience.

To faucet into Africa’s huge cellular person base, a key means is to collaborate with telcos and present platforms like VOD and track streaming services and products.

Now not best does this build up the visibility of our video games, nevertheless it additionally dramatically will increase the retention of such services and products. With these kind of partnerships, we’re already getting masses of 1000’s of MAUs throughout PAGG studios. And it’ll quickly become hundreds of thousands of per month avid gamers.

What do you notice as the present alternatives and demanding situations going through the video games business in Senegal and the broader African area?

Ndiaye: Distribution and monetisation demanding situations apart, there could also be a loss of toughen from governments. Whilst there may be some reputation of the possible throughout the video games sector, robust toughen and infrastructure are nonetheless lacking. Any other key factor is that there don’t seem to be many universities or colleges providing recreation building systems, which makes it onerous to increase native ability.

Our reaction to that’s the Sport Hub Senegal, after only one 12 months of operation, we’re already seeing younger skills rising from the hub!

Then again, regardless of those demanding situations, there are lots of alternatives forward. One thrilling facet is the top call for for native content material. The inhabitants is changing into extra involved in video video games, growing a robust marketplace for video games that mirror their tradition and reports. This provides an excellent probability for builders to create a laugh and related content material. 

Finally, you have to be aware that African start-ups are identified for fixing native issues. Within the video games business, this implies we will be able to uncover cutting edge techniques to distribute video games that completely suits the wishes of native avid gamers. By means of figuring out their personal tastes and realities, we will be able to create the most efficient answers for them to revel in our video games.

Let’s discuss investment and toughen for recreation studios in Africa. What has been your revel in navigating the investment panorama? And the way do you suppose the African Video games marketplace may draw in extra funding?

Herbin: Getting access to investment is without a doubt a large problem for West African studios as traders most probably don’t see the chance simply but. Then again, it’s essential to toughen the sport building ecosystem now moderately than later.

At a small scale we’re already growing jobs, price and social affect. We’re already a winning trade, and we will be able to best develop!

Thankfully, we now have discovered some nice toughen from some public establishments in our quest to lift the business in our area. For example, the French Embassy in Senegal has absolutely supported the release of the Sport Hub Senegal financially, and so they’re nonetheless being very supportive. It merely wouldn’t be imaginable with out their toughen.

Extra not too long ago, we’ve additionally been decided on to take part within the Afrique Créative program (funded by way of Agence Française de Développement), which is a three hundred and sixty five days mentorship program that incorporates considerable monetary toughen.

As a way to draw in non-public investments, I feel that African video games firms wish to increase the distribution channels: making video games simply out there via native platforms, cellular cash bills, and partnerships with telecoms will pressure adoption.

Traders need to see transparent pathways to monetisation and scalability, and Africa’s distinctive cost strategies be offering new alternatives to create sustainable earnings fashions.

What are your plans for the approaching 12 months? Will you be exploring new platforms? And are there any explicit tasks or tasks at the horizon that we will have to stay up for?

Herbin: For the remainder of 2024 and into 2025, our most sensible precedence is increasing Kayfo Play, our quick video games platform.

The provider is already are living in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, and we plan to progressively roll it out throughout extra African nations. We’ll be including extra of our personal video games in addition to partnering with different African studios and past, growing a various and thrilling catalogue. 

Proudly owning our distribution platform provides us the liberty to experiment with other trade fashions, which is extremely empowering. Our focal point will stay firmly on cellular internet video games.

We’re frequently exploring new distribution channels, and I’m excited to percentage that we’re about to release our first cellular internet recreation on a globally standard platform. That is a thrilling time for us, and we’re keen to look how those tasks will form the way forward for video games around the continent.