ITTHYNK Gaming Solutions & Ludique Works

ITTHYNK Game Development Training academy and Incubator is a company that focuses on training and supporting young, aspiring game developers in Africa. Ludique Works is a Video Game Publishing company that strives to change the perception of ‘gaming’ in Africa, all the while offering a path for people to tell unique stories. In collaboration with Lidique Works, Immortal Media and Africa Games Week to name a few, the ITTHYNK Game Development Incubator Program was designed to equip imminent video game developers and artists with the necessary skills, and necessary funding to launch, and further manage a profitable video game development studio.

Q

Please introduce yourself, and tell us more about what you do and your role in this festival?

I’m Benon Maguta, Project Manager for the ITTHYNK Game Development Incubation Program and Training academy. We run an academy that aims to train young South Africans in game development, and other related skills. In addition, we also run an Incubator that funds more settled game developers, and helps them take their ideas to prototypes with the hope that they get additional investments to make their final product. Our role in Fak’ugesi is to facilitate the running of games during the Gaming Hackathon.’

[Robbin] I’m Robin Bleekers, and I’m more involved in looking after the business development strategy side of things at ITTHYNK.

[Douglas] I’m Douglas Ogeto from LudiqueWorks. We are a pan-African game publishing company that looks at the industry side of things.

Q

What can we expect from you in this year’s festival, and how will you be incorporating the ‘Build coz u have to’ theme?

[Ben] Firstly, don’t necessarily expect a game, at this year’s festival we’re going to be solving a real-life problem. Esports is a gaming competition, and it is at the centre of gaming right now but unfortunately, it’s not accessible to everyone because of the hardware and data requirements. So, we are trying to work out if there is a way that can help us increase the access to such content to everyone, not just Esports. Our goal is to go beyond that and see how, in terms of digital content in general, we can make it accessible to ordinary South Africans. We’re going to try and develop a solution that aims to solve that problem. [Robbin] My role at the festival is to help and support Ben by ensuring that we have the best product out. This will be done by ensuring that the judges have the right framework to assess the applications that they will be judging as part of the process. I will also be training, a result of my Management Consultant profession. I’ll be doing a brief session where I will be teaching the participants about problem-solving in the VUCA (Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world, so that it hopefully enables them to effectively apply the tools as they go about trying to develop the applications.

[Douglas] Students across the continent are building games while faced with the challenge of the distribution and monetization of their products. So, we bring in the expertise of marketing, distribution, and most importantly, monetization, things that will enable these students to sustain this coding, and grow. Through our collaboration with Faku’gesi, we are connecting what’s being learnt on paper, with the practical stuff, and hoping that they get the same substitutes. We do this by bringing industry experts into the programme to offer these students learning opportunities.

Q

Doug, what stands out for you when looking for students to join Ludique Works?

[Douglas] So, the key thing for us is the story. The commonality between ITTHYNK and Ludique, is our need to provide the ability for these developers to tell a story through the medium of gaming, so in addition to ITTHYNK Gaming, for us, it’s all about stortytelling.

Q

What issues do you believe stand in the way of the engagement between game developers and their audience?

[Douglas] When we speak about the programme, the biggest hurdle is, given that Africa is a continent of many countries, each country has its dynamics and based on those dynamics, the challenge within the capacity of a studio might be; how do we reach out to all of these demographics?. Another hurdle, I guess, lies in just the dynamics of the country, such as the language, currency, etc.

[Ben] If you’re a game developer in Africa, you don’t have a lot of room for failure. Like any other market, you have to constantly service the market for it to be effective. For me, issues lie in the lack of having room for failure, and not knowing if bills will be paid or if livelihoods won’t be jeopardised if people decide to continue doing the gaming that they love.

[Robin] So, I think there are two pieces to this puzzle of game development. The first is developing the game itself. There is a fragmented ecosystem, which means that you’ve got a lot of individuals that are keen in the creation and developing of games across Africa, but lack access that will enable them to complete the games. In our programme, we have an individual team studio operating in Soshanguve that we are supporting, and they have old laptops and equipment that they’ve had to piece together to be able to generate incredible graphics.

They’ve got no funding, so they have to do consulting work on-site to supplement their income and to build on that. One of the largest studios in the rest of Africa does the same because creating the games takes so long that you cannot generate sufficient revenue from the games, another result that impedes the creative process is a serious capital constraint. Then over and above that, you have the challenge of access to the market, whereas the person already have a very large number of games that are on the different app stores, so you almost find that the game get crowded by the bigger players who already have somewhat of a monopoly on the market, resulting in a situation where gamers struggle to find success. Essentially, all of the things that make for a far more professional, and progressive product come with having financial resources. And this is what we mean by having a fragmented ecosystem.

Q

Please tell us a bit about the entrepreneurial front of game development in the African context.

[Robin] It’s bilateral, when you look at the creation of a game, you get varying levels of quality. You’ll get your triple A-rated studios that create big games like Assassin’s Creed, and FIFA and Clash of Clans, and then you’ve got your smaller indie studios that will create lower quality games, something in the context of South Africa, Assemblance, where they focus more on the playability than on the assets. This begs the question “Is it expensive?”, when you focus on these indie games and these simpler games that have lesser quality assets, so the way the game looks, but are more focused on the playability, the barriers to entry are fairly low. You need to be able to code, to think about how you design the game, and see if you can get away with a minimal fireworks display, then, you can create a very impressive game on a low budget. Then there is the other side, where a game like Halo can cost up to, or beyond $30 million to create. Either way, you still need to sustain yourself.

Q

Accessibility is important when it comes to gaming development or even learning about it. What tools does one need to start and what tools do your audience need to access all this knowledge?

[Douglas] In the case of accessibility, I think that as long as a user has access to a smartphone that has Google Play Store or App store, then they can access these games and programmes. For tools, in the development side of things, developers now have various options, with three programming languages- Unity, Unreal and Construct so, based on their experience, there are a couple of options.

Q

How does one access the incubators funding opportunities?

[Ben] We (ITTHYNK) launch a call for applications and pick about four or five team companies and this year this was done around April. So, what one should do is look out for the call for applications if they want to join our specific one but I do understand that there are a few around so that’s also worth looking at.

Q

Is there a specific criterion that must be followed?

[Ben] Yes, to join the incubator you have to have a certain level of game development knowledge, or at least, some experience because here, we are helping you build your game, not necessarily thow to get it. Although, that’s also available for people to learn why and how to develop. But basically, we look for people that have some sort of experience developing games and the desire to take the idea to the next level.

Interview by Ntokozo Mabuza