Mobile gaming has become incredibly popular over the past few years as smartphones have become more sophisticated and started to offer a more immersive and higher-quality gaming experience. It has opened up the world of gaming to a whole new audience and propelled the development of many more games.
However, most South African game developers struggle to market their games and find investors to support and promote their talent.
“Huawei is therefore working with developers on empowering them by offering some much-needed infrastructure, guidance/skills training and support”, says Mr Rogen, director of consumer mobile cloud services. Huawei Mobile Services South Africa is on-hand to lend some much-needed infrastructure, guidance and support to assist South Africa’s rising game development stars.
Huawei Mobile Services offers developers an open platform on which they can launch and market their gaming apps. The developers receive extensive support in the form of technical development, testing, legal and marketing help, says Rogen. The company is committed to training and empowering local developers to grow the talent pool.
To support developers in showcasing and marketing their games for the Huawei AppGallery, Huawei Mobile Services invited 12 up-and-coming developers to be part of the Huawei exhibition at the Vodacom rAge Expo which took place from 27 to 29 September. Visitors to the Huawei stand could get first-hand experience the latest locally developed games which have been launched on the Huawei AppGallery. .
Watch out for three of the rising gaming developer stars who were at the Huawei “home coded” stand:
1. Matthew Dalton, developer of Codex Knights
Matthew’s company, Mattador Starfish, is a proudly South African tech start-up that aims to use the power of games and technology to make a difference.
His open-world adventure game Codex Knights does just this by encouraging reading and promoting authentic African stories through the immersion of videogames. Each story world in the Codex Realm is a living, breathing one with lots to explore and discover, and players must investigate mysteries and complete quests to protect the citizens of the colony. Each glitch requires users to answer a question about the book in order to fix it.
The first story world Matthew has created, is based on the South Africa classic Jock of the Bushveld. “My real aim, though, is to provide a platform for young, amateur African authors to share their stories and then use these in mobile games. I want each game to provide a real experience for each user,” explains Matthew. “Huawei Mobile Services has given me fantastic exposure. Visitors to the stand were very excited about Codex Knights and I received many sign-ups.” Go to mattadorstarfish.com to find out more.
2. Zane Espin, owner and developer at Blue Desert Studios
Zane has developed four games so far, with two more planned for release in the near future. These include Curve (a family friendly racing game), NightRunner (a pick-up-and-play game where players dodge obstacles) and Beta Reflex (a puzzle shooter game). Zane is a self-taught developer and learnt everything he knows from online tutorials.
“After designing my first game two years ago, I realised how important marketing and promotion is. However, this is very difficult to do effectively when you’re a small business. That’s why having a global company like Huawei support local developers is such a game changer. Vodacom rAge was a great opportunity for me to not only find potential investors put also to get feedback from users. I love my creations and I want the players to love them, too, so it’s important to fine tune the user experience,” notes Zane.
Upcoming games from Blue Desert Studio include Corridor 6, which Zane describes as a psychological thriller, and Auxillary. He has about 15 games planned for the next five years. Find out more on bluedesertstudios.com.
3. Morne Leander, creator of PlaneCrazy
This game is a treat for the kids, which isn’t surprising as its creator, Morne Leander, was inspired to develop it after spending an afternoon showing his young daughter and her friends to make paper aeroplanes. PlaneCrazy teaches players how to fold their own paper planes by dodging obstacles and collecting rewards.
“It’s wonderful to be offered this opportunity by Huawei to showcase my game to more people,” says Morne. “Marketing is important, but there is only so much you can do on your own, so this gives me a lot more momentum.”
Morne is currently working on an updated version of PlaneCrazy, which will focus on a VR experience, enabling players to unlock more levels, and offer geo-location. You can find PlaneCrazy on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or visit planecrazygame.co.za.
Huawei consumers should regularly visit the AppGallery on their mobile devices to search, download, manage and share mobile apps. New releases are introduced on a monthly basis that cater for most lifestyle interests. The AppGallery features a four-layer detection mechanism to ensure that apps featured on the platform are safe to download and use. Get your apps from AppGallery.
More information
App developers with a completed app should visit developer.huawei.com, or contact the Huawei South Africa business development team on [email protected] to find out how Huawei can support them.
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