Four African gaming studios, today announced the launch of their titular game release, Mama Atingi Shop; a co-production project funded by the German Development Cooperation agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The game developers, from Ghana (Leti Arts), Nigeria (Maliyo Games), Kenya (Usiku Games) & Senegal (Kayfo Game Studio), are on a mission to collaboratively create an experience that reflects stories from the continent and are designed to educate the continent’s growing youth population.  

African entrepreneurs, especially in the tourism sector, have been hit hard over the past year. And, while serious threats always demand serious solutions, Mama Atingi Shop seeks to deliver these solutions in a playful and enjoyable way. Colorful characters and an exciting gameplay let the player forget the daily grind and learn about customer care, pricing and stock management on the go. And for those who want to take their knowledge to the next level, a whole universe of additional content is always just a click away on atingi.org.

Their signature title, Mama Atingi Shop, is a ‘Serious Game’, designed to teach young adults popular concepts in African entrepreneurship. The player is invited to run a curio shop, selling popular trinkets and cultural artefacts to passing tourists, a scenario mirroring a commonplace scene in many popular African destinations, as they complete challenges related to inventory management, investment and growing their virtual business are relatable to real life scenarios.  

“We are excited to launch this project, in collaboration with our co-production partners. Mama Atingi Shop represents, in many ways, the impact we all seek to make, in educating and empowering various African online audiences through our games. The hope is that more young people from across the continent use their smartphones as tools for both entertainment and education. We are grateful to BMZ and GIZ for helping us make this dream a reality,” says Hugo Obi, Founder and CEO of Maliyo Games. 

The partner studios intend to continue growing their portfolio of fun-first social impact games, featuring African heroes set across various backdrops of African culture & context that gives players an immersion into environments effectively modelled after their own in the ‘real world’. The partners are also dedicated to fostering the local content creation ecosystems on the continent, commissioning bespoke soundtracks and character animations, created by African artists and designers. In addition, these studios intend to mentor the next generation of African game developers via paid internship opportunities in the near future. 

Mama Atingi Shop is currently on Early Access and available to download now from the Google Play Store.