Developers from the Global Game Jam community and representing four African countries have been selected to receive a GGJ Scholarship to the Game Developers Conference.

Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest forum of the game development community to come together and share ideas. Global Game Jam (GGJ) in partnership with GDC offer conference and summit passes to jammers, organisers and volunteers through the GGJ scholarship program.

Everyone from the GGJ community is encouraged to apply especially if they have never had a chance to attend GDC before or come from an underrepresented region of the world. On top of giving the Scholars a chance to have their voice heard the scholarships give participants an opportunity to further their career development through networking and on-site learning. This way they are able to take the new knowledge and experience back to their community at home.

The following individuals are 2022’s GDC Scholars from our home, Africa. 

  1. Bassem Seddik will represent Tunisia. He has a PhD in computer vision and machine learning and is passionate about computer graphics. He has been involved in 2D/3D content creation as a freelancer and university teacher since 2005. He is the founder of ViZmerald which is a startup that is involved in both hardware and software games-related technologies.
  2. David Olamide will represent Nigeria. He is an Indie game developer with 4+ years of experience in the Games Industry. He is also a final year student of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He started an Indie Game Studio named Dimension11 Games in 2020 with some passionate game developers from Nigeria. They are currently working on an African Action-Adventure Role Playing Game titled “Legends of Orisha- Blood and Water” which is set in the ancient Yoruba land. He leads the community of Game Developers in his university where he organizes Global Game Jam every year. He is the recipient of various awards and recognition in the Games Industry. His goal is to bring African histories and stories to the limelight through games.
  3. Huda Ramsey will represent Egypt. She is an enthusiastic game developer with 11 years of experience. She has experience with Unity and Unreal engine and has worked on a large spectrum of projects including mobile & PC games, AR/VR experiences and interactive applications for advertising, branding and education. She holds a Game Development diploma from Information Technology Institute where she currently teaches OpenGL, Math and Unreal classes.
  4. Tutaleni Ilonga will represent Namibia. He is a game designer, content creator, project manager and founder of TL Studios Entertainment. He is also a Co-Founder of Game Jam Africa a platform designed to help foster game development in Africa. He organizes events that promote filming and game development competitions. He is the first Namibian game developer to ever host a GGJ and Game Jam Plus event in Namibia. He aims to not only create a game development market in Namibia but to also create a market where everyone can benefit financially. 

Tutaleni says, “I am honoured to be in the 2022 class of GDC Scholars as The Global Game Jam Scholarship recipients for #GDC2022. Looking forward to this event.”

Congratulations to all the recipients and special compliments to all those representing the 4 African countries.