After a relatively short courtship, Kenyan studios Shuaku Games and Uso Games have decided to pool their resources to form one entity – Asili Entertainment.

The two founders, Shem and Tehillah, connected online and quickly formed a friendship. Soon after, they discussed the idea of collaborating on a game, which resulted in the game, “Ugali Sosa.”

“Until 2023, we operated as two separate studios, each with a distinct focus. Shem Tom, the owner of Uso Games, dedicated himself to enhancing his game development skills, successfully releasing several games since 2019. He also played a role in inspiring others in his hometown, Mombasa, to embrace game development as a means of storytelling through new mediums. Meanwhile, Tehillah Kachila, the owner of Shauku Games, had been developing games since late 2019 and had achieved success in writing narratives for game developers since 2016,” a press release stated.

As time passed and the success of their collaborative efforts became evident, along with the complementary roles they played in the development of the game, they began considering a merger. The discussions unfolded within six months.

The rationale behind merging the two studios was straightforward. The skills of both founders complemented each other, with Tehillah handling design, ideation, and writing, and Shem managing coding, prototyping, and development. The founders already had a good rapport and a shared vision for elevating games as a medium for entertainment and storytelling.

The merger allows them to work on projects more efficiently, ensuring higher quality with shared resources and enabling them to tackle more ambitious projects. They also believe that having two people heading in the same direction is more effective than multiple going in different directions. With a shared resolve, they can enhance each other’s personal projects, as Shem’s teaching initiative is now one of the company’s core functions.

Asili Entertainment will continue to excel at using video games as a medium for entertainment, satire, and storytelling. Several games are already in development, including “Fellow Kenyans,” a satirical hyper casual game addressing the current political and economic state of their country.