Entrepreneur talks about opening the first gaming studio in Central Africa

Cameroonian Olivier Madiba sees many growth opportunities for Africa's gaming industry.

Since he was 14 years old, Cameroonian Olivier Madiba dreamt of becoming a game developer. In 2003 he started working on Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan, a fantasy game based on African culture and history, and he has since been adapting and enhancing the game.

In 2012 he set up the first Central African video game studio, Kiro’o Games. According to Madiba, the studio will produce games inspired by the challenges, history and dramas of day-to-day life without depicting Africans as victims. The latest version of Aurion is expected to be released towards the end of 2014.

How we made it in Africa asked Madiba to describe the gaming industry potential in Africa, some of the challenges he has faced setting up Kiro’o Games, and his advice to other entrepreneurs in Cameroon.

* Madiba’s first language is French and the extract below has been edited for clarity. What was the inspiration behind starting Kiro’o Games?

Initially, I had never thought to create a video game studio in Africa. I was rather thinking to be a game developer in Europe or the USA. But it was towards the end of 2012 that I decided to get started. Indeed, after having studied the environment of this sector, I realised the immense opportunities that would be available to me, especially in terms of production costs and profitability. In summary, I would say that it has a profitability advantage and, most importantly, the desire to exercise my passion in my country which motivated me to develop this studio.

You have set up the first video game studio in Central Africa. Describe the gaming culture in the region?

The gaming culture on the continent is mostly focused on war games and sports like FIFA, Call of Duty, or Pro Evolution Soccer. We noticed that adventure games are not the most popular because the players here are not able to identify themselves with the characters. However, many have seen through the small demo of Aurion – the earlier version as the one we are currently working on is an [upgrade] – with a character who seems like them, they immediately felt challenged. Consequently, many began to love role playing games and have also tested role playing games of other studios.

There are only a few game developers in Africa, but the industry is growing. What potential do you see for the gaming industry in Africa?

Africa has much to offer to the video game industry; and it can, if precursors’ studios (like ours) provide a good job. We can, for example, be a new source of inspiration for other designers. In addition, it is internationally recognised that Africa is experiencing an economic boom. It may be a new audience with new habits and much less saturated than elsewhere... Africa can therefore consume and produce too.

We must also say that another advantage is that we have the opportunity to provide games at a low cost, which is not the case in other places. It would thus constitute a new market for the foreign studios (European, American, etc) that can come to make their activities in Africa, in order to reduce their costs of production, because life here is relatively cheaper.

What challenges does the African gaming industry face today?

We are a young industry which has all eyes set on it. So, if we do wrong, we will automatically [be considered a] failure. I am referring to African cinema or African cartoons which everyone was watching and were very disappointed in regarding the quality. So this is our biggest challenge. We must be at the height of the interest that leads us.

The other challenge – and obviously this is shared by all other studios in the world – is funding. In addition, we [struggle with] the technology gap because, as you probably know, most African countries suffer from the problem of the numeric gap which deteriorates our connection to the internet, for example, and constitutes a real handicap for us compared to the others studios which don’t know this difficulty. It also limits our ambitions to produce [high budget] games. For example, imagine that you are trying to start the engine of a game like Watch Dogs (it needs more than an hour to load) and with power failures three times a day, the game will never be [downloaded]. Those who are developers can understand. So, you can measure the magnitude of what it means to us, as African developers.

Explain some of the limitations you have encountered in setting up your studio in Cameroon?

To answer this question we should write a book [laughs]. We intend to write about it, if all goes well. I would say that the first problem we encountered with this project was to demonstrate to the public that we were serious. Everyone thought in our country for a good time that it was a joke. I remember when we wanted to hold [meetings] and we sent letters for sponsorship, most people thought that we would just open an arcade room instead of a real game studio.

Also, and you might not be aware of this, Cameroonian businessmen and other entrepreneurs are not well appreciated abroad. It was therefore an objective for us to undo this social construction and reassure investors about the merits of our project. To this end, we have redoubled our seriousness about how to raise funds. For example, we were obliged to present past bank statements (and other justificatory pieces) to show to potential shareholders that we are not a scam.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs in Cameroon?

Firstly, I would tell them to concentrate on [profitability]. Dreaming is good. But now your dream must be profitable. For example, you cannot find investors who will put funds in your project without them seeing the potential for profitability.

Secondly, you should always simulate the worst for your project to quickly consider a mitigation strategy. One of the things that appealed to our investors through our project is that we were always showing them how we can realise the project, regardless of the challenges we may face. As an entrepreneur, never start a project without being able to manage the apocalypse that it could have. These are the big tips that I can give them.

Finally, I invite them to work hard, especially in our country where we have [almost] lost this value. Here at the studio, we work 15 hours a day and this is in fact the price you pay for success. As an illustration of my remarks, I will give this motto of mine: being realistic also means finding a pragmatic way for achieving a great goal.