Tunisie : Nouvelle Startup de gaming vient de voir le jour

Gamepad Tribe est petit un studio de développement de jeux vidéo tunisien qui publie des jeux gratuitement sur les Stores et sur Facebook. 

L’équipe est composée par Mohamed Ali Chelbi, Unity3D Game Developer, Hajer Derouiche, Unity3D Game Developer, et Nizar Ben Dhieb, Motion Designer.

Avant la fondation de la startup, cette jeune équipe a déjà à son actif plusieurs jeux comme CAPTIN 5OBZA, GATTA3 HAKEM 2, MARKI BOUNTOU 3ALAMI, etc. pour le comptes des marques en Tunisie (Coca Cola, QFF, Intilaq, etc.). 

Gamepad Tribe est heureuse d’annoncer qu’elle a déjà publié 2 jeux sur Google Play et Amazon : Bomber Tank (le trailer est disponible sur Youtube sur ce lien) et Zombie Smach Ball (voici le lien du trailer).

Pour plus d’info sur la startup et pour rester à jour avec les dernières publications, il suffit de se rendre sur la page facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Gamepad.Tribe ou la chaine chaine Youtube :http://www.youtube.com/c/GamepadTribe

Source de l'article Thd

Sénégal - Cross Dakar City : un jeu vidéo pour sauver les talibés

Prix de la jeune entreprise africaine #7. Ousseynou Bèye a choisi le jeu vidéo pour alerter l'opinion sur le phénomène des enfants mendiants au Sénégal.

Le Point Afrique : quel problème essayez-vous de résoudre ?

Ousseynou Khadim Bèye : Le fléau des talibés, ces enfants des rues inscrits dans les écoles coraniques, soumis à la mendicité forcée et livrés à eux-mêmes. Ce sont souvent aussi les premiers à se faire faucher sur la route. Ils seraient entre 30 000 et 50 000 à Dakar.

Comment vous est venue l'idée de ce projet ?

La résolution du fléau de la mendicité des enfants m'a toujours tenu à cœur. Quand j'ai eu l'idée de développer un jeu vidéo pour smartphone, je me suis aussitôt dit que j'allais faire de l'histoire du jeu une sensibilisation aux dangers que courent les talibés.

Quelle est votre solution à ce problème ?

Pour alerter mes compatriotes sur l'étendue de ce gâchis humain, j'ai conçu Cross Dakar City, un jeu vidéo pour smartphone. C'est l'histoire de Mamadou, un talibé forcé de mendier dans les rues. Il décide un jour de partir à la recherche de ses parents biologiques. Ainsi commence son périple à travers les rues de Dakar au Sénégal.

Avez-vous identifié vos concurrents ? Si oui, qui sont-ils ?

Non, je n'ai pas trouvé de concurrent au Sénégal, ma cible première.

Quelle est votre valeur ajoutée ?

Premier sur le marché : l'aspect innovant.

Comment comptez-vous rentabiliser votre projet ?

Par de la publicité diffusée dans le jeu et par du 
In-App Purchase (vente de contenus additionnels à l'intérieur même du jeu)

Présentation de l'équipe : qui mettra en œuvre ce projet 

Je travaille seul actuellement sur le projet. Je m'appelle Ousseynou Khadim Bèye. J'ai 31 ans et je suis sénégalais. Je suis ingénieur de conception en informatique de l'École polytechnique de Dakar (Sénégal) et ingénieur généraliste de l'École centrale de Lyon (France).

Quels sont les besoins cruciaux que vous avez identifiés ?

Mes besoins cruciaux sont :

- des moyens de gérer une équipe de 3 à 4 personnes pour m'aider dans la conception, le développement, la réalisation des graphismes, la communication...

- des bureaux, je travaille actuellement de ma maison.

Où en êtes-vous aujourd'hui de votre projet ?

J'ai fini le développement de la version 2D de Cross Dakar City. Il est disponible gratuitement sur iOS, Android et Windows Phone. À peine développé et mis en ligne, Cross Dakar City a été téléchargé plus de 8 600 fois sur Android, 1 500 fois sur iOS et 350 fois sur Windows Phone.

Racontez-nous une anecdote illustrant votre difficulté à trouver des financements.

À vrai dire, le Prix de la jeune entreprise africaine est ma première démarche active pour avoir un financement.

Comment voyez-vous votre projet dans cinq ans ?

L'application mobile sénégalaise la plus téléchargée au monde avec une participation active de mon entreprise dans des activités d'aide aux enfants de la rue et de sensibilisation des parents.

C'est quoi, le rêve de votre vie ?

Créer un studio de développement de jeux vidéo inspirés de la culture africaine. J'espère qu'il se situera dans le top 5 mondial des studios de développement de jeux vidéo.

Source de l'article Le Point Afrique

A Saudi Prince Is Using Video Games To Fuel An Intellectual Renaissance in the Middle East

Terrorist, cartoon stereotype, evil oppressive dictator.
It's through those lenses — those unfair representations of a complex, massive grouping of a wide variety of people and what they believe in — that much of the non-Arab world sees the population of the Middle East.

And it was this realization, this moment of clarity about how the world might view his culture, that led Prince Fahad Al Saud to try and play a part in disrupting that singular, often incorrect trope.

"I asked myself a whole bunch of perplexing, potentially paranoid questions," Fahad said in his keynote at the Games For Change Festival in New York last week. "Was this intentional? Why was I misrepresented like this so often? Is someone doing this on purpose, generally presenting me as some super-size, bearded, brown-skinned terrorist? I didn't know. I still don't know. All I knew at that point of realization was that I had to play my part in disrupting this narrative, in contributing with positivity, to this global story."

And his tools for sparking what he calls an intellectual, artistic renaissance are video games about camel racing, wordplay and soon, the revolutionary uprising of Saudi girls against an oppressive male regime.

The other

"Popular media rhetoric has taken to defining everything that does not conform to the perceived norm as 'other,'" Fahad said. "Few nations and peoples are more notably attached to this label than those of the Arab world.

"Somewhere, there's a discourse going in how the planet presents itself, a kind of wild conflict between global vision and local reality, with one side winning — most of the time. Have projected perceptions taken us down a somewhat morbid set of exaggerated stereotypes, ignorance and most of all, fear?"

It's important, Fahad added, to take back that narrative and make it more celebratory. His first step in trying to do so, he said, was helping to develop Facebook Arabic to empower women in the Middle East through technology.

"I joined Facebook in 2010 to help develop Facebook Arabic, and whilst I knew it could be used for many things, my primary interest was to use Facebook as a tech solution for women in the Middle East," he said. "To make real use of this new phenomenon in social interaction, to empower the many entrepreneurial spirits I knew existed in my community, who could then find new ways in building business from their own homes — without worry or need to move around due to any given obstacles in front of them."

Instagram stars and Facebook-savvy Arabian women embraced the change and used it to express their own stories. That social change, he said, in part led to a growth in the tech industry for women.

Next Fahad turned to video games.

Thirty-five percent of tech entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa today are women, he said, compared to 10 percent globally. In Saudi Arabia, women employed in the Kingdom's private sector grew from 55,000 in 2010 to 454,000 by the end of 2013, according to figures from the Saudi Ministry of Labour.

"I wanted to really start telling our true story," Fahad said. "And to inspire change through creativity. I sat down, combined the transitioning aspects of my life, personal, observational and professional. I examined my creative desires, the creative desires and needs of my society, my traditions, our traditions, education, technology, innovation, entertainment, identity, and eventually ended up fusing it all into one platform. A platform that would not only start to demolish the construct of 'other' but also inspire and deliver real change."

NA3M

The word "naem" means "yes" in Arabic. Na3m the company was founded to help deliver change through creativity.

Fahad describes NA3M as a transmedia creative incubator which hopes to build, shape and support Arab entertainment online. Through its divisions it creates, promotes, licenses and develops things like animated series, web comics, educational software and video games.

"By producing games about and for the benefit of the Arab world, a void is filled for under-serviced audiences in gaming and in the media — openly welcoming the rest of the world to explore and discover new content," Fahad said. "From racing and adventure to competitive sporting games, young, enthusiastic developers are able to highlight, share and celebrate their culture and inspirations which without incubation would not be able to come to fruition — leave alone compete in a flourishing international market."

NA3M, which is based in Jordan and Denmark, has 25 developers from 16 countries, and Fahad believes that the studio will double in the next year.

Since its launch, the studio has released a variety of games, including Run Camel Run, Nitro Punch, NA3M Words and Caravan Master Adventures. All were released on mobile devices.

One of the reasons NA3M is focusing on mobile is because it makes it easier for the company to release games and to get around government restrictions, said Ryan Riegg, chief operating officer and general manager at NA3M.

"Why do you need a publisher?" he said. "The world now is one of self-publishing mobile.

"Government restrictions don't come up when you're building for the rest of the world or mobile because it's really hard to restrict."

And NA3M's ambitions for games are growing.

Saudi Girls Revolution

As his talk wrapped up, Fahad showed the audience a quick glimpse of a big new project the company is working on: Saudi Girls Revolution, or SGR.

"It is going to be a comic book series that leads into a game focusing on new possibilities and new features and discussing certain issues that relate to Saudi women, exaggerated in a post-apocalyptic world," Fahad said. "We're focusing on trying to represent different stories and demographics of Saudi women in the protagonists we have."

The game, due out by the end of the year on mobile devices, will feature seven protagonists, all Saudi girls.

"In this post-apocalyptic future, women are placed in concentration camps with conservative men ruling the land and controlling resources," he said. "It is the story of the girls breaking out and liberating the Arab empire by replacing its leaders."

Rising out of this brutality, the women build and race souped-up motorcycles, according to the game's official website. The girls struggle through harsh landscapes from frozen mountain ranges to scorching deserts and crystal cities. Along the way they encounter enemies and mythical creatures such as baboon kings, crystal giants, fire dancers, mutants and zombie cyber-soldiers.

"I think it is the first time we are seeing Arab women in a powerful, empowering role where they are actually relatable, and most importantly, not oversexualized," Fahad said, "and not because of censorship but because ... I don't think that's a true representation of women and we wanted to showcase their strength."

Fahad added that while the studio remains focused on mobile, it is also looking at other technology.

"We built Saudi Girls Revolution ready for Oculus Rift," he said. "There's no point looking at the past; we're trying to own the future."

Culture  War

Later, after his speech, a lunch and a brief public Q&A session, I asked Fahad if he thinks that the dominance of Western pop culture in places like the Middle East is part of a cultural war.

"Yeah, it's a huge thing," he replied without hesitation.

Riegg was quick to jump in.

"I don't like the use of the phrase 'culture war,'" he said. "I'm half Chinese and half white American and one of the things I love the most is when cultures come together and create something different.

"But you can't just have all of the American, Western content coming in all of the time. If that pushes out the other stuff you could lose some really good things. There are great stories coming out of the Middle East that don't get to be told. That's how [Fahad] convinced me to come on board, by saying, let's create opportunities for young Arabs to tell these stories.

"It's important that Saudi culture and art and Arabic culture and art also has a place on the global stage."

Much of Fahad's thinking on the ideas of culture comes from his childhood, splitting his time between a Middle Eastern upbringing in Saudi Arabia and his college years at Stanford.

"I was welcomed and embraced in Stanford," he said. "Young, educated Americans were unwilling to let someone else dictate their thought process and were eager to learn about a different culture and people."

And he says he sees that level of acceptance happening broadly in the U.S.

"Our culture is coming here and becoming pop culture," he said. "So now is the time to engage and to share and to build relationships between people through a game that may be telling a story about one person but really can be shared by everyone else."

As a self-described child of the internet, Fahad seems like the right person to be spearheading this movement. Decked out in fashionable clothes and a necklace featuring a gem-studded Stewie from Family Guy (big enough for the audience to notice it from across the theater), he talks with equal passion of anime, cartoons and video games.

"I see us all as humans and culture as culture, stories as stories," he said. "The internet is my home. I have no geography."

With Fahad, there is no time lost debating whether games are art or meaningful; games are important instruments in the struggle to reinvigorate Arabic culture.

So when asked by an audience member if his games might one day push back against things like intolerance of religion or the treatment of women, Fahad responds with his thoughts on art.

"That to me is what art is. Art is supposed to be a reflection of society, to challenge it and push people further," he said. "I don't believe the revolution that is happening in the Middle East is a political one, of course there are drives for it. You've seen it happen it in various countries before, particularly in the South. What I will say is that I truly believe what is happening is an artistic renaissance. This new digital age allowing us to show the world and each other that we are individuals and we do have these different complexities.

"Our goal is to push and help elevate consciousness, to allow people to start thinking critically, to start discussing issues. Our goal is not to attack or create dialog that is telling people what they should do without listening to their viewpoint."

Article by Brian Crecente - Polygon

Africa's games makers dream of exporting to the world

Allan Mukhwana has been instrumental in ensuring that more than 1,400 households in high-risk malaria zones in rural Kenya receive insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

But he's not an aid worker, nor a medic - he's the boss of a gaming studio, Momentum Core, in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

His firm specialises in developing games with an educational twist.

Players of the game Mosquito Hood are tasked with killing increasingly pesky mosquitoes. When a player completes all levels of the game, the Kenyan government has agreed to donate one mosquito net to a family living in a malarial zone.

Malaria is the leading cause of mortality in Kenya, and is particularly deadly among young children.

Mr Mukhwana has also created games aimed at raising awareness about HIV, as well as educational games for children.

Image copyright MOMENTUM CORE Image caption Momentum Core's Allan 

Mukhwana believes mobile will transform the Africa's games market

"We aim to make learning about these important topics fun and engaging to players," he says.

Minuscule market

Momentum Core is just one of several games developers aiming to raise the profile of African gaming.

The market is very much still in its infancy on the continent - video games don't have much uptake among the population, especially on PCs and consoles.

Kenya's video games market was worth $44m (£28m) at the end of 2013; Nigeria's was valued at $71m, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Compare this to the size of the US market in 2013 - $20.5bn - and the African markets seem minuscule.

But over the coming years, all the African gaming markets are expected to see annual double-digit growth, and gaming enthusiasts like Allan Mukhwana are ready for the market to take-off.

Mobile gaming

But it will be the mobile phone that dominates as the gaming device of choice, not consoles and computers, experts believe.

Image copyright GAMSOLE Image caption Mobile games can be 

downloaded quickly, making them more accessible

"Because of the portability and accessibility of mobile phones, mobile is the best medium for gaming in Africa," says Mr Mukhwana.

"Most people are engaged with their mobile phones. Also, not everyone wants fancy games that cost hundreds of dollars and that require a lot of commitment to play.

"Since mobile games often cost a dollar or less and can be downloaded in a pinch, even people who aren't avid gamers can still enjoy a quick game during a break from work, or when they're sitting on the bus," he says.

Local flavour

Over in Nigeria, Abiola Olaniran, founder and chief executive of Gamsole, agrees that mobile is the present and future of the African gaming market.

Gamsole specialises in creating games for the Windows Phone platform, and has seen its games downloaded over 10 million times in the last 18 months.

The company is now looking to expand its products to other mobile systems, including feature phones - as basic, low-cost phones are called.

Image copyright GAMSOLE Image caption Gamsole likes to make 

games with African characters and plots

"Gaming is still a nascent industry in Africa," says Mr Olaniran. "Due to the high rate of mobile device penetration, mobile can serve as a converging point for both casual and hardcore gamers.

"Mobile is the single channel that cuts across all demographics of gamers."

Gamsole creates games with an African flavour - based in African cities, telling African stories, with local characters.

"African-themed games can be the future of gaming if people can relate with the content on a personal basis, based on their daily life experiences," he says. "This is one way to push adoption of games in Africa."

But he also believes African-themed games can become popular across the world.

"At Gamsole, our idea of African games is not games by Africans for Africans. No, it's games by Africans for the globe."

Image copyright GAMSOLEImage captionAbiola Olaniran wants 

 to make "games for Africans for the globe"

University student Feyi Aderibigbe says she enjoys Gamsole's African-themed games as they relate to her everyday life and are "a good way to kill boredom".

"Personally I believe African-themed games relate better with our everyday life experiences," she says.

"Africa is shifting to a position where we don't only want to learn other people's story, we also want to share our stories, cultures, experiences, and lifestyle with the whole world, and I think that African-themed games are a good medium to achieve this," she says.

Challenges

Nigeria's Kuluya Games also focuses on using African characters and anecdotes as the core of its games.

Founder Lakunle Ogungbamila says Africa's rich wealth of cultures places the continent in good stead to create quirky content that may appeal to the rest of the world.

Image copyright KULUYA.COM Image caption African gaming 

needs more investment to thrive, says Lakunle Ogungbamila of Kuluya Games

"Africa has a lot of stories and cultures to tap from to make thoroughly engaging gaming content," he says. "It's a long shot to be a global gaming capital, but we are sure Africa will be up there."

There are still a number of challenges facing Africa's games developers - financial and reputational, he says.

"Local games can only be popular if people know they exist. Discovery is still a big issue for development shops like ours, but we are making active moves to resolve this."

The limited amount of investment being pumped into Africa's games studios is also hindering development of the sector, he believes.

Despite the challenges, Mr Ogungbamila believes the future is bright.

By Gabriella Mulligan - Source of article BBC

BD - La vie d'Ebène Duta d'Elyon's

« Prener une cuillère à soupe de "ndem" [poisse], ajouter une pincée de quiproquos, remuer puis mélanger dans un demi-litre de "nguémè" [dèche]. Chauffer, et vous obtenez la vie d'Ebène Duta, le quotidien d'une jeune fille à la peau noire, qui vit à l' étranger. »

Bienvenue dans l'univers coloré et frais d'Elyon's !

Cette jeune bédéiste camerounaise met en scène les aventures ordinaires mais diablement réalistes de son héroïne Ebène, expatriée en Belgique, qui expérimente la vie loin de son pays natal.

Un personnage attachant, un ton humoristique et un vent de spontanéité. Une jolie découverte !

Africavivre : Avant d'être une bande dessinée papier, La vie d'Ebène Duta était initialement en ligne sur une page Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EbeneDuta), encore très dynamique. Pouvez-vous nous en dire plus sur cette belle aventure ?

Elyon's : C’est une aventure incroyable ! Je travaillais sur mon projet BD depuis 2009, pendant mes études à l'école supérieure des arts Saint-Luc Liège. Mon diplôme d’arts graphiques, visuels et de l’espace en poche en 2011, c’est toute confiante que je présente mon projet à plusieurs éditeurs au Festival International de la BD d’Angoulême en janvier 2012. J’ai essuyé plusieurs refus.

J’ai donc décidé d'ouvrir une page Facebook, d'y publier mes planches et de voir comment le public réagirait face à l’histoire de cette fille noire loin de son pays d’origine… légalement ! Les adhésions ont commencé tout doucement, puis tout s’est emballé et je suis passée d’une bonne centaine de fans à 10 000 !

Sur les conseils du directeur de festival BD de Lyon, je me lance dans l’aventure du crowndfunding où je récolte plus de 15 000 € pour imprimer LVDD, en français et en anglais.

Africavivre : Comment est née Ebène Duta ? N'y aurait-il pas un peu de vous dans ses més(aventures) ?

Elyon's : Quand je suis allée en Belgique, je me suis heurtée à de nouvelles réalités, une nouvelle culture et un nouveau français parlé. C'est dans cet environnement que j’ai créé mon personnage.

Il est clair que je tire mon inspiration de mon environnement, mon vécu, mais surtout mon imagination ! Ebène Duta et moi, nous nous ressemblons beaucoup mais restons bien différentes.

Africavivre : Qu'est-ce qui vous a donné envie de vous lancer dans la bande dessinée ?

Elyon's : Depuis toute petite je suis fan des dessins animés de Walt Disney et des animes japonais. Je passais la majeure partie de mon temps à les regarder, et à force j'ai eu envie de reproduire ce que je voyais à la télé.

A 6 ans, je me suis dit que si j'épousais Walt Disney, je saurais dessiner. Je pensais naïvement que le talent se transmettait par les liens du mariage (rires). Après plusieurs recherches, j’ai appris qu'il était mort bien avant que mes parents se rencontrent. Dépitée, je me suis dit que s’il avait eu un fils et que je l’épousais, je saurais dessiner… Walt Disney n’a eu que deux filles ! Quelle déception ! C’est ainsi que j’ai décidé de devenir dessinatrice par moi-même.

Africavivre : Vous avez participé récemment à une conférence sur le thème « La bande dessinée africaine : état des lieux d'un domaine dynamique et émergent ». Quel est le constat qui se dégage ? Quel est l'avenir du 9e art sur le continent africain ?

Elyon's : Le 9eme art est un terrain vaste, large et à conquérir sur le continent ! Il existe tellement de styles différents et des personnes super talentueuses dans différents pays !

Pour diverses raisons, certains auteurs vivent hors du continent, mais il en reste encore énormément qui bossent sans relâche pour rendre leurs ouvrages accessibles. Nous ne sommes pas encore au niveau de production et de « saturation » du secteur en Europe, mais bon tout doucement les choses avancent, bravant les obstacles. Le manque d’éditeurs et de diffuseurs ne nous arrêtera pas.

Africavivre : Vous sillonnez actuellement la France à la rencontre de vos lecteurs. Quelle est la suite de votre programme ?

Elyon's : Après ma tournée européenne, je vais me poser afin de finaliser le tome 2 et de préparer sa sortie officielle prévue en décembre 2015. Je stresse beaucoup, mais en même temps j’ai hâte d’y être et de voir les réactions des fans lorsqu’il sera sorti.

La vie d'Ebène Duta : Une Africaine pas comme les autres...

    

              A la découverte de la bande dessinée africaine             

Africavivre : Elyon's, auriez-vous des bédéistes africains à nous conseiller ?

Elyon's : Alors il y en a énormément. L’Afrique est un continent aux multiples richesses.

Il y a Barly Baruti (RDC), Jussie Nsana (Congo Brazzaville), Didier Kassaï (RCA), Zohoré et la bande à « Gbich » (Côte d’Ivoire), au Cameroun, il y en pas mal aussi : Georges Pondy, Annick Kamgang, Yannick Deubou Sikoue, Felix Fokoua, Daniel Assako, Kangol Le Droïd, Otili Bengol, Reine Békoé. Diboussi…

Mais ils sont tous aussi talentueux les uns que les autres.

Par Sarah Gastel - Source de l'article Africavivre