Futures of Learning

Gaming is a completely unexplored area in Ghana. Other than two instances of Ghanaians trying to develop computer games, there is little information on this topic. In the first case, the founders of Leti Games, based in Ghana, announced in early 2009 that they had developed a game – Bugzvilla – for the iPhone (http://whiteafrican.com/2009/03/24/iphone-and-computer-game-development-in-africa/). The developers indicated that the game would be available on iTunes in April. As at May 11, however, I could not find it in the iTunes App Store. A visit to the company website shows no active links and the message, “We’ll be back.”

Another Ghanaian, in response to the assertion that a game created by a Kenyan programmer was possibly the first 3D game in Africa shot back a response noting that he had developed the first such game as a final school project, which had won a competition in 2006 (http://www.ghanathink.org/blog/2006/11/1gtpc06-we-have-a-winner). It does not appear that the game went into production. 

Some mobile phone users report playing games on their phones, especially when bored (Sey, 2008), but the extent of this is unknown. Clearly, issues surrounding actual adoption and use of computer games within the Ghanaian population remain to be investigated or at least documented.