Semblance devs discuss the challenges of being South African game designers

Nyamakop founders Cukia “Sugar” Kimani and Ben Myres are working on Semblance for the Switch. While they're toiling away on the project, they're facing some very unique challenges. The pair actually live in South Africa, which has had a bit of a gaming dev boom in recent months. Speaking with GamesBeat, the pair discussed some of the struggles they face working on games for a worldwide audience.

Myres: “You just have to find money to travel to an event. The advice is basically that. You just have to go to a GDC or a Gamescom. I don’t think I know anyone who’s made it in games in Africa who hasn’t been to events abroad. It’s borderline impossible. It’s just a bottleneck.”

Kimani: “It’s just getting access to people. The people who are funding games, writing about games, all those people aren’t close to you. Even getting [Nyamakop’s] publishing deal, you can send a lot of emails, but until you meet someone and sit down and have a conversation, you’re fighting an uphill battle. It’s the networking part that’s important. Even just finding the money and stuff, because we’re still a young country, not a lot of people actually know how to make games.”