Adoné Kitching is a Senior Producer at Devolver Digital, where she works on games like Poinpy, Terra Nil, the Reigns franchise and The Plucky Squire. Before joining Devolver Digital, she worked as a Producer at Free Lives, helping the team ship Cricket Through the Ages and GORN. In her spare time, Adoné makes games under the banner of Nothing Exploded. The team’s alternative controller game, Guitar Wizards, was showcased at alt.ctrl.GDC and Playtopia in 2019, and their game Clutch Kickers will be on display at Playtopia 2023.

Alex is a creative director and narrative designer on a mission to get rich off “my daddy didn’t love me” games and then act like she don’t know nobody.

Andrea is South African-based video game designer, website developer and game studies academic. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Development Studies at the University of Pretoria, with research concentrated on replicating elements of the Anthropocene in South African Landscapes within Virtual Reality. Andrea is also a game design lecturer at the SAE Institute in Johannesburg, focusing on multiple areas of game design including multiplayer networking, XR studies and foundational coding in multiple programming languages. In 2018, Andrea and her friend and colleague Ben launched their first video game, “Helping Hand,” on Steam. Andrea’s professional drive is rooted in creative coding, innovative digital art experiments, and. the development of video games. Andrea is passionate about diversifying the tech industry and empowering women and LGBT folk in game development.

Putter is a Cape Town-based artist and teacher. Putter was a co-founder of the Mother City Queer Projects, the collaborative art parties which celebrate queer culture. He instigated the Suburbanist projects with young artists, coders, writers, architects and others, practically exploring the question: what is underground culture? Putter was a winner of the Spier award, the country’s biggest art award. He represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale and the Cuba Biennale, and his work is held in collections that include the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington. Putter has taught creative subjects since the mid-1980s, and was one of the team responsible for introducing design as a high school subject into South African high schools. He has widely consulted as a teacher, including for the Cape Town Carnival and for Cape Town Partnership. Since 2015 he has directed Putter School, an extramural program for creative adults and teenagers. For more on that, see: putterschool.com

I’m a producer at indie games studio Free Lives, an assistant program director on Playtopia and a Super Friend at Super Friendship Arcade. My background is in art and design, and I hold a PhD in Media Studies. My focus throughout my career has been on cultivating creative scenes – whether through art, systems or technologies – to make the world a less lonely place.

Hello, my name is Ari. I’m an aspiring Narration designer from Switzerland. I have a background in Illustration and graphic design. The first game I made was during a workshop where the goal was to make interactive stories emulating a Gameboy Advance style; that was the first time I tried my hand at interactive storytelling and I had a lot of fun.

I sometimes take my inspiration from heroic-fantasy and B-movies as well as PS1 style games, which I express in a playful and sometimes absurd way.

As a certified AWS cloud engineer, I have expertise in cloud engineering, game development programming), and Android development. My primary objective is to elevate my career in the digital creative space specifically in the game development field and XR (Extended Reality) to the fullest extent possible. I have successfully completed my project management studies at Wits Business School.

Furthermore, I am the founder and director of Southgame studio that has achieved numerous accolades, including the prestigious Games for Change Africa Award in 2022. Additionally, I hold a key role as one of the esteemed organizers for WIGI (Women In Games International). Currently, I am employed at Fakugesi as a skilled project coordinator.

Ben McInnes is a South African-raised, London-based game developer working at Nerial as Project Lead on the Reigns franchise. The team shipped Reigns: Three Kingdoms on Netflix in 2022. Ben has worked on early-phase game prototypes, emotional apps, interactive exhibits and edutainment spaces. In a previous life, he studied mechatronics engineering and has used those skills to build alternative controller games like Guitar Wizards (showcased at both Playtopia and GDC). Most importantly, Ben doesn’t really know how cars work but that won’t stop him giving this talk…

Ben Myres is the CEO and Creative Director of Johannesburg-based games studio, Nyamakop. In 2018 they released Semblance, which became the first African developed game to ever release on a Nintendo console. Nyamakop’s currently unannounced project features one of the largest teams ever assembled to work on a single videogame made in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ben previously was the Program Manager for A MAZE. / Johannesburg and lectured game design at Wits University. He has been included on Mail and Guardian’s ‘Top 200 Young South Africans’, Design Indaba’s ‘Emerging Creatives’, and Forbes Africa’s ’30 under 30′ lists for his work.

Hi! My name is Bianca! I’m somewhat of a Jack-of-most-trades that somehow found myself in the indie game space by accident, like most. Despite studying Analytical Chemistry in university, I’m now the community manager of a new indie game studio, Yellow Lab Games. Between the years of 2014 & 2021, I had the opportunity to write about games & the gaming industry for various local online news sites like G3AR and SA Gamer. Now I find myself on the other side of the iron curtain.

Bongane is an environmental concept artist driven by a passion for film and video games. He has almost a decade of industry experience in his craft and is currently using his skills to lead a department as an Art Director at Nyamakop. When Bongane isn’t creating rich fantasy and culturally inspired artwork, he likes to lift weights and experiment with photographic lense.

Bracken (he/him) took a quick detour through the field of game design on his way to becoming a science teacher, but decided to hang out here for a while. During this ongoing 10-year layover, he has been involved in game design, education, and community building. He usually lives somewhere in South Africa, where he currently works as an independent game designer by day, and an English teacher by night.

Bridie is a Senior Producer at Devolver Digital working on a variety of games, some of which have even been announced. She is mostly responsible for bringing people together to organise the release of the game, working closely with her developers to ensure that the team feels supported, and has everything they need to make a great game.This often involves a lot of time looking at Spreadsheets or Jira. Prior to joining Devolver Digital she was a Producer at Square Enix External Studios, working on the Just Cause franchise.

I’m a self-employed game developer that collaborates frequently with other game developers. My current project is a charming space adventure where you create your own solar system.

Craig Fairweather (he/him) is 50% of We Throw Switches – a videogame-adjacent production // curation // hardware studio – who create and show incredible digital things. They’ve produced alt.ctr.PARTY! at GDC, made arcade cabinets for the V&A museum in London, and made a few experimental games of their own.

I’m the band manager/producer at Team Lazerbeam, helping bring thrilling games like Wrestling With Emotions 2 and Shroom and Gloom to life. My dream job: Clearing the clutter so that artists can make their best art. I found my game dev family in Cape Town, where I also co-run Playtopia’s volunteer program and proudly wear my Super Friendship Arcade T-shirt.

Thanks to years of ethnographic fieldwork, I found my game dev family in Cape Town. I co-run Playtopia’s volunteer program and proudly wear the Super Friendship Arcade t-shirt. At Team Lazerbeam, I am the producer on our upcoming dating/wrestling sim, Wrestling with Emotions: New Kid on the Block. I am also a Senior Knowledge Partner and writer at Douglas Knowledge Partners, where we collaborate with thought partners to magnify the impact of ideas on the world.

I started in events and the music industry and ran my own businesses for almost 18 years before pivoting into games. I have spent my life in the arts and am driven by a collective willingness to make cool shit.

I started at MCQP then co founded Sub_Urban Magazine, a multimedia digital art magazine and then worked in film and then became an artist manager and worked with bands like Lark, Kidofdoom and Haezer. I naturally was also an event organiser which started out as epic house parties that culminated in a 5000+ EDM festival called GRIETFEST. I was co owner of GRIET (an events and artists agency) for many years before mic dropping music and joining the games industry. I am currently the MD at Free Lives and have a very long but rather cool story as to how I got here.

Dominique has worked in the creative industries for more than 20 years. Starting out in the artworld and transitioned into music, managing artist’s careers and doing large scale eventing and festivals. And then finally discovered the world of indie games and is currently working as Managing Director of Free Lives and festival director of Playtopia.

Dope Saint Jude, a Cape Town-based electro-hip hop artist, transitioned from drag king performances to her own music. Her EPs “Reimagine” (2016) and “Resilient” (2018) gained traction, with the lead single “Grrrl Like” featured in “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts” and commercials. Her 2022 EP “Higher Self” garnered attention, with tracks featured on Netflix and in a MAC ad. She’s toured Europe and the US, performing at festivals like Terre Du Son and Shambala. Her music featured in Apple ads and the Oscar-nominated film “Nimona.” As an advocate for the queer community, she speaks globally about her experiences. She’s been

involved in campaigns for H&M, Ballantines, and serves as an advisory member for Bridges For Music, a Cape Town-based NGO.

Dr Carla Lever is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town, where she explores the relationship between creativity and social change. She thinks that play holds radical potential to change things, and hopes that includes the world.

Elben Schutte, a senior composer at Pressure Cooker Studios, is a born and bred musician, growing up in a family of talented musicians in Pretoria, South Africa. Now based in Cape Town, he heads up the Gaming division of Pressure Cooker Studios and boasts a versatile portfolio spanning film, television, advertising, and game soundtracks, with recent gaming projects including Semblance and Ancient Dungeon VR.

Schutte’s involvement in the early access medieval city-builder game, Manor Lords, has received widespread acclaim. With Manor Lords accumulating over 3 million wishlists on Steam, Schutte’s passion for gaming, combined with his talent for cinematic storytelling, gave him a creative edge in crafting this immersive soundscape.

Schutte’s work on Manor Lords has attracted the attention of prestigious publications such as Forbes, Rock Paper Shotgun, and COGconnected.

Indie game publisher Hooded Horse praised Schutte’s music for its beauty, meticulous attention to detail, and historical authenticity, enriching players’ experiences.

Beyond his remarkable musical abilities, Schutte embodies the core value of Pressure Cooker Studios: ‘We Nurture Talent.’ He spearheaded the Pressure Cooker Internship Programme, dedicated to fostering emerging composers and championing the future of the industry.

Elben Schutte is a composer for film, television, advertising and video games at Pressure Cooker Studios. He has many years of experience composing various genres. His notable work includes the South African animated film Seal Team, the docuseries Devil’s Dorp and the upcoming video game Manor Lords. In 2022, Elben also created the Pressure Cooker Internship Programme, the aim of which is to nurture the talent of budding composers finding their way in the industry.

Emmanuel Omijie is the Creative Director and Co-founder of VCD Studios, creators of The InBetween and recipients of the Game Devs of Color Expo Grant. Driven by a passion for game design, Emmanuel focuses on developing games that celebrate diverse cultures while offering fun, engaging experiences

Evan Greenwood is a South African game designer with 15 years experience. He founded the Free Lives in 2012, a studio which has released several of Africa’s most successful video
games.

Evan has made dozens, possibly hundreds, of prototypes, and also a few very good games.
The studio at large, and Evan specifically, are continually trying to improve their process to more reliably repeat their infrequent successes. As such, fostering a culture of creativity and
camaraderie has been a serious project for Evan ever since he gave himself the nebulous
authority of “Creative Director” at his own company.

Fey has worked in UI/UX field for over 18 years; during that time she’s shipped games in nearly every major genre in franchises such as Halo, Assassin’s Creed, Candy Crush, Total War and Runescape. She currently works on a MOBA called Predecessor at Omeda Studios.

She is originally from Cape Town and left to work in Europe to shape her career in the gaming industry. Fey has directed large design teams of up to 23 people and been involved in shaping and delivering business strategies from the perspective of always empathising with the players. Her design philosophy is deeply rooted in finding that balance between understanding player needs, business metrics and leaning on creative experience.

This will be her first industry event in South Africa and she’s excited to be able to share her craft knowledge.

Francois has spent a decade wearing many hats at Clockwork Acorn and Spry Fox, but at heart he’s a game designer and programmer. He’s taken projects from concept to release, and been part of larger teams, like Jetstream, Cozy Grove and Steambirds Alliance. He is currently focused on growing Clockwork Acorn and the South African game industry. He likes tea.

A self-taught programmer, Gareth started game development in 2006 as a humble hobbyist, creating small games in his spare time and learning the craft as part of the burgeoning local dev community. He joined 24 Bit Games in 2015 as a generalist programmer, and in the subsequent eight years has come to specialize in performance optimization for mobile and console platforms, while contributing to such titles as Gorn, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, and Cocoon. He also finds describing himself in third person like this *really weird*.

Hanna is the head of Community at Landfall Games, a Sweden-based indie studio most known for their games Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Stick Fight: The Game, Rounds, and Clustertruck.

Heading up Game Design and Development qualification at Vega, Henk’s been teaching into the degree for the past six years. As a lecturer, he’s all about helping students navigate the game creation process and getting them ready for the game development industry.

In his own time, Henk has developed ΔVØID (2024), a game that really captures his love for crafting fun and engaging gameplay experiences. He also worked on Echoplex (2018), a puzzle-platformer known for its unique mechanics and storytelling.

James is the Creative Executive Officer at Pressure Cooker Studios, a Music and Sound Design Studio in Cape Town, South Africa, the studio behind the soundtrack of the 2024 hit game Manor Lords by Slavic Magic. James and his team at Pressure Cooker are pioneering the African Audio Arts Industry and enjoyed there first major game success with Semblance developed by Nyamakop and release on Nintendo Switch.

With a mission to build a platform for talent to flourish on the African continent. James has spent the past 14 years building a robust and secure infrastructure to service the media industry all the while growing talent in the local industry. By using the credibility and experience for story telling gained in the film and media industry with clients around the world like Netflix, Amazon, Paramount and Disney+ James is on a mission to bring an authentic African voice to the global game and media industry.

I am a game designer, digital artist, and software developer from Kenya. With my background in Mechatronics Engineering, digital art, character design, and programming, I draw inspiration from the world around me to merge tech, engineering, and art. My goal is to address challenges and captivate users through unique and engaging stories. I grew up in Oloolua Forest, and this inspired me to create ARGO (Augmented Reality Guide: Oloolua).

ARGO’s mission is to foster a symbiotic relationship between visitors to the nature trail in the forest and nature, inspiring players to become stewards of the environment through immersive gameplay while hiking through the forest. ARGO is my first original game, blending my love for environmental conservation and video games to create a meaningful impact on the public.

I am an entrepreneur and software veteran with over thirty years of development experience. After exiting my software consultancy business at the end of 2022, I have been freelance consulting while working on my game, “Making Friends.”

My first job was writing COBOL code at a big bank, and since then, I’ve also built systems in C++ and C#.

In 2022, I completed a Startup Accelerator program with the Founders Institute in Texas and now mentor and advise startups.

John Davis, a co-founder and organizer of BitSummit, has an extensive background of 15 years working in the Japanese games industry. Originally from Atlanta, he began his career as a freelancer for publications such as Famitsu, IGN, and Game Labo. He then transitioned to development, working with indie studios in Japan like Grasshopper Manufacture and Q-Games. Presently, John holds the position of Global Marketing Manager and Biz Dev at Shueisha Games, where he helps promote and develop indie games.

Jon Keevy is an award winning writer and content creator in Cape Town, South Africa. He specialises in computer games but has written plays, short films, short stories, a fantasy novel, and children’s books.You can find him on his Zarnia YouTube channel being a silly geek.

Jonathan (he/they) has worked in the game industry for over a decade, including contributions to Broforce, Fortnite, GORN, and Genital Jousting. Born in Johannesburg, he holds a degree in applied mathematics and a diploma in visual communication. He is currently based in Cape Town where he works at Free Lives on Terra Nil, a cosy eco puzzle game. He wears many hats, with game credits as a programmer, artist, fx artist, technical artist and lead artist. His Instagram stories are 20% art and 80% photos of his cats.

Josie has a degree in “weird internet stuff” and “hehe memes”. With over 6 years of social media experience from multiple game titles to Full-time streaming. Her goal is world domination but will settle for a bowl of Shin Ramyun with cheese.

Hi, I’m Kamogelo Makhoba, a 20 year old game designer, marketing manager and content creator. My journey in the games industry began when I decided to drop out of college studying civil engineering. I started with marketing indie games because I saw a gap. I worked closely with game devs and learned a lot of valuable information and that’s when I decided to become a game designer.

Kane Forster is a Cape Town-based Game Animator and Rigging Artist at Free Lives. With a background in films and cinematics, Kane has transitioned into the gaming industry, contributing to two indie games: Terra Nil and Anger Foot. Known for his creativity and skill in bringing characters to life, he continues to explore the dynamic challenges of animation and rigging in game development.

I am Karin Stierlin, the founder of the Taboobreaker Association and initiator of Love Land.

I started my professional career as a teacher and learning therapist. Even then, I used the potential of playful learning and realistic learning environments to motivate young people to learn.

After graduating with a degree in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), I became frustrated with the lack of innovative and evidence-based teaching materials, that addressed the sensitive and taboo SRH topics in an age-appropriate and play-based manner.

That was the birth of Love Land, the board game that is being used successfully in European schools. A pilot project with the Love Land board game in Indonesia and South Africa showed me that Love Land could also be used in countries with other cultural and religious backgrounds.

I then founded the Taboobreaker Association with the aim of working with highly qualified teams of experts to develop SRH education programs that can be used worldwide, incorporating the potential of digital health education and thus using digital channels, such as apps to reach young people on a large scale.

Me in three words: Passionate – Creative – Persistent

Kirsten-Lee Naidoo is a business developer and scout at Landfall, the Swedish indie studio behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. Previously, she’s done business development for many indie titles including Among Us, Tangle Tower and What the Golf?. She is currently based in Cape Town and also volunteers at Playtopia in her spare time.

Krista May does communications and developer relations at WINGS, an organization committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the video game industry by supporting studios led by women and gender marginalized developers.

Kyle Jantjies is a 16x Published Fantasy Author, a book coach, and a Creativity and Innovation Professional Speaker. He is known for his unique ideas, his youthful expression, and dynamic approach. Kyle has been hosted on a number of podcasts, newspapers, radio interviews, and TV broadcasts. His books have reached the Top Ten in three different Amazon Categories and he currently speaks regularly on Creating the Innovators of our Future.

Developing and publishing his first game in 1993 for the MS-Dos system started a career into the games industry and interactive media development. His team worked as an outsourcing team throughout the 1990s for various companies on advertising games, educational games, game graphics, animations, and more.

In 2000, after developing his own game engine, the team of Angry Ant Entertainment started developing their own real-time 3D games. Casual action games, educational
games, and others were the teams main focus. In 2007 he created his first game development course for the Designschule Schwerin, Germany and, from 2011, a second course in Leipzig, Germany. In 2012 he developed and started the first South African standalone game course in 2012 for Friend of Design in Cape Town. The course was accredited in 2014. In 2017, he and the founder of Friends of Design started GDoutsourcing as a part of the Friends of Design Holding. GDoutsourcing connects South African career starters in the field of interactive media and game technology with companies and clients in Europe.

The ORI Foundation and being a member of the AfriGames Consortium followed. His Alumni students now work in South Africa, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the UK.

Some-time game developer, some-time tech entrepreneur. My career has taken me from entertainment to education, tech recruitment to fintech, online marketplaces to management consulting. All along that twisting path I have carried a fascination for how we work, create and play together. While I have met many incredible individuals in my life, I believe humanity is at its best when we’re working together towards a shared purpose, and I am passionate about how we build the organisations that empower us to do that.

Marie Foulston is a leading curator behind exhibitions, installations and experiences that specialise in videogames, play and digital culture. She is co-founder and creative director of Good Afternoon, an experiential design creative agency. Previously she was Curator of Videogames at the V&A where she lead the curation of the headline exhibition ‘Videogames’, was guest director of experimental games festival ‘Now Play This’ at Somerset House and co-founded the UK alternative videogame collective the Wild Rumpus. Across her career she has worked alongside a host of international organisations and leading cultural institutions including the Smithsonian, ACMI, PlayStation, the Design Museum, Netflix, Channel 4 and Nintendo.

Marina Díez (she/they) is a Spanish award-winning game designer, business expert and filmmaker based in Berlin and London, UK. She’s the CEO at Three of Cups Games, an ethical and diverse games studio based in London. Marina is also a Principal Game Designer at BTF Games for The Berlin Apartment. Previously, she was the Lead Game Designer for the game Dordogne by Un Je Ne Sais Quoi Studios & Umanimation. Marina is also a consultant on emotional game design for indie and AAA companies.

She is involved in many community initiatives and activism. Marina is also a regular speaker at games events such as GDC, EGX, PAX, A MAZE,… In 2023 she also hosted Independent Games Festival at GDC in San Francisco. Marina is also a film director and her work has been screened and awarded all over the world.

Marina is a lister of 100 Most Influential Women in Games 2022, a Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 honoree, a Game Dev Heroes 2020 winner, a former BAFTA Crew member, an IGDA Velocity GDC 2019 recipient.

Mascha Camino is working as a Quest Designer at Guerrilla Games in Amsterdam. Focused on creating narrative entanglements and meaningful experiences for her players.

Since she started studying in Berlin, she enjoyed volunteering at events. Furthermore, she grew to love the community and was able to build up a few projects herself. Events like: Femisphere – Highlighting diversity in the games industry, the Indie School Trip, Devolution, and one of Berlins biggest Indie Dev gatherings, the Talk & Play, which she is moderating and co-organizing with Lorenzo Pilia. She appreciates rogue likes and is always looking for cute indie games to play.

Melissa is the external ops manager at Free Lives and a director of The Playtopia Foundation.

Her passion lies within the growth of the South African games industry and the creation of a more inclusive industry. Melissa fosters these goals by hosting various community events at Maker’s Massive, co-organizing Playtopia Festival and providing funding opportunities to local game developers through the Free Lives Jam Dole.

Currently, her focus is on the festival itself, but she is looking forward to growing The Playtopia Foundation in the year ahead.

MetaRick aka Rick Treweek is the Chief Global Universal Metaverse, XR, Spatial Computing, AI Officer of Uncanny Alley, a civilization in the metaverse. He resides on the fringes of the Metaverse, accessing its portals through his studio in Kommetjie, Cape Town, South Africa.

Currently, MetaRick is collaborating with the Ferryman Collective on a live theatrical performance set in virtual reality. This production had its world premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival, where it received the XR Fan Experience collateral award.

His storytelling and world-building are centered around Uncanny Alley, bringing to life the nuances of the metaverse.

Social media

Twitter: @metaverserick
Instagram: @whyrickwhy

From the moment I pressed an arrow key age 6 I knew I was made to be a… videogame producer?

I am currently following that accidental dream as an Associate Producer at Nyamakop where I enjoy ensuring artists follow pipelines and look at Gantt charts – even though only producers can decode their cryptic meaning.

I am a two time Campus Game Jam winner with ‘Four Old Men’; have participated in the Pokemon TCG world championships; and have played over 2000 hours of Animal Crossing.

I am still searching for the arrow key that makes me an Art Director some day – I guess it can only be UP.

Natalie has been making games since 2013. She has a particular focus on stylized 3d art and animation, shaders and procedural art tools. She is an active member of the South African game development community and has been a long time friend to Super Friendship Arcade, the punk experimental games party. Professionally she helped port Neon White to PlayStation as a part of 24Bit Games, and was the former CTO and co-founder of payments startup Stitch. Natalie has been part of a team that were A MAZE Award nominees, for their psychedelic virtual music festival adventure.

Towards the end of 2020, Natalie came out openly as a trans woman. Despite feeling like an awkward teenager, she has been amazed to see how many friends and people in the broader community have been supportive of her transition.

Nyambura M. Waruingi is a writer, producer, and curator at the intersection of art, culture, and immersive technology. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Akoia & Company Ltd, a two-time grantee of Women Win’s ONSIDE Gaming. In producing transformative and audience-centred projects, she experiments with filmmaking, immersive storytelling and gaming. Her XR installations and gaming experiences have been presented at Games For Change Global, XR Women, Games For Change Africa, Museum Next, and Xbox Game Camp Africa. Akoia & Co.’s flagship production, The Ground Screams To Whisper, has been invited to Artizen’s Showcase, DoK Leipzig XR Exchange, and New Images Festival XR Development Market. Akoia’s mantra is: #imagineradically

Game Designer and Project Manager at Maliyo Games enthusiastic about storytelling through Digital Arts and technology. Winner of East Africa Com Awards 2022 under Most Most Innovative Product of Service category.

Paolo Pedercini is a game developer, curator and educator. He teaches digital media and experimental game design at the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2003 he works under the project name “Molleindustria” producing provocative games addressing issues of ecology, social justice, urbanism and labor.

Paolo is the director of LIKELIKE, a neo-arcade devoted to independent games and playful art in Pittsburgh, PA.

Petter is a freelance designer, writer, programmer, or whatever else a project needs. He has worked with numerous teams on a variety of games, from Crusader Kings 3 to South Africa’s own Terra Nil.

He aims to explore new ways of telling stories, and has spent a lot of time thinking about how to use systems to make people feel things.

Richard is one of the three directors at Studio Bolland, a 2D animation company that has been making animated explainers, adverts and shorts since 2014. Having found success locally and abroad with over 500 projects for brands such as Oreo, Dell, WordPress, ESPN and MTN, they decided they would shake things up this year by taking on the challenge of starting a games division.

The idea was simple: create 12 prototypes in 6 months to help find their feet and forge their way forward. With a natural knack for creative storytelling, engaging visual design and humour, the results are fun casual games across a variety of genres, from arcade games to racers, to adventure games and party games.

They’re still finding their feet, and have learnt lots of lessons, but they’ve also had a lot of fun while slowly gaining traction on the indie gaming scene. Watch this space!

Richard Pieterse has worked at Free Lives, Night School Studio, and Netflix. He also co-founded of Super Friendship Arcade and Team Lazerbeam. Having recently returned from working Los Angeles, he is energised by the thriving Cape Town scene and is slowly working out what to do next!

Henrike Lode is the Lead Game Designer at South African game studio Nyamakop. She lectured Game Design at the University of the Witwatersrand, at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and at the IT University of Copenhagen, where she received her Master degree in Game Design in 2012. Henrike was CEO and Creative Director of the Copenhagen-based game studio Lohika, where she and her team developed and self-published the award-winning puzzle adventure Machineers.

Robin is an experimental hardware game developer and interactive installation artist based in Berlin, Germany. His works range from award-winning one-dimensional hardware games, over weird wobbly spheres, to walls full of door stopper springs that visualise quantum physics in a playful yet scientifically accurate manner.

What’s up! I’m Rodwin, a game and level designer at Nyamakop, located in South Africa. My world revolves around creating immersive experiences that seamlessly blend artistry with technology. Whether I’m sculpting game worlds or composing soundtracks, my driving force is a relentless passion for creativity and innovation. Drawing inspiration from film, fashion, automotive design, and architecture, I’m always pushing the boundaries of interactivity and storytelling.

During the day I’m a game designer at Free Lives, currently working on Stick It To The Stickman. However during the night I’m a game designer working on bad projects that bring me joy.

I’m a nerd who likes to make games. Hi.

When I was young, I wanted to be a game developer. My teacher told me I couldn’t do it, so out of spite, I entered an upbeat, vibey montage where I sharpened my skills in the jungle. Then I came back with a vengeance. Now it’s time for crime.

I spent 6 years working on the hit series: “games you never played”. I now work at Yellow Lab Games, making the award-winning roguelike brawler “Metavoidal”! (Also part of the “games you never played” series)

I spend my time cursing timelines. I also do gameplay programming, design things, and make tools/tech arty stuff.
I like game jamming and care a lot about creativity and feelings. HMU

Ruan has been working at Free Lives for more than 10 years. He is a major contributor to Broforce and GORN, two of the most successful games to come out of Africa. Nowadays he lends his magical aura to all the projects running at Free Lives as executive producer.

Hey there, I’m Thabo Tsolo, and I’m the creative mind as a Game Designer and 3D Artist behind the gaming magic at SpaceSalad Studios. Picture this: I blend storytelling and technology to cook up experiences based on social commentary. But it’s not just about games; it’s about building bridges between us humans through my creative concoctions. One of my career highlights was being a part of the team behind the Emmy-winning animation series “My Better World.” It’s like I discovered the superpower of storytelling to unite cultures and touch souls. I co-founded an Indie Games Studio that’s scooped up awards over the past 4 years of our existence.

Some of the achievements we have received for our games are: 2023 Game Connection x China Joy Indie Game Development awards nominations for: Best Upcoming Game, Grand Award People’s Choice Award for Hot Bunz 2023. Sentech’s Africa Tech Week Awards X Topco Start-up of the Year finalist 2023. 2022 Faku’Gesi Rising Star Award 2nd place for Doba Dash 2022. Faku’Gesi Rising Start award 3rd place for Hot Bunz 2022. Faku’gesi Game Jam 2nd place for Horn-Nie 2022. Total Energies Start-up of the Year finalist 2022. 2021 Free Lives Physics Jam Best Diversity Physics gameplay for Hot Bunz 2021. African Launchpad Game Dev Winner for Rapz the Game 3rd place 2021. 2020 Comic Con Africa x Project Springbok game of the year for Doba Dash 2020.

Thomas Waterzooi is a solo-dev (formerly Larian Studios/IO-Interactive) from Brussels who makes accessible games inspired by art. His games are not about skills or high-scores. They are about relaxing, reflecting, experimenting, and being absorbed into the story & aesthetics. ‘Please, Touch The Artwork’ won several awards at a.o. Google Play Indie Festival ‘22, Tokyo Game Show, Belgium Game Awards and an Apple Design Award nomination. ‘Please, Touch The Artwork 2’ was downloaded more than 500.000 times and received over 3500 overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews.

Thorsten S. Wiedemann is founder and artistic director of A MAZE.. He celebrates the convergence of games, art and other media since 2008 with international festivals, exhibitions, artists in residence programmes and workshops on the intersection of games, games culture, interactive and immersive arts and playful media. His festivals “A MAZE. / Berlin” and “A MAZE. / Johannesburg” (until 2017) present independent games, push for more arthouse games and playful media. He creates new formats in different media( A MAZE. Magazine, A MAZE. Pop-ups, A MAZE. Train Jams, A MAZE. / SPACE) and gives room for experimentation, collaboration and exchange. Thorsten established in 2012 the A MAZE. Awards, which go to independent games, arthouse games and playful artistic works in seven categories. His focus is on interdisciplinary discourse and in filling the gaps between games, art and technology. He also has spent 48hrs in VR at his Disconnected performance in 2016. Currently he lives and works in Berlin.

Felix Pedulla and Tom Kleinenberg are on the Cinematics team at Larian Studios. Larian was founded in 1996 and is best known for successful self-published games Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 and most recently multiple Game of the Year winner, Baldur’s Gate 3.

Felix started his career as a Video Editor at Crytek in September 2012 where he developed a keen sense for pacing and attention to detail. He quickly moved on to become a Cinematic Artist and shipped several games where he was mostly involved in creating cinematic trailers. In 2019 he moved to Dublin to work for Larian Studios and shipped Baldur’s Gate 3 as a Senior Cinematic Artist.

Tom worked as a Previs and Layout Artist in animation at Triggerfish Studios in Cape Town before relocating to Brown Bag Film in Dublin in 2016. When Larian started their in-house Cinematics team he jumped at the chance to fulfil a lifelong ambition to work in games and was part of the team that shipped Baldur’s Gate 3 as a Cinematic Artist.

Tshireletso Tshwenyane, a 2024 Blooloop 50 Immersive Influencer, is a grassroots impact leader and Programs Director for Games for Change Africa. As an interactive media producer, she has extensive experience managing diverse game and XR projects, including facilitating residencies that support African artists. Tshireletso is dedicated to empowering communities through digital media and has collaborated with organizations such as the Gauteng Department of Education, SciBono, Meta, UNESCO, and the British Council. She has led exhibitions at renowned events like the SoCreative Summit, Playtopia, SXSW Film Festival, Fak’ugesi Festival, and Meta-Metaverse Summit. Passionate about social impact, she mentors emerging game studios and supports grassroots initiatives like WeAreVR Jozi.

I am a Game Designer/Producer/Project Manager, Founder of TL Entertainment and Co-Founder of Edu-Game Namibia, all the skills I have I acquired them via self-taught from Graphics Design to Game Design to Project Management, I founded To Unit Rural Applicants Living In Failed Establishments Life Entertainment a company that focuses on creating games, offering training and consulting to corporates who wish to create their own games. I also Co-Founded EduGame Namibia a program design to teach Namibian students how to create their own games.

Ulysses is a professional Audio Designer having worked on a variety of titles in the indie and triple I space. He has a deep love for games and the magical experiences they impart on people which can be seen in his expanding list of accredited titles such as Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Loddlenaut, Desktop Dungeons Rewind, and many more. He enjoys making sounds that can shock and inspire as much as they can corner and comfort players. If he’s not wrangling voice actors together or messing around with soft synthesizers you’ll find him making music, practicing martial arts or bringing up Dune as a poem, metaphor or teeth grinding set of philosophies.

I completed my Bachelors Degree in Design with the subject Game Design in 2019 at the ZHdK. I love 3D modelling and implementing my creations into my games and projects! I am fast at Prototyping and I love to learn new skills.

Currently, I am developing my own Game «Lily The Explorer», where I am prototyping in Unity and creating art in Blender. With that project I made it into the SheGotGame 2024 program, where I am meeting with a Mentor every second week to discuss development questions.

My name is Wandile Matsebula. I am a 25 year old sound designer at SpaceSalad Studios. I also handle some of the marketing on a strategic level. I am also a Witwatersrand University graduate with a double major in psychology and archaeology. My true passion lies in music, which I channel into creating immersive audio experiences for games and general listening pleasure.

Xalavier Nelson Jr. is a BAFTA-nominated studio head, narrative director, writer, and Forbes 30 under 30 luminary, with dozens of titles under his belt including Stranger Things VR, Magic: The Gathering, Hypnospace Outlaw, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, and El Paso, Elsewhere. He also makes strides in a storytelling career outside of games, with releases such as the cult hit comic Sherlock Holmes Hunts the Moth Man.