Richard Bolland and his studio, as well as many other game developers in Cape Town, have been making game prototypes in the hope that one of them finds success. Over 48 games are uploaded to Steam every day. What does it take to make a hit game and what’s the best strategy to finding success? Richard will present key info from prototypes that have found success and help equip game devs to up their chances at making a hit game.
After studying advertising and multimedia, Richard has been involved in animation & gaming across all spectrums, from creating visual effects for some of South Africa’s top commercials, to directing, designing and animating over 15 gaming prototypes. He founded the studio in 2014 and has played a vital role in overseeing the creative output, especially the inclusion of indie game development in 2023. From a management perspective, Richard has always sought good governance, money management and focused on building a team that has fun together as much as it works well together.”
At the heart of my talk is a simple but important question: how do we, as South African game developers, make South Africans fall in love with our industry?
The reality is that most people in our country don’t even know we have a video games industry. Meanwhile, our musicians, fashion designers, and sports teams have all found ways to capture the nation’s imagination, to make South Africans see themselves in their work and take pride in it.
So, what can we learn from them about building connection, recognition, and loyalty at home? And how can we, as developers, artists, storytellers, and studios, work together to grow the visibility and love for our local games scene?
This talk isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about starting the right conversations. It’s an invitation for all of us to ask, to listen, and to collaborate on turning those insights into action, so that one day, South Africans not only know about our industry, but celebrate it.
I am deeply passionate about creating video games with South African heroes & stories along with helping to grow and create more jobs in the South African video games industry. As the Studio Head of Disputed People Video Games, I lead our amazing team in creating fun & engaging video games for the local and global markets. I hold a MSc in Video Game Enterprise, Production and Design from Birmingham City University in the UK and I am currently a PhD candidate at the University of Stellenbosch. My PhD focuses on exploring in what ways South African made games can serve as decolonial spaces for identity formation and representation for South Africans and what insights can Africanfuturism provide us towards the development of African-focused genres in video games. I have over 20 years experience as a senior graphic designer and have won the Promax International Bronze and Promax Africa Silver design awards for my work for a major South African TV channel.
Our world today is dominated by techno-fascism – led by figures like Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos; Trump, Putin and Netanyahu.
Techno-fascists weaponize advanced technology, corporate power and surveillance to centralise authority, entrench control and silence dissent. Manipulating democratic processes, they strip away our fundamental rights and freedoms. They profit from war, resource plundering, repression, and division.
Primed to immerse and persuade, games can often mirror this dominant order – and may unwittingly serve to naturalise it. They can glorify militarism, normalize surveillance and reinforce exclusionary narratives like sexism, racism and xenophobia. They can legitimize capitalist accumulation and domination through gamified colonization, looting and mining.
But just as games can reflect dominant ideologies, they can also be used to subvert them. Games offer spaces for alternative storytelling, critical reflection and resistance. This talk explores the ways in which video games can re-imagine a more just and humane future, spark resistance and ignite active political participation in the real world.
In this regard, it puts forward a design framework for transformative games that aims to challenge the dominant order and reclaim the possibility of a more free and just world – without sacrificing player enjoyment.
I’m Leia French, from South Africa! I’m a unity developer and junior writer at Spooky Doorway, an indie game studio based in Ireland.
I’m enthralled by narrative games. Stories have always been a way to reimagine our world. They let you, quite literally, walk in someone else’s shoes. They offer insight into who we are and where we stand.
I completed my MA in Game Design to better understand how we could design narrative games for social change – without sacrificing player enjoyment.
I came to realise that, as cultural artefacts, games can often mirror dominant ideologies – unwittingly glorifying militarism, capitalist accumulation, colonization and exclusionary narratives like racism, sexism and xenophobia. But I also found that if games can reflect dominant ideologies, they can be used to subvert them.
As I work on my own games, I strive to remain vigilant about the values I embed in my work — and for whom.
In this talk, Aaron Abt shares how creating a vertical and horizontal slice helped the team to prototype and validate both the moment to moment experience as well as the overarching narrative of Henry Halfhead.
Henry Halfhead is a quirky sandbox adventure game about an odd little character with the ability to become any object within their reach. Players discover and experiment with all the objects’ properties and use them to take Henry through their not-so-ordinary everyday life. The game’s sandboxy levels are explored along a linear story, following Henry’s life from child- to adulthood to their senior days and focusing on the topic of play and curiosity in life. Henry Halfhead was developed by the Swiss indie studio Lululu Entertainment and has just been released in September 2025 after four years of part-time development.
Aaron Abt is a game designer from Zurich, Switzerland. After graduating from the Zurich Universities of the Arts in 2019, he co-founded Lululu Entertainment with two friends from the studies. As part of Lululu Entertainment, he helped to create their debut game “Bamerang” and their recently released second game “Henry Halfhead”. Besides the work at Lululu he designed and developed VR and AR experiences at the digital agency Ateo.
With a wide-spread push towards object-based audio on console systems, driven by the likes of PS Labs, game devs at all levels of the gaming ecosystem can bring a deeper, more immersive experience to their players. But why DEVS consider object audio? Can smaller teams working on PC games practically afford to use the technology? Hell, what is object-based audio, even? In this talk, award winning audio engineer and researcher Simon Ratcliffe gives a whistle-stop rundown of his own experiences in the field of immersive audio, how it’s been applied to games, and makes a case for these formats for indie DEVS…with a quick demo using the attendees (and their cell phones) as Objects to create a game ambience in real time.
Simon Ratcliffe is a score mixer and producer, film co-producer, and MD of the multi-national Sound & Motion Studios which he founded in 2002.
A music and film background led to his specialisation in game, streaming and film score mixing and supervision with clients including Arenanet, Disney, Netflix and Amazon Prime, and his team has won industry accolades such as Emmy Primetime, FrightNight, MMORPG of the Year, SAFTAs, Songlines, SAMA, and Global Music awards.
With a 14 year background in education and a focus on Dolby Atmos, he has given workshops on immersive mixing and film score production at the AES Immersive Conference, Huddersfield University APL, ACM, Metropolis and UCL London, and has a practice-based masters degree from Hertfordshire University. Simon is an engineer and researcher on the Echo Project focus group on immersive score recording, led by Huddersfield University APL and AIR Studios.
Sean Sutton is a Foley Artist and Audio Engineer at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town. A graduate of SAE Institute with a Bachelor’s degree in Sound Engineering, he has contributed to a range of films and series including Blood Legacy, Hunting Jessica Brok, and The Heart is a Muscle.
Within Sound and Motion, Sean’s versatility spans Foley performance, recording, and audio editing — bringing texture and realism to cinematic soundscapes. Beyond film, his passion lies in interactive storytelling and the evolving world of immersive audio for games.
As both a sound professional and avid gamer, Sean bridges the gap between creative audio production and player experience. His work with tools like FMOD and Wwise reflects his drive to explore how sound design shapes emotion, space, and narrative within virtual worlds.
There is no shortage of advice on how to begin a career as a composer or sound designer in the game industry. The problem is that much of that advice varies so wildly that it’s hard to tell what’s useful. Ask any two audio professionals how you should structure your first contract, or what software is truly necessary to get started, and you can expect to be met with two starkly different (and sometimes contradicting) answers. There are so many schools of thought on the “right” way to begin your audio career that many of us find ourselves lost and overwhelmed before we even start.
This talk will help burgeoning composers and sound designers get their careers off on the right foot by instead focusing on what to avoid when beginning your journey into the world of game audio. We’ll discuss what’s not necessary so that you can focus on what’s actually important: finding a career path that works for you, adapted to your specific needs and skillset.
Join composer Ryan Ike as he shares some of the most common misconceptions about how to find success as an audio professional. Attendees can expect to learn that they don’t need expensive tech to start making sound, that moving to a game industry hub isn’t necessary, that charging less only gets you more difficult clients, and a lot more.
This talk is geared for anyone hoping to begin a career in game audio, as well as those who have already started working and want to learn how to continue to do so sustainably.
Ryan is a two-time BAFTA-nominated composer with over twelve years of experience making music for indie games. He’s written for award winning projects like West of Loathing, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and Wizard With a Gun, and collaborated with developers and musicians from across the globe. His work covers a variety of genres, from jazz and American folk music, to synthwave, chamber music, and more. While he primarily writes for video games, his music has also been featured in short films, commercials, and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.
When not making audio, Ryan is likely preparing talks and online content on how to navigate the game industry. He’s spoken at dozens of events–including PAX West in Seattle, The Edinburgh Game Symposium, and the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco–where he’s given talks designed to help people start or further their work in games, with an emphasis on emotional and mental health.
When your feedback has the power to alter creative projects and teams, how do you build confidence and stay true when your inner saboteur has its grip on your innards?
Meg explores imposter syndrome, losing your creative voice and coping mechanisms in this talk about what it means to be a “failed creative” making big decisions.
Meg currently scouts for the British games label Team17, helping indie developers secure support and funding for their games as well as providing feedback on ideas and prototypes.
They have been working in games for over a decade with a wildly varied CV working across games audio, project investment, events; following creative opportunities and turning their hand to any craft that sounds interesting and not too techy.
They have been credited on titles such as Dragons Dogma 2, Demon’s Souls, Forza Horizon 5, Anno1800 and plenty of indie gems.
How to make better prototypes quicker and better looking. Chasing the intersection between achievable and quick, but still having an aesthetic that *serves gameplay* without wasting time.
I’m a 33 year old game developer from South Africa. I started off making simple games in Game Maker as a kid and eventually landed my job at 24 Bit Games where I’ve had the opportunity to work on some great games professionally. I still make games in my own time with a particular passion for emergent gameplay and rapid prototyping.
Curious about releasing your game on PlayStation, or hoping to learn the best ways of working straight from the source? From Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Independent Partners team, Lewis will be giving a brief introduction to releasing your content on PlayStation 5 – from how and why to become a PlayStation Partner, to best practices for your titles ahead of launch and how to make the most out of our systems and processes. The presentation is followed by an open Q&A, so come with your questions!
Lewis joined SIE in 2018 and has been part of the Partner Development team since 2022, getting a chance to put his personal passion for indie titles and the games industry to good use. His job involves wearing many hats including scouting, partner guidance and evangelism. Helping to explain how to get up and running with PlayStation, championing and shouting about hidden gems to internal teams and answering all sorts of questions are all things you can find Lewis doing on any given day.
When he’s not working, you’ll likely find him playing a wide variety of games, messing around with playful synthesisers, or on the never-ending quest to find truly excellent sandwiches.
What are “Seagull” managers? While the term might not be familiar, many might have encountered them during their career, or even unknowingly been one. In this talk, I will draw on 8 years of experience across 6 different video game companies to share stories and insights about working with “Seagulls”: those who fly in suddenly, scream at you, cause chaos, and leave the team to clean up the mess. I’ll use a little “indie game studio simulation” where the audience picks among a couple cards with random scenarios happening, to analyze common situations (all real life examples). The goal is to efficiently identify this type of management and equip producers and teams with a toolkit to manage, cohabit, and ideally “tame” the seagulls. The goal is also to offer practical advice for leaders looking to avoid becoming a Seagull and to become a trusted and assertive manager.
Growing up, Marie could never pick between studying tech and art, so games turned out to be a perfect intersection. After high school, she went straight into game-making education with a bachelor’s in game design and programming and a master’s in project management for games. She has since been a part of lots of different game projects as a Producer and taught project management to game design students for several years. Her favourite part of the job is being a facilitator and cheerleader and getting to witness all the wonderful things the team creates, while taming the chaos a little bit. She’s been told she has way too many crafts, hobbies, and interests, but somehow persists in collecting more of those, as well as colorful tattoos and fox-themed items.
A practical session on how Africa’s music and film industries broke into the global stage — and what game developers can learn from them.
Discover how Afrobeats, Amapiano, Bongo and Nollywood built local roots with global reach & revenue by:
Build locally, scale globally.
Understand how scenes like Afrobeats and Amapiano grew from tight-knit local communities into worldwide genres by owning their sound, culture, and distribution — lessons that can help African games retain authenticity while appealing to global audiences.
Leverage collaboration and work-for-hire.
Examine how African producers, directors, and studios have balanced independent artistry with international collaborations and work-for-hire opportunities — maintaining creative control while gaining visibility and funding.
Tell stories that travel.
Learn from Nollywood’s prolific output and its mastery of relatable storytelling — how distinctly African narratives, humor, and emotion can find universal resonance when done with consistency and heart.
Monetize beyond borders.
Explore how musicians and filmmakers have embraced streaming, licensing, sync deals, and digital platforms to reach audiences directly — and what this means for game distribution, publishing, and IP ownership in Africa.
Dean Gichukie is a creative industry professional. He is a storyteller & builder, specializing in the creation, production and distribution of creative content like music, games, film, Esports & TV. He is currently the CEO & Game Producer at Kunta Content. Kunta Content is an African game studio. Their vision is to make great African games.
Kunta Content is currently working on HIRU a Maasai-inspired 3D Video Game for consoles & PC. They have signed groundbreaking partnerships with Minecraft, Xbox & Microsoft as one of the few studios to do so. We have also received support from Ubisoft, Epic Games & Steam.
In this talk we’re gonna look at the creative process and the lunacy of humane work. Chipzel will share their experience of over 13 years of the Industry (both Video Games and Music) and all the beauty and chaos that comes with it.
We’ll look at the importance of real, authentic, grassroots community and the ways that it’s being manufactured against us.
We’ll examine the tools that shape our delusions and how the limitations of the machine have inspired every classic title we know and love.
And in this godforsaken era of AI and global instability we’ll take a breather to appreciate the synergy we’ve had with our tools, to appreciate where we are now and how we got here. It is time to pause and re-evaluate as a collective.
To create is to exist within the madness of your own delusions and every finished work is the result of what we wanted vs what was possible.
With every new project comes an influx of emotions; anticipation, hope, stress, excitement and with every new dream comes fear. Every new form of communication unsettles the psyche and every influx of commerce in art creates instability. We can love the machine and hate the system.
Chipzel is a BAFTA nominated, award winning Producer, Sound Designer and Composer from Northern Ireland. Chipzel comes from an internet subculture of tinkerers, makers and curious creatives known as Chiptune which has roots in the first computer art movement known as the Demoscene.
A recognised pioneer of the Chiptune scene, Chipzel’s prolific musical career has seen her touring the world, bringing her acclaimed sound across the globe. With multiple studio albums, over a decade of countless, beloved original Videogame Scores and iconic performances, Chipzel is best loved for her idiosyncratic original works including Super Hexagon, Spectra and quiz game inspired favourite, Dicey Dungeons.
Actor and game creator Abubakar Salim joins Nyamakop’s Marcia Shange for a conversation on identity, creativity, and leadership in the games industry. From his breakout role in Assassin’s Creed: Origins to the founding of Surgent Studios and the making of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, Abubakar reflects on how African heritage can shape new kinds of storytelling in games — and what it takes to lead a studio that embodies that vision.
(Interviewed by Marcia Shange)
Abubakar Salim is the CEO and Creative Director at Surgent Studios. Surgent’s BAFTA-winning debut game, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, was released in 2024. Surgent’s second title, Dead Take, was released in 2025.
A BAFTA nominated actor, Salim’s work in games spans Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, and Assassin’s Creed: Origins in which he played Bayek. He is known for a number of film and television roles as well, including Father in Raised by Wolves and Alyn of Hull in House of the Dragon. In 2020 Salim was chosen as one of BAFTA’s Breakthrough Brits and was revealed at the London Games Festival as one of eight industry faces of Games London Ensemble.