03 Sep 2019

A variety of games are played in different parts of the world in pursuit of either adventure or leisure while some are played professionally. 

Games offer numerous advantages and are thus highly recommended for everyone irrespective of age as they are essential for overall health and wellbeing. 

They are a good way to keep fit both mentally as well as physically. 

Botswana is no exception as the country has its own traditional games such as mhele, chama, diketo, morabaraba, koi, dibeke, batho safe and seragantshwane. 

These are games that children born post 2000 may never get to experience as they have been replaced by new ones. 

Modernisation has seen the introduction of video games, which entail electronic interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a two or three dimensional video display device such as a TV screen, virtual reality headset or computer monitor. 

Video games have increasingly become an important part of the entertainment industry and are also considered a form of art. 

This complex but thrilling industry has lured a 28-year-old Motswana man, Edmore Jackson, whose love for video games started from a very young age.  At the age of 14, when he saw PlayStation 2 for the first time, it changed the way he saw video games. 

He was now certain he wanted to do gaming as a career. 

Due to lack of tertiary institutions offering game design as a course in Botswana, Jackson enrolled at Botho University to study software engineering where he learnt programming languages and coding to trace them into learning game design. 

He ended up doing a video game as his final project in 2014 and since then he has never stopped. 

For Jackson, the work is as astonishing as it is exciting, challenging, addictive and frustrating at the same time. 

Nonetheless, it has been the love of his life for quite some time now. 

In 2014, Jackson founded Global Game Play Bw with the idea of creating a source of leisure that promotes interaction between children and adults. 

“We also offer gaming services and develop video games that are authentic to our culture,” says Jackson adding that the company is currently working on a video game called Free will GC, which is structured around the city of Gaborone. 

The idea behind the game is to create an accurate 3D model of Gaborone and introduce an avatar that can be controlled to explore and interact with 3D of the city. 

It is going to be built under two modes of play being unrealistic and realistic versions, the former encompassing addition of missions to be completed, like zombie apocalypse characters. 

The realistic one will teach and guide people on practical things to do in real life such as starting a company in the 3D model as well as to navigate around Gaborone. 

“This will be valuable to locals and tourists who have never visited the city and it will be authentic to our Botswana culture,” says Jackson. 

It is anticipated that the game will be released next year as a competitive third person sandbox game.  

Once completed, Jackson says it will be available for download in playstore and playable on computers, gaming consoles and smart mobile phones for free. 

“Once we get enough users on the game that is when we will start adding updates for different places in Botswana. They will also be e-game purchases where one has a character that they can buy a costume for. 

We also plan to approach various companies to advertise within the game, the company will have characters that will voice out their services or products as a way to generate revenue,” he says. 

The self-taught video developer says the Free will GC video game will be original as the characters will be speaking local languages such as Setswana and Kalanga. 

This differentiates the company from other game rooms in Botswana which provide games from the international market but have no studio to develop their own games. 

Jackson says he wants to see the video industry growing in Botswana noting that the eSports industry is showing rapid growth among youth around the world. 

“To create games into an eSport title that is very authentic to the African culture and also valuable, there is need to create and capture our own market share from this booming industry,” says Jackson. ENDS