The 3-day event compromising of a 2-day Hackathon and 1-day conference and exhibition attracted attendees from all over West Africa.
Conference host Seye Johnson kicked off proceedings by welcoming attendees and educating them on the African gaming industry, and the aims and objectives of WAGE 17.
The first panel was “Women in Gaming, Animation and Content Creation”. Speakers Dele Tejuoso of WifiCombat and Jane Ivhurie of Iconcepts spoke about the importance of having women in gaming, how women can thrive in the gaming industry, and types of games they should be creating for the market. Tejuoso spoke about her work and how Wificombat has successfully trained over 2000 young women. Ivhurie spoke about what Iconcepts can do for young developers regarding distribution and marketing of created content.
The next panel to take the stage focused on “Animation and Comics in Africa”. Somto Ajuluchukwu of Vortex Studio, Jide Martin of Comic Republic, Kolawole Olarewaju of Komotion Studio, spoke about the current state of African Animation and where they see the industry going. They preached the importance of networking and working with other creatives, showcasing African culture and folklore through comics and animation, and the difficulties being faced by content creators raising revenue. They added that there is an urgent need for assistance from corporations to aid the growth of the content creation industry.
Next up was the Pitch a Game competition, this is when developers under the age of 17 have the opportunity to demo a game they have created to attendees and WAGE 17 Judges. After going through hundreds of entries, our judges selected 15 finalist, all finalist had 5 minutes to showcase their developed games. After a long process deliberation our judges had their results, in 3rd place from American International School (Wificombat ) was Susan, 2nd place was Backcock University High School (Center 4 tech) was Chiejina and 1st place was Daniel from Supreme Education School ( Wificombat ).
WAGE 17 Hackathoners had a chance to show the audience and the judges the games they had created over a 2-day period. Over 24 developers worked on 6 different games prior to the WAGE 17 conference and expo. The winning team TCS created a game based on Mall For Africa product delivery. Players had to navigate their way around Lagos state, making sure they did not crash and they made all their necessary deliveries. The winning team received $200 from Mall For Africa, whilst the second place team received a month paid internship with Vortex Studios.
Other speakers to take part in WAGE 17 included, Kunmi Adenipebi, Zubair Abubakar, Sidick Bakayoko.
To see more on WAGE conference please visit www.westafricangamingexpo.com
The WAGE 17 exhibition was the place to see the latest African games, casual games, board games, Esport tournaments and African comics. Over 23 exhibitors took place in WAGE 17 showcasing different types of gaming.
Vortex studios had a Call of Duty tournament, Pepsi hosted a Pro Evolution tournament and the winner was given a new PlayStation 4 and Konami games by Pepsi, Titeboi exhibited Playstation Virtual reality, Chop Up Games exhibited their new car racing game “Tear rubber Racing”. Mall For Africa provided attendees with Cromcast internet TV, showing attendees the future of television. Trace Tv and Gamsole organised the Gidirun Esport tournament, and entertained attendees with music games and branded merchandise.
Monopoly debuted the 1st human-sized monopoly board in Africa.
To see picture and videos of WAGE 17 please visit, www.westafricangamingexpo.com.
West African Gaming Expo 2017 was sponsored by Pepsi, Mall For Africa and Gamsole.
