“On a holiday morning in the magical land of Ethiopia, Kukulu, the brave chicken, is about to be slaughtered by her captive farmer. Can you help her escape and run for her life?

And so begins the epic magical adventure of Kukulu, Ethiopia’s first 3D runner created by Qene Technologies, also the country’s first game development company. Since Kukulu was released in April 2018, it has garnered over 3000 downloads and a 4.8 rating score on the Google Play Store.

Dawit Abraham, the CEO and Lead Game Developer, alongside his cofounders, Samrawit Demeke and Henok Teklu established Qene Technologies in January 2017 to create fictional superheroes that Africans can relate with. Releasing Kukulu a year after was one of many steps to achieving their goal.

Gaming, as an art form is one of the most intrusive today because technology has expanded the canvas upon which artists are able to paint and tell their stories. The result of a Grand View Research released in January 2018 projects that the global gaming industry would be worth $171.96 billion by 2025.

In order to tap into the potential of the industry, many game development companies are springing up across Africa and Dawit Abraham wants to make sure Ethiopia is not left out.

Starting a game development business in Ethiopia

Up until April 2018 when Abiy Ahmed, the new Ethiopian prime minister came into power, the country was not exactly the most favourable place to start a business, let alone an Internet company. For years, the Ethiopian government imposed a restriction on the use of the Internet and didn’t budge despite the series of anti-government protests.

However, under the new leadership, the country is undergoing a series of reforms that are making things easier than they used to be.

“If we had released this game six months ago, we would have had a significantly lower number of downloads because Internet was restricted throughout Ethiopia, due to the regime. But a lot has changed with the new prime minister.” Dawit told Techpoint…

Content retrieved from: https://techpoint.africa/2018/08/01/qene-techcnologies-ethiopia/.