Hi C4, what’s your background and what has been your career?
Hi, I am Stephen Mwangi aka C4, I make games, I do animation and music as well.
C4 was my nickname back in high school and somehow it stuck even after so I just continued using it. I used to do rap music while in high school and my stage name was C4, this was its origin. These days I do music production not vocals and I still use the name for that. On the tracks I produce you hear the name as the tag.
Fun fact, I also produce all the music for the games I make.
How did you get into game development?
I started by doing animation then got into game development way later.
One of the things that inspired me to get into animation was this video by Andrew Kaggia which I watched on YouTube back in the day at a cyber café, the video was called “Wageuzi”. It was an adaption of the Transformers movie where Kenya leaders would change into transformers and fight each other, more or less like they do during election campaign periods. Among others Kaggia is one of the people who inspired my animation journey.
Even while doing animation, I always had game dev at the back of my mind but it always seemed like a very hectic thing to get into.
Then in 2019 while I was doing animation for some guys who were making games, my boss at the time suggested that it would be awesome if I learnt how to make games so that I could do both roles (game development and animation) as an individual. It’s at that point that I started learning Unity by watching YouTube tutorials.
After that gig ended when the company shut down, I decided it was time to make something for myself.
How did you decide that Kanairo 101 would be the game that you make?
While I was still working at the job I mentioned earlier, there were times when I would get to the CBD (Nairobi) and all of a sudden the hawkers on the streets would start packing up their wares and scattering off because of the city council officers.
I saw that commotion a few times and thought it would be awesome if I could incorporate that kind of an event into an endless runner game like Subway Surfers.
Within the game you see a lot of this depiction of the typical Nairobi street life playing out.
What resources did you use to build the game?
I should mention that I worked on the whole game solo thus it was quite a hustle.
To make the models within the game I use Blender and for the game itself I use the Unity engine which is highly recommended if you are making mobile games. For music production I use FL studio.
How did you get your first users?
I made some animations to advertise the game and put them out on Tiktok, there is one that went viral and brought the game some much needed attention. It got about 580K views. Generally, the animation videos on the game that I put on Tiktok helped a lot because I haven’t done any other form of marketing.
I’m currently creating some more promo animations for the game that I’ll be putting out on various select social media channels to help push the game out further.
What are some challenges that you have faced while building the game?
Working solo was very tasking and time consuming but at the same time I enjoyed making the game so it wasn’t really that bad. It was a challenge but I was not crying about it.
Financially/user acquisition-wise, where is the game at?
The game currently has more than five thousand downloads and gains more gradually.
In terms of finances, I have ads in the game but they don’t yet convert that much because the downloads are still not substantial enough.
I used to make significant amounts while I still had M-pesa integrated in the game and this would allow players to buy perks that they could use in the game. I removed the M-pesa integration because I started thinking of how to redo the game, it also required too much maintenance to keep it running.
What are some of the mistakes that you made and what would you do differently?
I didn’t do marketing properly and even the little that I did, I didn’t follow up on it properly. For instance, the promo animations that I released were loved by viewers, I put them out before releasing the game, if I had collected emails from the people who were interested, I would have had a good email list to send out the game to when it was ready, this would have improved the download numbers.
There are also many aspects of the game that I could have done better if I had asked for feedback and outside input from people who had been making games longer than myself. Joining game developer forums and communities early on would have helped with that.
What are some of your future plans?
I’m working on a new iteration of the game called Kanairo Verse which is more of a game universe with all of the Kanairo 101 characters doing their own thing.
I’m also making better models and sprucing up the game/universe visually.
There will also be other side games adapted from the Kanairo Verse using the same characters with different storylines and style of play.
At what point would you say you as a game developer or you game has become successful?
Right now I definitely cannot say the game is successful yet but if I can get Kanairo 101 to 100K plus downloads, then I will have achieved one milestone.
The second milestone would be when the game brings in some consistent sustainable revenue.
What would you like to see different in the game development space in Kenya/Africa?
At the moment, the things that I would want to see happen are actually happening. There is a lot of collaboration going on in the different game development spaces, people helping each other, a lot of nice games are being released and the space is really growing.
There are a lot of good things happening and awesome games being put out, probably the one thing that’s still missing is a solid way of giving these games the much needed exposure.
Where can people go to know more about you and your work?
Check out my Tiktok here for more on the game and LinkedIn here.
You can also download the game here.
Any recommendations in terms of who to follow, YouTube videos to watch, a useful website or books to read?
1. Brackeys – https://www.youtube.com/@Brackeys/videos
2. CodeMonkey – https://www.youtube.com/@CodeMonkeyUnity
3. Weimman – https://www.youtube.com/@Unity3dCollege
Cool Finds:
📺 Music videos available on Spotify in Kenya.
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😁 A very affordable way to set up e-commerce in Kenya.
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Product Spotlight: Nganya 254 (Matatu Game)
Nganya is Kenyan or Nairobi slang for pimped out public service mini-busses. They are usually covered in graffiti, highly accessorized, the inside looks like a night club and there is always loud music playing. They are the epitome or rather pinnacle of the matatu culture in Nairobi.
Nganya 254 is adapted perfectly from this culture, from the design of the vehicles within the game to the game play itself.
You get to choose your matatu/vehicle and customize it to your linking, drive it in Nairobi while trying to do what the drivers and conductors do on a daily basis within the city, pick up as many passengers as possible.
You can also put in your own music playlist as you drive through the estates picking up and dropping off passengers among other great features.
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