My start-up fund was from my pocket -African game-developer
Abiola Olaniran, founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gamsole explains how he conceived the idea and started his two-year old business in this interview with OLUYINKA ALAWODE.
Business
At Gamsole , we create interesting games for smartphones and make them available to users worldwide. Our goal is to make games that are fun to play, plain and simple. Each game offers a wildly imaginative and irresistibly fun game-play experience that gamers of all age groups find appealing.
Idea
The idea to start Gamsole was a process; it started in my second year in the university as a programmer and then I took interest in gaming. I have always been a computer programmer with great passion for technology entrepreneurship. I created some fun games while in school then, including “Corruption Monster” which got me the first prize in a Nation-wide competition.
Also, I see a big opportunity in developing mobile games for the windows phone platform at its early stage. Most of the applications download from app stores are games, which means, globally, people love games. Games can be very intellectual /educational where you use clever strategy to beat your opponent or solve a puzzle. All of these facts inspired me to start Gamsole.
I did not ponder it for a long time. I think I was lucky to be an early mover to the windows phone platform where Gamsole has now gained tractions.
Initial funding
Gamsole’s initial funding source was from my pocket and then from 88mph, a seed investment company in Kenya. The company started making money and has been bootstrapping itself ever since then.
Initial actions
One of the first actions I took was to join an incubator/accelerator where I learnt a lot very fast about building great companies, especially technology-based companies. I had a mix of the talent, passion and hard work that has now become an intrinsic part of the Gamsole team.
Though gaming is relatively new in Africa but due to the internet our market extends beyond Africa. But using the African lifestyle, we create fun experience that can be enjoyed by people from different parts of the world.
Games developed
Some of the games I have developed include:
•Kazoo – a game designed for people who love word searches
•Mega Chicken – a game where a player is tested on how many coins that their chicken can grab in a dangerous environment
•Road blazer – is a game where players speed through traffic while earning secret weapons, deploying them as they drive.
Competition
I do not see world-renown game companies as my competition because Gamsole has chosen a unique market, creating and exporting African entertainment to all of Africa and the rest of the world. At Gamsole, apart from creating better and more fun games, we also understand how to effectively distribute them, and our results testify to this.
Customers
There is still a very huge gap in the African gaming market waiting to be filled. Currently, 12 percent of Gamsole consumers come from India, 10 percent from China and about 20 percent from Brazil. Our goal is to give the best of African entertainment to these people. Our current users appreciate games better and have more buying power.
Background
I studied at computer and mathematics at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife.
Staff
Currently we have seven people working at Gamsole. We plan to increase this to 12 people very soon.
Future prospects
Our future is to have a bigger team that can create a gaming culture in Africa. Blend of education and fun will be the core of our games. I envisage that Gamsole will be one of the largest gaming companies in the world… creating fun gaming experiences to satisfy the human undying desire for entertainment. Since we understand how to distribute and monetise mobile games, Gamsole will be helping thousands of African developers to publish their African games for millions of users worldwide.
OLUYINKA ALAWODE