Very attached to his culture and African traditions in general, Central African entrepreneur Teddy Kossoko founded Masseka Game Studio in 2017 to showcase African culture.

With this initiative, Teddy Kossoko, 27, who has been living in France since 2012, has made himself a place among those who work to promote Africa in the world. The idea came to him while he was finishing a degree in computer science at the University of Blagnac in 2014. He noticed that people who play a lot of video games acquire knowledge about foreign cultures. He then started working on his very first game, Kissoro Tribal Game, which is inspired by Kissoro, a board game very popular in Central Africa and across the continent. The game was released in 2018. For this first project, Teddy received the support of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He was granted access to the institution’s documentary resources.

In only 2 months, Kissoro Tribal Game has been downloaded more than 13,000 times in about 20 countries around the world. It is available in 5 languages (French, English, Japanese, Russian, Spanish), and has integrated features such as stories to discover, challenges, tutorials, quests, and winning contests, among others.

With Masseka Game Studio, Teddy Kossoko has won many international awards including the "Pitch Your Game" of the Geek Touch in Lyon in 2017, the Tongolo Awards organized the same year by the Sewati Tongolo association. The entrepreneur has also signed many partnerships with international structures, including mobile payment solution Intouch, the CNRS, the Embassy of the Central African Republic in France, and BPIFrance.

These multiple awards and partnerships allow Teddy Kossoko to prepare more ambitious projects and enter new markets. With his team, he is working on the development of new products including a racing game called Cours Didier, Georges d'or -a 3D soccer game featuring a poor young man who wants to become a golden ball, and Imani Imanu and the legend of the Sonni- a 2D adventure game.

"We first need to address the problems of Internet access and train young creators so that they can offer games that meet international standards. African creators are still lagging despite their innovative initiatives,” Teddy said.

Beyond his creations, the game developer is now seeking to boost the initiatives of other African video game studios. He created the African Gaming Networks platform in 2019 to address the obstacles specific to the sector, including its organization, the difficulties of training and monetization of video games. In addition to referencing creators, the network also offers a mapping of the African ecosystem and helps identify talents who need financial support.

Aïsha Moyouzame