Winners have emerged in the second edition of Mobo Game Jam, a global game-making competition organised by Kucheza Gaming in partnership with edu360 and Union Bank’s education platform.
The competition, which encourages young innovators (heroes) between the ages of 8-18, brought together participants from Nigeria and the UK to compete and develop video games or game prototypes that combine creativity, compassion, and computational thinking to defeat a villain causing a global problem, and by so doing raise awareness and provide possible solutions for that problem.
In response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate action, this year’s theme was clean air. The heroes grouped into two categories: U13 category (for kids aged 8-13) and 13+ category (for kids aged 13-18) were tasked with creating a game to defeat the villain of air pollution. The competition, which ran for three months, received over 500 registrations, with 10 games shortlisted as selected by a panel of esteemed industry judges. The final live showcase was held in March and global winners were selected from each category after a competitive voting process with over 2,300 votes.
For the U13 category, Mustafa’s game, ‘The Air’ came first and The A3 Production team from Warri’s ‘Air Max’ took the lead in the 13+ category, with other winners emerging as second and first runner-ups. Winners were presented with cash prizes and a range of dedicated game laptops
Speaking at the ceremony, Ngozi Akinyele, Head, Strategic Brand Management, Union Bank, shared the reason behind edu360’s decision to partner Kucheza Gaming for the game’s second edition. She said:
“At edu360, our goal is to prepare our future leaders for the realities of an increasingly digitized world. We believe education should be a holistic 360 learning experience that extends well beyond the walls of a classroom, and this partnership helps amplify our goal. Through the Game Jam, we are creating awareness about social issues and working with young people to proffer solutions. edu360 remains focused on fostering collaborations and partnerships like this that boost the development of the Nigerian education sector and provide access to quality learning outcomes for Nigerian children and youth.”
Also speaking, founder of Kucheza Gaming, Bukola Akingbade, noted that games have the power to inspire change. “We must ask the question, what do kids need for their future? By taking a considered approach, we believe video games and the disparate opportunities within the industry can help retain young people’s attention, while simultaneously utilising the tool for skill acquisition to build a better future.”
