Carry1st and CrazyLabs launch gaming accelerator in Cape Town
Africa is regarded as the fastest-growing region for mobile game downloads in the world. Despite this huge potential, there’s still a dearth of indigenous African games in the industry.
More so, international studios often find it difficult to profitably serve African gamers due to unresolved distribution and digital payments ecosystems.
To solve this problem, we reported earlier this month that Carryst, an African-focused mobile game publishing platform raised a $6M Series A funding to tap into the billion-dollar African gaming industry.
Recently, the startup has announced its partnership with CrazyLabs to launch an accelerator program in Cape Town to promote game development in Africa.
The program will bring together artists, designers, programmers, and developers to work together to showcase African gaming ideas and establish a local mobile gaming ecosystem.
Established in 2010, CrazyLabs offers a wide selection of casual and hyper-casual mobile games with over 4 billion downloads to date.
This is the first time CrazyLabs has hosted a hub on the African continent. Countries that have ongoing hubs include India, Poland, Israel, Turkey, and Serbia.
In a statement, Omri Henkin, VP of Business Development at CrazyLabs said “The African continent is latent with potential for great ideas to be transformed into world-class gaming experiences,”
Hyper-casual, free-to-play mobile games have experienced major growth during the last few years. They are quick to develop and have the potential to be profitable 18 to 36 months after launch.
Carry1st COO, Lucy Hoffman said “Together with CrazyLabs, we are invested in growing the mobile gaming ecosystem in Africa by providing the next generation of developers with the skills, resources, and network to reach millions of users globally,”
Duration of the CrazyHubs Accelerator
The CrazyHubs Cape Town program will start in September and run for a minimum of three months, with a possibility of an extension of up to six months.
During the program, participants will receive training from industry experts and a monthly stipend. They will also have the opportunity to launch their incubated games on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Upon completion of the program, each participant will receive a certificate.
CrazyLabs will review the applications during July and August and select ten teams of 2-3 individuals to participate. They may match individual participants with others if they are not part of a team.
The accelerator will also devise a profit-sharing plan for the most successful games developed within the duration of the program. this applies to games that meet certain benchmarks for publishing on global platforms.
Interested developers can apply for CrazyHubs Cape Town on the CrazyLabs website.