Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, lies in ruins. But a strange creature still rages, on the hunt for any surviving human beings in the city.  The army is powerless. Then suddenly out of nowhere they appear: the African superheroes. Pharaoh, the magician with connections to the Egyptian gods, Shaka from South Africa with his army of Zulu warriors, and Ruddy, the Nigerian fighter who dominates the electro-magnetic spectrum. Will they succeed in vanquishing the beast?

Would you like to know how the story continues? To find out, all you have to do is download “African Legends”. African superheroes play the central roles in this series of mobile comics. Their creator is Eyram Akofa Tawia, one of the first mobile game developers from Africa and co-founder of the interactive software company LetiArts.

Eyram, were you and your colleagues at LetiArts really the first game developers in the region?

Yes, absolutely. When it was founded five years ago, LetiArts was the only gaming company in sub-saharan Africa. “Leti” means “star” in my language (Ewe). Just as how the star guided the wise men to Christ in the bible, so are we leading the African Game development industry to success. We are the stars, the pioneers of an industry. But that was back then; now there are a lot more companies already.

At LetiArts, you basically offer mobile game, app and comic development to clients. But the superheroes are your own project. Why is this project so important to you?

Our vision at LetiArts is to transform African history and transfer it into modern times. In “African Legends”, we retell African stories through comics and video games. The goal is to merge the past with the present in a format that is compelling to younger generations.

"We are the stars, the pioneers of an industry."

So why did you become a programmer and not a comic writer?

Do you remember the comic books from back then? There were always advertisements for games in them. In the Superman comics, for instance, there would be an advertisement saying: “Play Superman on Super Nintendo”. I wanted to have those adverts in our own comics too. So I wondered how to make a game for the comic I had written – in order to have something to advertise for. That’s how I got interested in programming. I started researching coding when I was only 12 years old. At that time, I didn’t even have a computer permanently at home yet.

But you got one later?

I convinced my Dad to buy me one a year later in 1996. I told him that it would benefit him too, as he often had stuff that needed to be typed. That’s how I got ahold of my first PC: a 486 SX, 25MB HDD, 4 MB RAM. I was so happy that I didn’t leave home for about two weeks.

How did you learn to code games?

I taught myself. Luckily, one of my cousins was studying at university and brought me a book called “The Secret Guide to Computers” by Russ Walter. This is the book that made me a coder. I read it from beginning to end; I knew it inside out. Even how I chose my programming language was by accident and was all related to this book.

What happened?

I was reading the book sequentially from page one to the end. The first programming language the book presented was LOGO, but I couldn’t find it on my computer. I had no idea that you have to install the software before you can use it. The same happened with the next programming languages too. But when I got to QBasic, that programme worked! What I didn’t know: QBasic was from Microsoft, so it was already installed on the computer. As a programmer, I used QBasic extensively. I was in love with QBasic!

What were your first coding projects?

In 8th grade I met two good geek friends. Although we were minors, we managed to register our own company: TOPSSOFT Computer Services. First we developed timing software for Internet cafes. Afterwards, we created accounting software, hospital management software, and radio management software. During university, we developed High-end DJ mixing software as well. After university I was admitted at the Meltwaters School of Technology, a business incubator. I partnered with a game programmer from Kenya, Wesley Kirinya, and we founded LetiArts (back then still called Leti Games) in 2009.

What was the first game you developed?

The first game I made was Sword of Sygos. It was based on the comic that I’d worked on with my friend in junior high school. In my final year at university, I even redeveloped it in 3D.

"FIFA is the most widely played game in Africa."

I suppose you’ve been playing games since you were a child. What were the most popular games in Ghana?

During the 90s, we played a lot of foreign games. My family was middle class, so when we were in school, those who didn’t own games themselves would come home with us to play. We played Streetfighter, Mortal Combat, Sonic, Super Mario. Later on, the 3D games were popular, like Doom and Quake. But then the FIFA series started! FIFA is the most widely played game in Africa. During university, we even organised FIFA game competitions.

Why have so many more gaming companies emerged in Africa now?

They’ve seen the opportunities: a lot of music and movies is already developed in Africa, but there’s a huge gap in the development of apps and games. I believe that Africa needs to find new directions to grow, and gaming could be one.

African Legends is quite successful and shows great promise: You have tens of thousands of downloads on Google Play and you were nominated for the MTV Africa Music Awards 2014. In 2013, you were even invited to be a speaker at the Game Development Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. How did that happen?

In 2010 we attended GDC as participants. At that time, Leti Games was the only participant from sub-Saharan Africa. In 2013, we were invited as speakers to talk on the Emerging Landscape of African Game Development. People wondered and often asked me how I had learned coding without having been abroad. They expected game development to be a skill only taught by colleges abroad. But I told them it’s true, I learned it all in Ghana!

Hasn’t your dream of becoming superhero somehow come true then?

Oh, I don’t know. But in a way my hobby might have become the framework of a whole new industry, yes.