I had a chance to chat with Nick Wadhams, a freelance journalist living in Nairobi, when I was there last month. He had wanted to discuss tech issues in Africa, especially the gaming world. Maybe it was because of our joint love of computer games, or because he’s a natural conversationalist, but we hit it off all the same.

Since I had done a piece on a Wesley Kirinya, a Kenyan game maker, he had tracked me down. We talked about the future of game designers in Africa. His piece is now published, titled “A ‘Lonely’ Inventor Creates a Computer Game in Africa”:

By Western computer game standards, Kirinya’s effort is awkward and slow; there is no music, no storyline and no character development. But the game is unique because Kirinya created the engine that powers the software’s code, rather than downloading one of the many serviceable engines available on the Internet. The only element that he farmed out was some of the graphic design to a Czech programmer for $600.

(Read the whole story)