Maria Haipinge
Tutaleni Ilonga is taking gaming in Namibia to the next level.
Currently in the works by Ilonga and his team at TL Entertainment is ‘Explorium’, a new but yet unlaunched trivia game to market Namibia to the world.
‘Explorium’ follows two successful games developed in 2020 – ‘Cassette Roulette’, a puzzle game about music, and ‘Mkaguzi Saude’, an adventurous game about Covid-19.
For now, only a prototype of the ‘Explorium’ game is available, he told Youth Corner.
The 28-year-old Ilonga is also the founder of Edu-Game Namibia, an organisation which offers gamification tutorial courses to school students with the aim to get them to create games that solve issues around them.
In October 2019, he established Tura Life (TL) Entertainment, a tech company serving as a platform to promote Namibian culture through gaming, technology and comic books. TL Entertainment creates games and events centred on games.
“We are a studio and events company that imports and organises events that promote and sustain game development in Namibia.”
His career in the game development industry took off in 2019 through a programme called ‘Enter Africa’.
“The programme allowed me to obtain knowledge on how the game development industry works.”
Queried about why he specialises in game development, he said it is “fun and unique”.
“I am in the game development field because it’s a rare and fun field, plus growing up, I used to be a heavy gamer,” he said.
Another project currently underway is offering tutorials to primary school children at The Village through Edu-Game Namibia, which he started in May this year. “We are teaching them how to create games.”
Ilonga has plenty in store for the future.
“I plan to make Edu-Game grow in Namibia and partner with corporates in order to sustain game development in Namibia and hopefully secure enough funding to finish the ‘Explorium’ game.”
Ilonga is also the co-founder of Game Jam Africa – a platform designed to help foster game development in Africa. Also the social media coordinator for the Kino Namibia Film Festival since 2018, Ilonga organises events that promote film development in Namibia.
“I am the first Namibian game developer to ever host a Global Game Jam and Game Jam Plus event in Namibia. I do not only create a game development market in Namibia but also create a market where everyone can benefit financially,” he wrote on his social media platforms.
Check him out on Instagram: _lekido, Twitter: Supreme LeKido.