by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – HUAWEI is celebrating emerging developers in the continent, coinciding with Africa Day.
It was commemorated on Tuesday.
Huawei said through its Developer Programme, these developers are creating apps and games that are uniquely African, which will then expose the rest of the world to what the African continent has to offer.
The Huawei Developer Programme provides developers with comprehensive support, empowers developers by putting their skills to use and gives developers the platform to innovate from scratch, contributing to the entire App lifecycle from ideation to development.
One such developer is Zane Espin.
Game development has always been an interest of his, but he only started really learning about it in December 2015.
“It has been a passion of mine to bring my ideas and dreams to life and make them interactive. I enjoy the various skills you need to develop games. Game development is a meta-art. I enjoy the challenge of having to be both logical and creative,” he explained.
His most recent developed mobile game is called Gauntlet, which earned him the prestigious HUAWEI Apps UP 2020 Innovation Award for Best Game.
The game was inspired by 80s era games like Space Invaders and Galaga.
He also has another award-winning app called Slug Hunter that received the HUAWEI Apps UP 2020 Honourable Mention Award, which he says speaks to his love of science fiction.
Apart from following a childhood passion, Espin wanted to introduce a person of colour as a protagonist in the gaming space. He shares that he will continue doing his part to address under-representation in the gaming tech industry.
Another app that has been receiving a lot of attention in recent times is My Pregnancy Journey. This educational pregnancy app was named as the winner of the HUAWEI Apps UP 2020 Innovation Award for Best App and won the inaugural Category 15 Award at the 2020 MTN App of the Year Awards.
Creator Jacqueline Rogers started her first business when she fell pregnant, before coming across shocking statistics around pregnancies in Africa. She looked around at pregnancy App platforms, but discovered that none of these focused on Africa, or any other third world country. Selling her first business, her app development journey began.
Future plans are to create a whole digital pregnancy ecosystem, especially now with the global pandemic.
“Technology has become more important than ever in creating resilient healthcare models for the future and beyond. My Pregnancy Journey App already fills many gaps in the market, but we see many other gaps that we plan on targeting including creating a Baby and Toddler App,” Rogers
said.
– CAJ News