Chewatacon, the first gaming festival celebrating gaming culture in Ethiopia, began on Thursday this week. Chewatacon is a virtual event hosted by Chewata Awaki, D5 and Goethe Institut.
Gaming competitions, panels and discussions on the gaming industry, how to find funding for young game designers, awards for best developer of the year, best game, best tv game show and Chewata Awaki of the year given to the person who has personified the tenants of playfulness and engagement will also take place. Video games, board games and even television game shows will be included in the convention.
“It’s not just games. It’s the science and art of engagement. We want this to be an exploration of playfulness and game culture in Ethiopia. We’re hoping this will be an annual event.” says Dagmawi Bedilu from Chewata Awaki.
First planned to take place in April, the festival had to be postponed and reconfigured to happen online. It is expected that 1000 people from the gaming community in Ethiopia and some African countries will participate in this festival.
Chewatacon will also be the official formation of the first Ethiopian Games Association. “We want this to be a gathering platform for gamers and developers. There is a lot of introverted game developers, many young people in Addis and we want this to be a community building event.” says Dagmawi.
Weekly ideation session and game thinking will take place along with highly anticipated gamers playing Protege and Rainbow 6. Interactive sessions will be available on zoom for participants and people will be able to follow the event on Chewatacon’s facebook and youtube channels. Closing Ceremonies of this month-long festival will be on October 31 where the award program will take place.
