Maliyo Games founder Hugo Obi talks investing in talent, funding challenges and launching MaliyoCon

Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan returns on November 8th and 9th, 2025, offering a chance to gain insights into the world’s fastest-growing games market, MENA.

As part of our MENA coverage and run-up to the event, we caught up with Maliyo Games founder Hugo Obi who discussed prioritising mobile in Africa, narrowing down its focus on a single title and plans to reach one million downloads.

PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about Maliyo Games and what you’re up to right now?

Hugo Obi: Maliyo Games is a Lagos-based mobile game studio creating culturally inspired, world-class games for African audiences - and the rest of the world.

Right now, our focus is on Safari City, our flagship title. It's a narrative-driven, property development and match-3 game that celebrates African architecture, lifestyle, and storytelling.

To what do you attribute your ability to continue hiring, and how do you reflect on the company's growth and performance in the past year?

We’ve made significant strides in building a high-performing, pan-African development team. The way that I look at it is like full-steam ahead, go big or go home. We have to be aggressive; we don't have a choice at this point. If we play it safe, we're going to lose, but if we go full steam ahead, we might lose.

Thanks to our GameUp Africa talent accelerator, we’ve cultivated a 30-person team spread across five countries. They're now fully dedicated to building original, polished titles that represent a new generation of African games for a global audience.

Talk to us about Maliyo's global presence. How have your games been received internationally outside Africa?

Previously, we juggled live operations for three titles: Crazy Ludo, Whot King, and Safari City. That included running events, feature updates, and user acquisition campaigns - a tall order for a growing team.

Starting in July, we’re narrowing our focus exclusively to Safari City. Concentrating our resources on one title allows us to elevate its quality and global appeal.

How do you balance your passion for narrative with the design direction your games take?

Safari City represents our most ambitious storytelling project yet. You play as Kewa, a young architect working to fulfil her grandfather’s dream of building a modern city in Jada.

The game weaves narrative progression into gameplay, complete with twists, character arcs, and emotional payoff, creating a uniquely African storytelling experience.

In a previous interview, you mentioned that you design games with Africa in mind first, which is a valid approach, and that there’s a lot to learn within the African market before expanding globally. Could you elaborate on what some of those key lessons or learning curves are?

Designing for Africa means deeply understanding our players - their culture, constraints, and expectations. We prioritise relatable stories, lightweight mobile performance, accessible gameplay, and feedback loops driven by local insights. Strong early retention and monetisation in Africa form the bedrock before we scale globally. Africa isn’t just our starting point - it’s our strategic advantage.

Also, we track everything - from store conversion and early retention to monetisation patterns. Our approach is iterative: we analyse player data, form hypotheses, test changes, and measure impact. This loop helps us continuously refine gameplay and user experience, especially within our core African audience. It’s about making informed decisions, not just educated guesses.

In your view, what are the key ingredients for a successful mobile game in today’s market? 

Three things: retention, monetisation, and live operations. Success hinges on delivering regular content updates, analysing player behaviour, and maintaining a live service mindset.

Engagement must be constant - mobile gaming today is more like running a media company than launching a static product.

In terms of funding and support for game studios, what has been your experience navigating the funding landscape? And how do you think the African games market could attract more investment?

Funding for mobile games is tough, and tougher still for African studios. The space requires not just creative chops but deep knowledge of tools, analytics, and user acquisition.

Organic growth is over; paid UA is now the norm. To attract serious investment, studios must demonstrate talent, a compelling product, a growing audience, and measurable revenue potential.

What are your thoughts on emerging technologies such as AI, AR and VR in games? And do you have plans to incorporate AI into your game development process? 

AI is transforming the way we build games. From ideation to art production and testing, AI can streamline workflows and enhance output. We’re actively exploring how to integrate AI tools into our pipeline to boost productivity, accelerate iteration, and stay competitive in a fast-moving industry.

What are your plans for the rest of 2025 and the coming year? Will you be exploring new platforms? And are there any specific initiatives or projects on the horizon that we should look forward to?

Our big goal for 2025 is to reach 1 million downloads for Safari City. The entire team is aligned around this milestone. We’re staying focused on mobile, with no immediate plans to diversify platforms.

Later this year, we’re launching MaliyoCon - our first company-led conference - bringing together our players, partners, and team to celebrate what’s next for African mobile gaming. For us it's more about players, rather than business, because we are the business. We are connecting the players to the game-making and talking about tools for making games. It's not quite a workshop, it's a showcase.