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2-Week Program 

The training program will take place over a duration of 2 weeks in Kortrijk, Belgium.

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Week 1, INSPIRE WEEK: This week focuses on guest lectures, masterclasses, and workshops surrounding a variety of topics relevant to storytelling, game design, and game development.  There will also be a visit to a local game studio. A more detailed program will be available closer to the date of the training.

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Week 2, CREATE WEEK: Game jam time!! Each team is asked to develop a 'meaningful game' based on a theme chosen by Games for Change. Participants will be guided by experts from Belgium and abroad. The game must be functional by the end of the second week. During the last day, each game will be showcased and played by university students/industry professionals as part of a larger closing ceremony.

 

Below, you will find the schedule for Week 1:

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MONDAY 23 MARCH:​

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9 am-12 pm: Building cross-border collaboration between Europe & Africa: Inspiring peer-to-peer support (Olympe Challot, Spielfabrique) 
 

While the European and African videogame ecosystems share many similarities, opportunities for cross-contintental business collaboration are still rarely explored. This session aims to bridge that gap by offering a structured overview of both ecosystems, including the current state of the industry and key existing intiatives. It also provides a practical perspective on how studios can strengten their activities through cross-continental partnerships.
 

Participants will gain concrete insights into each other’s markets, develop relevant industry knowledge, expand their professional networks, and contirbute to the growth of a connected indie game developet community. The workshop combines expert-led presenations with a hands-on collaborative activity, creating space for active knwoledge sharing and cross-border cooperation.
 

The target audience is composed of Roots & Pixels participants from both countries. The ambition is to empower these studios to become ambassadors within their local ecosystems, equipped with actionable insights, strengthened connectiosn, and the confidence to initiate future collaborations.

Building on SpielFabrique’s initiatives and hands-on experinece, this workshop is designed around two core objectives: fostering cross-continental understanding between game developers from Europe and Africa, and encouraging meaningful collaboration between them.

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12-1:30 pm: Eat & Learn (Idisen vzw, Merel Steeland)​

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1:30-4:30 pm: Storytelling, worldbuilding, & engaging game mechanics (Amber Fonteyne, Kasper Geeroms, Robin Van Dijk, Howest Digital Arts & Entertainment)

An immersive game world, a gripping story, thrilling gameplay. A good game has them all linked together. Let's explore how you can build worlds and design mechanics based on a strong player fantasy that ties in with your stories. Or would it be the other way around? You're in charge!
 

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TUESDAY 24 MARCH:​

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9 am-12 pm: Creating & marketing cultural games in a polarized world (Jennifer Lufau & Mickael Newton, Narratify) 

This workshop is designed for game developers who want to create culturally grounded, meaningful, and responsible games while navigating today’s polarized social and political landscape. Through theory, case studies, and practical tools, participants will explore how representation, African storytelling, mythology, and futurism can become powerful drivers of gameplay, narrative, and market differentiation. The session combines critical reflection with actionable methods to help developers design cultural games that are both authentic and commercially viable.

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12-1:30 pm: Eat & Learn (Narratify, Jennifer Lufau & Mickael Newton) 

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1:30-4:30 pm: Business development & marketing for indies (Dr. Andrea Hayes, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)​

Business Dev and Marketing is a practical, game-focused workshop that will unpack what it really takes to turn a playable idea into a sustainable studio. Building on key principles of creative entrepreneurship (value proposition, audience fit, business models, positioning, pitching and go-to-market planning), we’ll work through how studios can define their “why”, identify the players they’re building for and communicate that clearly through branding and marketing choices that match their scope and resources. Participants will leave with marketing / business ideas for their studios, a simple development-to-release roadmap and a set of actionable next steps. This includes validating a concept, planning a soft launch, building a community and a high level assembly of a lightweight business plan so they can start their own companies with confidence and understand what “success” looks like beyond hype. Please bring along some pens and paper to take notes and jot down your ideas / the discussions that we will have.


WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH:​
 

9 am-12 pm: (TECH ART OPTION) 3D for games crash course (Dries Deryckere, Howest Digital Arts & Entertainment)

You have some experience with games or art, but haven’t really cracked this 3D thing. Join Dries in this 3D art crash course and learn to create your very own 3D models to use in games. This whole-day workshop will take you from zero to 3D hero! (Necessary installed software: Blender & Unity)

9 am-12 pm: (PROGRAMMING OPTION) Juice it or lose it: Level up your Unity game (Dave Van Verdegem, Howest Digital Arts & Entertainment) 

Got a game that works but feels… meh? Let’s fix that. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to add juicy feedback, punchy effects, and that sweet, sweet polish that makes players go “oooh.” More impact, more feel, more fun — because your game deserves to be extra. 🎮✨ (Necessary installed software: Unity & an IDE of their preference - Visual Studio 2022 or 2026, or VS Code) 

12-1:30 pm: Eat & Learn (Flanders Game Hub) 

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1:30-4:30 pm: (TECH ART OPTION) 3D for games crash course (Dries Deryckere, Howest Digital Arts & Entertainment)

You have some experience with games or art, but haven’t really cracked this 3D thing. Join Dries in this 3D art crash course and learn to create your very own 3D models to use in games. This whole-day workshop will take you from zero to 3D hero! (Necessary installed software: Blender & Unity) 

1:30-4:30 pm: (PROGRAMMING OPTION) Unity multiplayer development (Fries Boury, Howest Digital Arts & Entertainment)

Ready to take your games online? Join Fries Boury for a concentrated workshop on the essentials of multiplayer development. This hands-on session covers the core pillars of NetCode for Unity, including:
 

  • Architecture: Understanding Client-Server logic, Ownership and Authority

  • Synchronization: Using Networking Variables and RPCs to keep players in sync

  • Real-time Interaction: Implementing networked movement and actions


Come learn how to take your Unity projects beyond the single-player experience.


THURSDAY 26 MARCH:​

9 am-12 pm: Designing games for social impact (Tatiana Skliarenko & Brendon Trombley, Games for Change)

In this interactive workshop, you’ll explore how games can go beyond entertainment to build empathy, shift perspectives, and inspire real-world change. You’ll discover how impact games align mechanics, story, and player experience to create meaningful outcomes, and develop a clear framework for designing games with purpose.

1:30-4:30 pm: Reveal of game jam theme and brainstorming session (Games for Change)

FRIDAY 27 MARCH:​ GENT VISIT DAY!

 

Below, you will find the schedule for Week 2!

 

MONDAY 30 MARCH (9 am-) - THURSDAY 2 APRIL (-12 pm): GAME JAMMING! (Together with Games for Change and Microsoft Xbox Game Camp)

THURSDAY 2 APRIL: 
1:30-3:45 pm: Game playtesting event
4-7 pm: Game jam closing event & showcase
8 pm-: DJ & Afterparty 

Location

The location of the training is Kortrijk, Belgium at Howest University of Applied Sciences (The Level - Digital Arts & Entertainment campus). Kortrijk is located in the heart of Europe at approximately 1 hour by train from Brussels, Paris, and London.

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Howest University of Applied Sciences has several campus buildings: The Level, The Square, and The Penta. All sessions will be in one of these buildings.​ 

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​​​If you are elected for the program and are an intercontinental participant (traveling from South Africa, Kenya, or Uganda), we foresee accomodation near the city center (maximum 15 minutes walking from the campus).  

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Joanna Oluoch

Kenya

Joanna Oluoch is a game designer, digital artist, and software developer from Kenya, with a background in Mechatronics Engineering, who leverages her diverse experience to merge technology, art, and storytelling. Inspired by a childhood spent in Oloolua Forest, Joanna created ARGO (Augmented Reality Guide: Oloolua), her first original game, that aims to foster a symbiotic relationship between visitors and nature.
Each game she creates is a love letter to the experiences, places, and people that have shaped her life. Ultimately, her goal is to create games that spark a sense of “sonder”; the realisation that every character, like every person, has a story as intricate as our own.

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Mergery Wanjiru

Kenya

Mergery is a game designer based in Kenya. She works as a junior Game Designer at Astrapuff and supports emerging African creatives through mentorship and community workshops.

Mijide Kemoli

Kenya

Mijide Kemoli is a multidisciplinary designer and the founder of Keeke Art, a creative consultancy based in Nairobi, Kenya that aids non-profit organizations and socially-conscious companies in educating their audiences on a myriad of social issues in a fun and engaging way through art, design and gaming.

With a professional background in art education and community work, Mijide has had the opportunity to speak about the impact of artistic expression in marginalized Kenyan communities in international forums including the 2019 Annual Comparative and International Education Summit held in San Francisco, Humanity Rising 2020: Personal Empowerment and Leadership in Times of Crisis hosted by Ubiquity, and MCW Global’s 2021 Annual Fundraising Gala held in New York. She has also had her journey and work featured on various platforms including For Creative Girls, Youth Time magazine, People Daily, KTN News and Nation. 

Moreover, Mijide’s creative practice has enabled her to attend workshops, conferences and training programmes in Kenya, the USA and Europe, providing her with the skills that allowed her to found and successfully run her multidisciplinary creative consultancy practice. Her clients to date include Amnesty International, APHRC, UN Women, CARE International, Teach for All and The Freedom Fund, just to name a few. Her most notable game design and development projects to date include What Will You Do?, Mbeteza, Gutuka and Tamaduni.

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Princess Kabeya

South Africa

Princess Kabeya is a multimedia creative passionate about turning real stories and ideas into beautiful, purposeful visuals. With nine years of experience in the industry, she has discovered that good design is not only about looks but also about how it makes people feel.

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Ruby Walne

South Africa

Ruby Walne is a game developer and programmer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Growing up she had a keen interest in problem solving and technology (all while desperately trying to get her favourite games to work on ancient hardware). Now, after a short stint in the tech industry, she's creating her own games as a programmer, both independently and in a team.
She is heavily invested in her local game dev community, attending events and game jams, even winning a few. Ruby strives to create a supportive space that encourages people to get involved in their local game dev communities.

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Sithe Ncube

South Africa

Sithe has been an active member of the African game development community since 2013, beginning with organizing community events in Lusaka, Zambia. She is passionate about advancing opportunities for games to be used as a medium of cultural expression and preservation for underrepresented voices. Her background in Computer Science informs her interest in the technical side of game development but she’s also taken a great interest in how people power our world of play. She is currently a producer at Nyamakop in South Africa working on the heist game Relooted."

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Kaatje Geerits

Belgium

Kaatje is a technical sound designer who recently graduated from Digital Arts and Entertainment. After completing a bachelor’s degree in Television and Film, she developed a strong interest in sound creation and implementation, alongside a growing curiosity for game development. This led her to pursue a second degree focused on game sound integration, allowing her to combine both fields.

Hannah Peeters

Belgium

Hannah Peeters is a freelance concept artist working in the indie game scene, as well as a teacher/content creator at Artwod and Syntra. As a kid she deeply loved stories and spent all her days drawing characters and places from imagination. Now that this is what she does for work and something she teaches others how to do, it is needless to say that it often doesn’t feel like “work” to her at all.

One of her favourite parts of her job has been meeting the creative community that comes with it. To be passionate about creating meaningful stories, characters and worlds, and finding that same passion in others has been the driving force behind everything she does. This is why she loves teaching too, because there is nothing else she would rather talk for hours about. If anything, she hopes enough of that passion rubs off on her students so they will tell their own stories one day.

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Catharina Broes

Belgium

Catharina is a Game Artist, DAE graduate from Belgium with a special interest in environments and props. She got to that role due to a childhood filled with all kinds of art, playing video games and having many international travels that inspired her to create her own stories, experiences and environments. With a groundwork set in traditional art, architecture, art history, theatre and music, there isn't a form of expression she is unfamiliar with. Her goal is to create impactful, insightful experiences that inspire both the consumer and the creator to escape and appreciate life, whether that is through beauty, melancholy or something else entirely. During her studies, Catharina discovered a passion for community and has carried that over to later endeavours of her life, working on projects such as "Lesbian Simulator", a VR narrative experience detailing what it's like to be a queer woman in Northern Europe. Other projects involve "Station to Station", "Town To City" and "Drone Tanks", the debut title for the Belgian start-up Ludum Elite, where she currently volunteers as main 3D artist.

Ioanna Efthymiadou

Belgium / Greece

Ioanna Efthymiadou is an artist and game designer from Greece, currently residing in Belgium. She has a background in Philosophy and Education, and after completing her Master’s degree, she decided to become involved in game development as a way to share stories and ideas that resonate with her. Her academic background always informs her creative practices, and she enjoys challenging prevailing concepts and ideas we have of games as playful, yet culturally significant form of expression. As game development becomes more and more accessible, she believes this is an important moment for queer and female developers to contribute their own perspectives and narratives, while exploring alternative approaches to storytelling, worldbuilding, and immersion. From a young age, she has been inspired by any form of storytelling such as games, film, and literature and has experimented with various media. Currently, her primary interest lies in 3D graphics, specifically environment creation and prop design. She is working as a freelance 3D artist and designer in Brussels and is actively involved in the local indie game community.

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Yvette Kooke

Belgium / The Netherlands

Yvette Kooke is an independent game developer with a lifelong passion for games. Over the years, this passion has driven her to build skills across multiple disciplines within game development. She runs her own indie game studio, StickyTable, where she creates original titles such as Streep and Viking Nudgers, focusing on strong gameplay mechanics and creative experimentation.

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