The making of Yefidelat Ashenafi

Yefidelat Ashenafi is a new role-playing game made by Enechawet Games, an Ethiopian games company founded in 2019 that is dedicated to creating engaging and educational titles. We spoke to the CEO and co-founder Abiy Hailu to discuss the team's latest title.

IsaKaba: Please tell us a little bit about Yefidelat Ashenafi.

Abiy: Sure! Yefidelat Ashenafi is an educational mobile game designed to help children and beginners learn the Amharic (Ethiopian) alphabet. It offers an interactive and engaging way for users to master the 231 letters of the Amharic script, combining gamified elements with personalized learning.

The game features fun characters like BuBu, Chuchu, LuLu, and Mita, who guide players through each level and make the learning process enjoyable. It also targets children learning to read and write in Amharic, while offering versions in English, French, Somali, and Afan Oromo, making it accessible to a wider audience.

What initial spark led to its creation?

Athletics is a celebrated sport in Ethiopia, and the country has produced legendary athletes like Abebe Bikila, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Derartu Tulu, and Tirunesh Dibaba. While I knew I could never be an athlete like them, I always had a dream of creating a runner game. However, I wanted this game to do more than just entertain—I wanted it to solve a real problem in Ethiopia.

One day, a friend of mine shared an article from one of Ethiopia’s popular news outlets, Capital. The article highlighted a study by Ethiopia’s National Educational Assessment and Examination Agency (NEAEA), which revealed a staggering literacy gap: 56% of second and third-graders in Ethiopia couldn’t read a single word. I was shocked by these findings, and it hit me that there was an urgent need to create a solution to help children learn to read and write.

That moment was the spark that led to the creation of Yefidelat Ashenafi. We wanted to develop a tool that would engage and educate them in a fun, interactive way. This vision became a reality when Enechawet Games was selected as one of the 12 EdTech startups by the Mastercard Foundation’s EdTech Fellowship Program, which gave us the resources and support to bring the title to life and impact children's literacy in Ethiopia.

Were there any moments where you felt the game might not come together? How did you push through?

Yes! There were moments when it felt like the game might not come together, especially in the early stages. Game development involves many complex tasks—modeling, rigging, animation, content preparation, game design, coding, and more—and organizing the whole team for such a large project was challenging.

Initially, the game was designed as an Amharic learning tool for kids, but as we met different people and gathered feedback, we realized the potential to make it even more impactful. We were encouraged to expand the game to include five languages, making it more inclusive.

Despite the technical hurdles and the complexity of the task, we remained focused on our mission to create a fun, engaging, and educational tool for kids. By continually iterating on the design, gathering feedback, and aligning our goals with the needs of our target audience, we were able to push through and bring the game to life.

Can you share a funny or memorable moment from the development process?

At the beginning of the development process, we had a hilarious moment with one of our developers who didn’t fully understand the Amharic alphabet. While testing the prototype, he accidentally placed the letters in the wrong order. When I tested the game for the first time, I couldn’t get past the level!

I thought it was a coding error, but then I realized the letters were just scrambled. It was a funny learning moment for our team, and now Yefidelat Ashenafi is not only helping kids learn Amharic, but it also turned into a way for our programmer to learn the alphabet—he's definitely got it down now!

Were there any features or mechanics that didn’t make the final cut? If so, why?

Yes, we initially planned a feature where players would go through all 33 levels in order while the characters were running in the final level. However, we decided not to include this in the Amharic version.

We realized that memorizing all 33 letters in order might be too challenging for younger players. That said, we did implement this feature in the English, Afan Oromo, French, and Somali versions, and we may revisit it for the Amharic version in the future.

How does this game fit into your studio’s long-term vision?

Yefidelat Ashenafi is just the beginning for us. Our long-term vision is to continue gamifying education across various subjects, including science, mathematics, history, geography, and more. We believe that gamification can make learning more engaging and accessible, and we’re committed to developing educational tools that not only teach but also inspire and motivate students to reach their full potential.

The game is currently available on Android and iOS devices. Are there plans to bring it to other platforms? If so, what platforms are you considering?

Definitely. We are currently working on making Yefidelat Ashenafi available on Windows. Right now, the Windows version is available upon request for schools and institutions. In the future, we plan to release it publicly and make it more accessible to a wider audience.

Do you have any plans for updates, expansions, or sequels? What’s next for Enechawet Games?

There's lots more to come. To make the learning experience even more immersive, we have developed an augmented reality (AR) book called Yefidelat Ashenafi Learning Book. Using our AR Yefidelat Ashenafi app, kids can scan the book with their device to see the letters appear interactively, making alphabet learning more engaging and fun.

The AR Yefidelat Ashenafi app is free to download, while the book is available on demand only. This AR project is also expanding into other languages, bringing interactive learning to a wider audience.

You can check out Yefidelat Ashenafi on mobile via the Google Play Store or App Store.