Games that teach how cities work

Most people learn how a city works the hard way: a burst water main, a power cut, a road that floods every rainy season. Very few ever see the whole system, the pipes, cables, roads, budgets and decisions behind the streets they walk. Games can show that system in a way no textbook can, and Africa is becoming one of the fastest-growing places to play them.

A fast-growing, mobile market

Research by Carry1st and Newzoo published in August 2026 forecasts Africa's games market at about US$1.98 billion in 2026, up nearly 12% from 2025. Mobile accounts for more than 80% of that revenue, and the number of players is expected to pass 400 million.

Those numbers describe an audience that plays on phones, often in short sessions, and is growing quickly. Other estimates vary, so treat any single figure as an indication of scale rather than a precise count, but the direction is consistent across sources.

What the evidence says about learning through games

The research on games for civic and urban learning is promising, but it is honest to say it is still small.

• Block by Block, a programme run with UN-Habitat that uses Minecraft, invites residents to redesign public spaces in their own neighbourhoods and present the results to planners. UN-Habitat's playbook describes it as a way for people without design training to show professionals what they want. The programme reports work in dozens of countries, though independent measurements of its outcomes are limited.
• Small experimental studies of games designed for civic engagement have reported gains in political engagement and positive attitudes to learning among students, though samples are modest and researchers note that games work best alongside other teaching rather than on their own.

The honest summary is that well-designed games can make complex systems understandable and motivate people to care about them. They are not a replacement for teaching or for real participation in decisions. They are a way in.

Why city-building is a good fit

City-building games have been popular for decades because they turn invisible systems into something you can see and change. A good one teaches, without lectures, that:

• Buildings only work when they are connected to water, power and roads.
• Every policy has trade-offs, and some good intentions backfire.
• Preparing for disasters is cheaper than recovering from them.
• Citizens' needs change, and a city that ignores them pays for it later.

Those lessons are relevant everywhere, and especially in fast-growing cities where infrastructure struggles to keep up with population.

Designing for players first

The mistake educational games often make is putting the lesson before the fun. Players can tell, and they leave. The lessons we take from the research and from good commercial games are:

• Make it a real game. Clear goals, meaningful choices, rising challenge and a reason to come back tomorrow.
• Let the system teach. If roads flood because drainage was skipped, the player learns more than from any pop-up message.
• Use real problems, not real politics. Draw on real infrastructure, hazards and policy trade-offs without turning the game into a debate about parties or personalities.
• Respect the phone. Small download, low data use, short sessions, and offline play where possible.
• Help struggling players. A game that adapts, easing pressure when a city is collapsing and adding challenge when it is thriving, keeps more people playing.
• Build for a global audience. The problems of cities are universal, so the game should be too.

What we are building

These ideas shape Build 2050, a smart-city game in development at Next Foundry. Players connect real infrastructure, answer citizens' requests, vote on real policy choices and prepare for real disasters on the way to the year 2050. Our goal is a game people play because it is good, and finish understanding a little more about the places they live.