Writing · 3 min read

Why I Keep Building Mini-Games

I have been making mini-games for a while, but I have not written much about why. From the outside, they can look like small additions: a rhythm challenge here, a puzzle there, a quick word game or a round of chess. For me, they connect several questions I keep returning to: How do we make stories playable? How do we help people come back to a game? And how can African game makers build work that reaches an audience and keeps creating value?

Some of our mini-games live inside larger narrative projects. In USAWA, a player might move between story scenes and activities such as rhythm, football, chess, or searching for a key. In Umoja, exploration, puzzles, sound, rhythm and other interactions help carry the player through a history of resistance along the Swahili Coast.

Those activities matter when they belong to the story. A mechanic should give the player something meaningful to do, reveal something about the world, or help them understand a character’s situation. If it feels repetitive or disconnected, it can pull the player out of the experience. We have learned that the activity itself is not enough; it needs to earn its place in the game.

Mini-games can also give a larger game a life beyond its main story. We have discussed making some activities replayable after the credits, so players can return to them without repeating the whole adventure. That creates another way to spend time in a world they have already explored—and gives us a reason to refine the activities as experiences in their own right.

At the same time, we have been developing smaller games for Jiwe IO, including Swahili Word League, Kente, Jiwe Chess and TicTacX. These are not simply cut-down versions of our larger games. They let us test a different kind of relationship with players: short sessions, clear challenges, friendly competition, and reasons to return. Swahili Word League, for example, turns language into a daily puzzle. Kente and chess give us room to explore skill, play and community in formats people can understand quickly. In TicTacX, you can only have four pieces on the board at once. Place a fifth and your oldest piece disappears—so even a game of noughts and crosses refuses to sit still.

That regular return matters. A studio cannot build a community through occasional launches alone. Players need ways to discover a game, try it, share it, and come back. Small games can help create those habits. They can also teach us practical lessons about onboarding, difficulty, rewards, retention and what players actually enjoy.

There is a business question here too. We have been exploring a stable of casual games inspired by the repeat-play model of daily puzzle products: a portfolio of games people return to, rather than a single release that has to carry everything. The aim is not to copy another company’s games. It is to understand what makes a daily ritual work, then build our own around African languages, culture, humour and play.

A portfolio of games people return to, rather than a single release that has to carry everything.

That takes patience. A small game still needs a strong idea, careful design and a clear reason to exist. A reward cannot make an uninteresting game compelling. Nor should every game be forced into the same format. We need to learn what works for each concept, which audiences respond, and how the games can support a sustainable creative ecosystem.

Mini-games have become one way for us to work through those questions in practice. They help us make stories interactive, experiment with repeat play, and create more entry points into African-made games. Some will remain part of a larger story. Others may grow into standalone games with their own audiences.

I keep building them because they let us start with a focused experience and learn from real play. Each one is a small question we can put in front of players:

We are still finding the answers. The games we have made so far are the beginning of that work.

The small games so far

Swahili Word League A daily word puzzle across Swahili, Sheng and East African culture. Play today's puzzle Jiwe Chess Chess you can learn and play in short sessions. Play Kente Punk Launch cybernetic bumpers and knock rivals out of a shrinking ring. Play on Jiwe IO TicTacX Tic-tac-toe with a four-piece limit. Play on Jiwe IO

Have a game idea, a language you want to see in a puzzle, or an answer to one of those questions? Say hi to Jiwe Studio on Jiwe IO, or explore more games on Jiwe.