Neighbours and friends, if there’s one word that truly sums up our 2025, it’s growth.
What started as a small seed of an idea around November last year has grown into something tangible, something we can finally hold up and say, “We did it!” It hasn’t been rosy or free of challenges, but it has been deeply intentional.
Here is a quick rundown of our 2025, with you by our side. By January 2025, we began putting faces to the vision, building a team, and having conversations.
I’m especially grateful to my friend Chike Okonkwo, who introduced Leslie Osinachi-okoh to me as our game designer. Leslie designed the very first deck we used for our initial pitch, long before the later versions came into place. That first deck mattered. It helped us speak clearly to investors and the audience. It was a needed representation.
Like any real journey, there were lessons. Early on, we brought in a UI designer who stayed with us for a while. But after five months, we had to be honest with ourselves; there were no results to show. Letting go wasn’t easy, but it was necessary. Growth sometimes means making hard decisions but that period gave us clarity on the skill set and culture we needed on the team.
Later came onboard Our product manager, Creative Writer Oyewole Oyekemi and Two Volunteer UI designers, Etienne Douglas and Timilehin Olawale, who designed our logo, User Interfaces shaped our brand identity and helped set up our website. Although Etienne worked with us for three months before resigning, and we remain thankful for the structure he helped put in place during that season.
June and July marked a real turning point for us. That was when real building began. Teams started forming. We also had I also began intentionally showing up within the community, learning, listening, and sharing our story. Around this time, Our In house illustrator Ruby developed most of the first Owambe illustrations, giving visual life to the world we had been imagining for so long.
One of our proudest moments this year was being selected to participate in the Entertainment Week Africa (EWA) AI Hackathon. For one intense week at Alliance Française, Owambe Fashion Games stood in the middle of innovators across music, film, events, and gaming, sharing a vision for African fashion through play, storytelling, and technology. We were seen, heard, and validated in rooms we once only dreamed of entering.
Creatively, the year also brought beauty. Our first illustrations came to life, setting the tone for the world we’re building. we are also grateful to the Fashion brands who have believed and stayed with us, willing to collaborate with us, which we are excited about and can’t wait to have them on board.
In the first Week of December Our CEO feature on the final issue of the WE ROAR Magazine™ launched thanks to Jennifer Cairns and Kassandra Ayala-Najera for being so wonderful. Now, at the close of 2025, we are here with something tangible. A testable product. An Android beta. We are starting with a small, intentional community of testers who are helping us shape this first version of the game, pointing out what works, what does not, and what can be better. This phase matters because it allows us to build with care.
The journey was not smooth. We faced moments that could have easily pushed us to quit. Delays, changes in team structure, limited resources, and the weight of carrying a vision that many did not yet fully understand. But this idea has always been bigger than us. It is about reimagining how African fashion stories are told, preserved, and experienced through gaming. Walking away was never really an option.
Today, what began as an idea now exists as a product that has been heard by many ears and is now seen. It has been pitched to investors, discussed in creative rooms, and worked on by a team of tenacious and relentless people who believed enough to stay the course.
For all of these, we extend our gratitude. Thank you to every team member who gave their time, skill, and patience. Thank you to this community, neighbours, and Friends that welcomed us, challenged us, and encouraged us. As we celebrate this season, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a joyful end to the year.
We step into 2026 with clarity, courage, and a renewed commitment to go all out, build better, and take this vision even further.
Until next time, my neighbours, remember, The A in Africa stands for Attitude, Atarodo, and All Things Extra!