Maliyo Games, a Nigerian gaming company, has released Whot King, an immersive mobile card game for casual gamers. The app, which is available on the Google Play and App stores, is packed with features that are designed to keep users entertained, and engaged.
Featuring a unique card design, orientation and user-centred gameflow, Whot King is a digital iteration of the original Whot, a multiplayer card game loved by generations of players.
Like Ludo, and Ayo, two locally adopted board games, Whot is a part of a staple of games that enjoy widespread popularity across the West African sub-region. It is considered the national card game in Nigeria.
The developer, Maliyo Games, has a record of game hits inspired by African themes under its belt. Some like Mosquito Smasher, Okada Rider, and Aboki Run are leaders in their categories for downloads, frequency and duration of plays.
According to Hugo Obi, the company CEO, “User-friendliness is foremost in our creative process. In designing Whot King, the team considered the possibility that a lot of people might be first-time Whot players. That’s why we included an interactive tutorial to simplify the player onboarding process. In fact, we expect the greatest growth of traditional games ported to virtual gaming environments to come from first time players including women.”
To illustrate the company’s attention on ease of use, Whot King was developed from ground up to be played in portrait mode. This enables players to use one hand, just like they would when using traditional functions on their screens.
To keep it edgy, Whot King has a range of card features with extra powers that allow users to bypass restrictions. One of these, the magic charm, has proven quite popular with players. Another one is the tournament mode, which allows solo players to initiate and complete games without other players.
Hugo shared his excitement about the game’s prospects. “Like many young people growing up, I enjoyed playing Whot with my siblings and schoolmates. As a game developer, I wanted to create an aesthetically pleasing and immersive gaming experience. My inspiration is to package Whot as a universally appealing game, and present it to a global community of mobile gamers. I believe that we can achieve this with Whot King.”
You can download Whot King on your Android or iPhone now.
