
"Boosted: A propulsion game" : The turning point for Ethiopia and AWS?
This is a short review of "Putting All My Hobbies into A Single Project (Boosted: A Propulsion Game) by Fenet Mulugeta" and a call to AWS.
Published Jan 22, 2025
You can read the original post here:
https://community.aws/content/2rdWAtzGv1zCkvsbVagOn0xZ922/putting-all-my-hobbies-into-a-single-project-boosted-a-propulsion-game
Over the past three years, I had the privilege of learning, experimenting, and working with AWS. Reading the article by Fenet, I was inclined to give an overwhelmingly technical review - as would anybody coming from a technical background - but I as read on and tried the game I knew just a technical review would do it no justice. I knew this piece should be a call to AWS.
Ethiopia, like many developing nations, has historically been on the lower end of the global tech ecosystem. Traditional paths to game development often require expensive software licenses, powerful hardware, and access to established gaming industry networks – resources that are scarce in many parts of Africa (non-existent in Ethiopia ). Yet, the writer went through all the hoops and struggles to produce what can only be called a masterpiece. The game feels like it was created by a dedicated department far away in the tech valleys with a team of 20 across multiple departments.
The writer's approach to the project reveals a beautiful combination of creativity and pragmatism. When I first saw mention of Amazon Q I thought this would be a project made mostly by AI. I couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the development, the writer broke it down into manageable pieces, building something of the human mind - even going further to produce the music that was used in the game. The project demonstrates how modern cloud infrastructure can empower developers to focus on creativity rather than getting bogged down by the tedious task of building servers up from scratch - which is mostly the case in the Ethiopian tech industry.
Lets get a bit technical. The service choices made throughout the project reflect a solid understanding of AWS and its infrastructure. The usage of Lambda, cognito, and Amplify is on-point but the decision to use MongoDB Atlas is one I would be wary of in this scenario. The price calculation for MongoDB can get complex and expensive fast for a high write project like a game. Data transfer would be an issue too if the game gets multiple players in different regions and uses a single-region cluster (multi-region clusters are unsustainable because of cost). I would recommend Redis via Elasticache as a blanket solution but one that should be taken with grain.
The decision to make email registration optional is probably the best user experience choice I have seen in the past year for an Ethiopian made project. It is so consistent with 'Be simple and Have Replayability' concept of the game. The attention to detail in creating multiple sound effects for button clicks - is also something worth hailing. Ask me the thing I loved most about the project? The animations. It is so smooth that a game studio would hire the developer instantly. A 200/100 for the loading animation wouldn't be an exaggeration. The only thing that didn't give me 100/100 vibes in relation to the user experience is the toasts. I do not like their position on the bottom left and they are easy to miss.
The Game physics? Brilliant. Having had the opportunity to try out this game from the early conception, I have always admired the game physics. It is clear to anybody from a technical background that this took a lot of work. I think the brilliance comes from a person who has long played games and has the technical capabilities to fruit ideas he got from playing them and areas of improvement. Having tested it on lightweight devices with strained browser speed and strained internet speed, I was impressed to see the game physics not affected at all.
As a person not heavily into music, I am not the perfect person to comment on the music tracks but I would love to see local music incorporated. I would love to see older tracks of Mulatu Astatke, Ali Birra, and Tewelde Redai in the game. Talking of localization, I was disappointed to see the absence of any local languages or any localized track names. I hope this is in production as we speak.
Looking forward, the author's plans for player-generated tracks is something that would help in building a community around the game and around the adoption of AWS in Ethiopia. I think well-made tracks can be sold by users to users as a premium service (I am not planning to sell tracks :) ). The possibilities are limitless and I hope we get to see this project around for years to come.
To AWS - I hope this is a testament to what can be done in Ethiopia and how talented developers like Fenet Mulugeta are just waiting for the access to AWS to be simplified. Fenet got access to the services because of the GameBuilder challenge but imagine what public access to AWS could unlock. Imagine what the home to Africa's third-largest tech talent pool could produce if they were allowed to pay using local currency? This might feel like a lobby for one's own country but imagine a population of 120 million with 70% under 30, the fastest growing economy in East Africa, and a country with over 50,000 STEM graduates annually is artificially barriered from adopting AWS.
To Fenet - Bravo - on building a masterpiece and on becoming the first poster on AWS community blog to post and mention Ethiopia.
Fenet's story is one of success but for every success story like, countless other developers are held back by payment and access limitations.
As I close my piece I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our Nigerian and Egyptian brothers and sisters who can now pay in their local currencies.