African Farmer is a free educational game which simulates the lives of small-scale farmers living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The life of these farmers is characterised by uncertainty. The vagaries of weather, the risk of crop pests and disease, the unpredictability of markets and other chance events, combine to create an environment in which livelihood security is extremely fragile.
The goal of African Farmer is to give players an understanding of the experience of farmers living in this complex, risk-prone environment.
Players manage a household in a small farming community, and must make decisions on what crops to grow, when to plant them, and how to respond to crop pests and unpredictable weather. They need to manage labour and provide their growing family with a healthy diet, or they may become ill and be unable to work. A more detailed description of the game can be found here.
To get you started, comprehensive documentation and video tutorials explaining key aspects of the game have been created, and the game includes integrated help options.
The game and all documentation can be downloaded here.
If you have any questions or problems, please contact us at africanfarmergame@gmail.com.
UPDATE: African Farmer v3.0 Beta 5 now available for download
An updated beta release of version 3.0 is available for testing, which includes several important bug fixes.
Version 3.0 includes numerous updates to improve the playing experience, including:
- Game statistics data has been expanded to help players review the effectiveness of their decisions and strategies.
- With the basic nutrition option, nutrition costs are now linked to the proportion of food crops grown by the household.
- Task execution ordering for agents is now regulated to give players fairer access to limited market resources such as land.
See the Release Notes for a full list of updates and bug fixes.
Version 3.0 Beta 5 can be downloaded here.
Please try out this new version and contact us at africanfarmergame@gmail.com if you encounter any bugs or problems with this release.
