Two former Wits students taking SA gaming global, starting with taxis and spinning

In 2022, game developers and then final-year Wits University students Eric Gardiner and Mamello Raboroko knew they had something special. Alongside two classmates, they entered their prototype for a taxi-themed video game into a competition hosted by Wits Tshimologong – and won.

Now their game Taxi Ranked has over 500,000 downloads and their distinctively South African approach to gaming development has landed them a spot in the top 15 finalists for the 2026 Création Africa seven-month incubation programme hosted by the French Institute of South Africa (Ifas).

Gardiner (26) and Raboroko (28) kick-started their independent video game company, Vetkoek Studios, with the support they received from the Tshimologong prize. This allowed them to produce and publicly release Taxi Ranked.

It’s a South African taxi game that allows players to drive a customisable taxi while dodging potholes, picking up customers, and escaping the police. The game features a distinctive bright art style as well as signature South African details like billboards advertising NikNaks and Ouma Rusks.

“I have specialised in visual effects and I like to create a unique atmosphere inside the video games and in the theme of the video game, bringing in a lot of rich and vibrant colours that makes the games quite stylised and quite cheerful,” Gardiner explains. 

“Another thing about some of our games that makes them unique is the African theme. Some are rooted right here in South Africa and our characters and the things they say are colloquial, which is an offering that you don’t often find.”

Taking spinning global

Since its opening in 2023, the studio has branched out to include games with a message. Their second game, Aquabots, was launched on the online gaming platform Roblox in collaboration with a local wildlife nonprofit to teach younger players about fragile coral reef systems and marine conservation. Next in the pipeline is a car game based on the South African TV show Spinners. 

“It’s a very exciting game that’s tapping into the spinning motorsport culture here in South Africa. There’s a lot of people out there who like cars and drifting and motorsports, but they don’t know that much about spinning. We want to bring that to a global audience and provide more content for those people who really enjoy the TV series,” Gardiner says. 

In addition to the video games, Vetkoek Studios has just launched a new corporate service offering that provides specialised training games for companies, with a particular focus on safety training. 

“A company may want a simulation to train their employees before putting them into the real world and a more dangerous environment,” Gardiner explains.

Developing games is not without its challenges, however, and the main one is funding. Video development is a long process that requires more funds to be raised further down the line.

Vetkoek Studios have also committed to hosting the Roblox Accelerator Programme, which is a multi-phase development programme that trains young unemployed or part-time game developers to develop and publish their own Roblox games, with cash payments of R5,000 for six winners. 

This accelerator programme forms a key component of the company’s future goals.

“We want to provide a bridge between being a company that makes games for profit, and being a structure in our community. We want to provide access and education, and work towards empowering more youth and enabling them to build their own independent careers, and get incorporated in our business,” Gardiner says.

A great chance to train gamers

Over the next few years, the pair would like to expand their catalogue of video games, collaborate more with their industry peers, and work formally with educational institutions like Wits and the University of Cape Town to offer their students training in video game development. 

Gardiner says that being selected for the Création Africa programme is a “great honour” and a pivotal step in expanding their studio. 

“This is a huge opportunity for us to really take off from the ground and bring our studio into a revenue generation position where we can start reliably sustaining ourselves,” he says.

“We’re honoured to have Création Africa backing us and we are going to use this support to bring in good talent from our community, and also assist some programmes that provide opportunities for young people in South Africa who don’t have jobs.” DM

Our writing about Création Africa is made possible in partnership with the French Institute of South Africa (Ifas). Création Africa is an initiative of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi, and Ifas.