The games Africa plays, all in one app.
Ibile Hub brings 38 games together: Ayò, Whot and Ludo beside chess, pool and a dozen board games from across the continent. Play friends, strangers or the computer, with one account and one wallet for all of it.
Mancala
Sow the seeds, count the pits, capture the rest. The oldest board games on the continent.
Board
Strategy on a grid: chess and draughts beside Morabaraba, Fanorona and Shax.
Cards
Whot, and the trick-taking games people deal at every gathering.
Race
Dice and a dash home. Ludo, Snakes & Ladders and Backgammon.
Quick play
Five-minute games for the bus stop, including a word game in Yorùbá and English.
However you like to play.
Every game works three ways. Pick the one that suits the evening.
With your people
Add friends by name or email, see who's online, and challenge them to any game from their profile. Chat between rounds, and send cowries when someone deserves them.
A game you can't finish in one sitting waits on your home screen, showing whose turn it is.
Against the computer
Every two-player game has a computer opponent, from Easy up to Master. Ayò and Oware can coach you, explaining every sow and capture as you play.
Practice games work offline, and 29 of the games can be played on a 3D board.
For a rating
Each game keeps its own rating, starting at 1200. Ranked matches move it, leaderboards show where you stand among everyone and among your friends, and tournaments put a whole field at one table.
Ranked play allows cosmetics only. No boosters, so the better player wins.
Games that grew up here.
Most game apps stop at Ludo and chess. Ibile Hub also carries the board and card games played from Dakar to Mombasa, built with their real rules.
- Ayò Olopon Nigeria Sow seeds anticlockwise from one of your six pits; if your last seed makes an opponent's pit hold 2 or 3, you capture it. First to 25 of the 48 seeds wins.
- Bao East Africa Sow around your own two rows and relay from full pits. Land your last seed in a front-row pit to capture the opponent's pit opposite. Leave your opponent with no legal move to win.
- Omweso Uganda Sow around your own two rows and relay from full pits. Land in your front row opposite two full enemy pits to take their seeds and sow them on. Leave your opponent with no legal move to win.
- Whot Nigeria Get rid of your cards by matching the shape or number on top of the pile. Whot cards are wild. The first player to empty their hand wins.
- Morabaraba Southern Africa Place and then move your 12 cows to make mills of three in a row, and shoot an opposing cow with each mill. Reduce your opponent to two cows, or leave them with no move, to win.
- Fanorona Madagascar Slide a piece along a line to capture by approach or withdrawal: moving towards an enemy line or away from one removes that whole line. Clear the opponent's pieces to win.
- Shax Horn of Africa Place and then move your pieces to form lines of three and remove an opposing piece with each one. Reduce your opponent below three pieces, or leave them stuck, to win.
- Seega North Africa Fill the board two pieces at a time, then slide to trap enemy pieces between two of yours. Capture them all, or leave your opponent with no move, to win.
- Yoté Senegal / Mali Drop your pieces onto the board, slide them, and jump enemy pieces to capture. Each capture also lets you remove a second enemy piece. Take all of your opponent's pieces to win.
- Achi Ghana Place your four pieces, then slide them along the lines. The first to get three in a row wins.
One wallet for every game.
What you earn in one game spends in all of them. There are three things in it.
Coins
Bought in naira through Paystack, by card, bank transfer or USSD. One coin is one naira, and bigger bundles come with bonus coins. Coins pay for tournament tickets and store items.
Cowries
Earned, never bought: from your daily reward, missions and wins. Spend them in the store, enter tournaments with them, or gift them to friends.
Gems
Made from coins, ten coins to a gem. Gems buy cosmetics: board, piece and card skins.
None of them is money. They can't be cashed out or withdrawn, and no game on Ibile Hub pays out cash. You play for the win, your rating and the cowries.
Play that stays fun.
Ibile Hub is for adults, and it comes with the controls to keep play in its place.
- Set daily, weekly or monthly top-up limits, a daily spending limit and a daily time limit.
- Take a break for 7, 14 or 30 days. During a break you can't play matches, top up or spend.
- Tightening a limit works at once. Loosening one waits 24 hours, so a limit can't be undone in the heat of a game.
Get a seat at the table.
Ibile Hub opens in Lagos first, on Android, iPhone and the web. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the day it does.