by Temir Getachew Kediro
NEGAD-RAS (ነጋድራስ) is an Afrofuturistic cloud-river trade simulator and tactical deck-building roguelite HTML5 game. Grounded in historic African commerce and trade routes, players step into the shoes of a rising Negad-ras (Merchant Chief) navigating celestial waterways. To build a thriving Pan-African trade empire, players captain their merchant vessel across major cultural hubs—including Merkato in Addis Ababa (the greatest Market of Africa), Kigali Sky Dock, Mombasa Cloud Harbor, Lagos Delta Hub, and Timbuktu Oasis Peak. Gameplay combines supply-and-demand commodity trading (Ethiopian Coffee, Spices, Silk, Bronzes, Salt) with tactical, turn-based card combat against rogue river spirits using cards inspired by African folklore and martial traditions. Motivation Behind It The core motivation was to celebrate African commercial heritage, resilience, and economic interconnectedness through an engaging indie game format. Rather than presenting African history through a purely agrarian or static lens, NEGAD-RAS highlights the historic agency, strategic intellect, and vibrant urban marketplaces of the continent—from Addis Ababa's historic Merkato to West Africa's riverine networks. By merging ancient terminology (ነጋድራስ) with futuristic cloud-navigation mechanics, the project aims to showcase modern Pan-African creative identity in digital gaming. The Process Behind Creating It Discussing and developing creative and impressive game Ideas through different groups of people and combining, cleaning and drafting the ideas in to Game scene. after choosing the best of drafted ideas started developing entirely within Dala Studio for the CANEX Create-Thon, the creation process focused on rapid prototyping, micro-optimization, and zero-dependency execution: Architecture & UI: Engineered as a clean, self-contained single-file HTML5/JS application featuring custom UI state management (Start Screen, Dynamic Trade HUD, Interactive Guide Modal, and Combat Arena). Economic Engine: Designed a dynamic price-shifting algorithm that calculates commodity values based on regional supply/demand bonuses and selected difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, Hard). Turn-Based Combat System: Built a custom deck-building logic module handling card drawing, energy management, block/attack resolution, and procedural enemy AI turns.