Across Africa, millions of young people are growing up immersed in digital culture of playing games, consuming online content, and engaging with technology daily. Yet for many, there is still no structured pathway that turns that interest into recognized skills, meaningful work, or economic mobility.
Threadbare, an open-source game-based learning initiative by Endless Access, wants to change that.
Rather than treating games as distractions, the initiative positions game creation itself as a gateway into the broader digital economy—one capable of producing designers, storytellers, artists, developers, coordinators, and future digital professionals across Africa.
“We’re solving for the gap between curiosity and credential, and between credential and participation in a digital economy,” Heather Drolet, Director of Learning Programs at Endless Access told TechMoran, days after the Games & SDG Summit in Nairobi.
From player to creator
At the center of the initiative is Threadbare, an open-source adventure game built using the Godot engine. But unlike traditional games designed purely for entertainment, Threadbare is intended to function as both a learning environment and a production ecosystem.
Learners begin by simply playing the game. From there, they are encouraged to modify it by changing characters, writing dialogue, designing levels, and eventually contributing original assets back into the game itself.
The journey follows what Endless Access describes as a Consumer to Creator to Contributor to Career pathway.
A learner starts as a consumer interacting with a digital world. Over time, they transition into creators experimenting with modifications and eventually contributors producing original work such as pixel art, sound design, quests, and gameplay systems.
At every stage, learners accumulate experience points, badges, and measurable milestones tied to skill progression.
“The game is the vehicle. The skills are the destination,” Drolet explained.
The model is designed to address one of the most persistent problems in digital skills development: proving capability in ways employers can recognize.
Solving the “proof problem”
For many young people across Africa, access to learning opportunities has improved dramatically over the last decade. What remains difficult is translating learning into employability.
Threadbare attempts to solve that challenge through three interconnected layers.
The first is credentials. Learners who complete the programs earn industry-recognized microcredentials issued in partnership with Arizona State University.
The second is portfolio development. Because learners contribute to a real open-source game environment, they leave with verifiable proof of work rather than theoretical exercises.
The third is career visibility. Endless Access says the platform is designed to make digital and future-ready skills “visible and hirable” by helping learners demonstrate practical collaboration, technical literacy, creative thinking, and project participation.
“We’re building the infrastructure for digital and future-ready skills to become visible and hirable,” Drolet told TechMoran after her presentation at the Games & SDG Summit in Nairobi.
While the gaming industry itself is growing across Africa, Endless Access says the skills developed within Threadbare are intentionally broader than game development alone.
Building a broader digital workforce
The initiative’s skills framework spans art and creative production, engineering and technical systems, game design, go-to-market and community development, as well as management and production.
That multidisciplinary structure reflects a deliberate strategy.
Not every learner will become a game developer. Some may discover strengths in visual storytelling, digital design, project coordination, operations, content creation, or community management.
“We’re building a broad digital workforce that happens to know how games are made,” Drolet said.
Designed for Africa’s infrastructure realities
One of the biggest challenges facing digital learning initiatives across Africa remains infrastructure—limited device access, inconsistent internet connectivity, and unreliable power supply.
Rather than assuming ideal conditions, Endless Access says Threadbare was intentionally built for low-resource environments.
The Explore: Threadbare program runs directly in a web browser, reducing installation requirements and allowing it to function on lower-spec devices. Activities are also structured around shared-device learning models, enabling group participation where hardware availability is limited.
For more advanced learning tracks, learners use accessible open-source tools such as Godot, allowing them to continue experimenting even outside formal learning environments.
“Our philosophy is to meet learners where they are, not where we wish they were,” Drolet noted.
That philosophy has become increasingly important as African countries push to expand digital literacy while still facing major infrastructure and affordability gaps.
Shifting perceptions around games and careers
Beyond infrastructure, Threadbare is also confronting another challenge: perception.
In many African households, traditional career paths still dominate conversations around education and economic security. Digital creative careers especially those linked to gaming are often viewed with skepticism.
Endless Access says one of its goals is to reframe gaming from passive entertainment into a valid learning and workforce development context.
By combining portfolio work, structured progression, and recognized credentials, the organization believes families can begin to see participation differently.
“The narrative shift from ‘just playing games’ to ‘learning real-world skills’ can be a concrete next step for families looking at opportunities for their children,” Drolet said.
The initiative also places strong emphasis on measurable growth in creative thinking, analytical reasoning, collaboration, and technology literacy.
Measuring outcomes beyond engagement
Unlike many education technology platforms that prioritize engagement metrics, Endless Access says its focus is on measurable skill development and long-term opportunity creation.
The organization points to outcomes from programs already implemented in multiple countries.
In Jordan, learners participating in the program reported a 108% increase in self-assessed Godot proficiency and a 71% increase in GitHub and GitLab literacy across approximately 1,375 learners in 50 schools.
At Universidad Tecnológica del Perú, more than 90% of learners cited mentors and facilitators as key motivators for sustained participation, while microcredentials played a significant role in keeping learners engaged despite external personal pressures.
In programs run with Black Girls Code in the United States, interest in careers within the gaming industry increased by 15% after participation.
“Engagement matters to us, but it’s not the metric,” Drolet said. “The metric is whether learners leave with verified skills, a credential, and a clearer path forward.”
From consuming technology to building it
For Endless Access, the transformation Threadbare aims to create is not only technical—it is psychological.
The organization believes the shift from consumer to creator fundamentally changes how young people relate to technology and to their own potential.
“A consumer asks ‘what does this do?’ but a creator asks ‘what could this do?’” Drolet said.
The organization says it has already seen this transformation emerge in programs across multiple countries.
In El Salvador, learners who had never used the Godot engine reportedly began creating custom pixel art assets and experimenting with game mechanics within weeks. In Jordan, high school girls participating in the initiative went on to script projects and develop original characters and story worlds.
“When a young person realizes they can build the thing, not just use it, something changes,” Drolet added.
The long-term vision
As Africa’s digital economy continues to expand, Endless Access believes the continent will need more visible and accessible pathways into creative and technical work.
For Threadbare, success would not simply mean more players or more learners. It would mean a generation of young Africans entering the digital economy through pathways that previously did not exist.
It would mean employers recognizing portfolio-based credentials alongside traditional qualifications. It would mean African studios and digital companies being able to hire from local talent pipelines. And it would mean more young people—especially young women—seeing themselves as builders rather than just users of technology.
“We’re not building this to sell it,” Drolet said. “We’re building it to hand it over.”
In that vision, Threadbare becomes more than a game or a learning platform. It becomes infrastructure for the next generation of African digital creators.