Why Nigerian developers keep turning Lagos danfos into games
Almost 20 years after the first Danfo game was built, developers are still finding new ways to build interactive experiences around the iconic yellow buses
The Lagos danfo has been appearing in Nigerian games for almost two decades, with developers repeatedly finding new ways to turn the city's iconic yellow buses and the culture surrounding them into playable experiences.
One of the earliest examples dates back to 2007, when Bayo Puddicombe, who would later co-found Nigerian mobile games company ChopUp, built the first version of its Danfo game.
The game was developed for Nokia Series 40 feature phones and would later make Danfo the studio's flagship series, eventually building a user base of more than 700,000 gamers.
The idea continued to appear in other mobile titles in the country. Lagos-based Maliyo Games, one of the country's best-known mobile studios, developed Danfo Racer, a street racing game inspired by Lagos' transport culture. The studio still lists Danfo Racer Reboot among its projects.
Different games, different danfos
In 2023, Blueportal and Play Network Studios released Aki and Pawpaw: Epic Run, an endless runner based on the popular Nollywood characters. Players run through Nigerian environments while avoiding obstacles including danfo buses and agberos, alongside masquerades and other hazards.
The game reportedly passed 130,000 downloads on its first day, while developer and Novatrax Studio founder Gideon Uwem told IsaKaba the game later crossed 400,000 downloads across Google Play and the App Store.
More recent projects have put the danfo much closer to the centre of the experience.
LightXud Studio's Danfo Saga turns the daily work of a Lagos bus conductor into the foundation for a mobile simulation game. Rather than simply using Lagos as a backdrop, the game builds its core gameplay around the city's transport culture.
Then there is Danfo Hustle, an upcoming mobile game from Okilo Integrated Hub with Nigerian developer Goondu Interactive as its development partner. The project combines arcade driving with a larger narrative set around Lagos, with players taking on routes, missions, vehicle upgrades and the wider challenges of the city's transport system.
The newest example is perhaps the simplest yet
Independent developer Opeyemi Adeniran's Lagos Run puts players behind the wheel of a danfo and turns navigating Lagos, picking up passengers and dealing with traffic into a browser-based game. The developer recently said it attracted 7,000 players within two days of launch and 85,000 in its first week.
The differences between these projects are what make the trend interesting. ChopUp's original Danfo game came from the feature-phone era. Maliyo turned the concept into a racing game. Danfo Saga focuses on the conductor's experience, while Danfo Hustle is building a larger fictional world around Lagos transport. Lagos Run strips the idea down to a quick browser experience.
They are not remakes of the same game or part of a single movement. They are separate developers arriving at a similar idea, which is that the danfo already has the characters, conflicts, humour and everyday stories needed to build a game around.
That makes the danfo an unusually useful piece of Nigerian game design. It is instantly recognisable to local players, while giving developers a way to turn an ordinary part of daily life into something interactive.
