When people think about Disney, they probably imagine princesses, talking animals, superheroes and huge animated movies. Video games might not be the first thing that comes to mind, especially when the setting is Lagos, Nigeria.
But Iwájú: Rising Chef takes a very different direction.
The game is connected to Iwájú, Disney's animated science-fiction series created in collaboration with Nigerian entertainment company Kugali. Instead of building another fantasy kingdom that looks vaguely European or another futuristic city inspired by New York, the project puts African culture, food and everyday life much closer to the center.
That alone makes Iwájú: Rising Chef interesting.
The game asks a fairly simple question: what happens when Nigerian food becomes the foundation for a Disney video game?
The answer is surprisingly fun.
A futuristic Lagos becomes the playground
One of the most interesting things about Iwájú: Rising Chef is its setting.
The story takes place in a futuristic version of Lagos, where technology has changed the way people live. That idea is already unusual in mainstream animation and gaming. African cities are often shown through historical settings, poverty-focused stories or traditional villages.
Iwájú chooses something else.
It imagines what Lagos could look like in the future.
That distinction matters.
Lagos is one of the biggest and most culturally influential cities in Africa. It has its own visual identity, sounds, food, slang, transportation systems and chaotic energy. Turning that environment into a fictional futuristic world gives creators an enormous amount of material to work with.
Rising Chef takes one particularly important part of that culture — food — and turns it into gameplay.
Food is more than decoration
Food is one of the easiest ways to make a game feel connected to a particular place.
A game can show traditional clothing or put African buildings in the background, but food can make the world feel much more personal.
Nigerian cuisine has an enormous variety of dishes and ingredients. Jollof rice, suya, puff-puff, egusi soup, moi moi and many other foods already have strong cultural associations.
A cooking game can therefore do something that a traditional action game might struggle with: introduce players to culture through interaction.
Instead of simply watching a character eat Nigerian food, the player has to prepare it.
That creates a much more active relationship with the culture.
You are not just looking at the dish.
You're making it.
The idea of a Nigerian cooking game is bigger than it sounds
At first glance, a cooking game might sound like a small project compared with an open-world RPG or an action game.
But cooking games can actually be excellent tools for storytelling.
Think about how different foods could be connected to different locations, characters or situations.
A player might have to find ingredients in a futuristic Lagos market. Another recipe could require visiting a particular neighborhood. A special dish might be connected to a character's family. Certain ingredients could become harder to find as the story progresses.
Suddenly, cooking isn't just about pressing buttons to prepare food.
It becomes part of the world.
That's where Iwájú: Rising Chef has an opportunity to stand out.
Nigerian culture can influence game mechanics
The strongest African-inspired games shouldn't simply put African names on familiar gameplay.
The culture should actually influence how the game works.
This is one of the most important lessons that developers can take from projects such as Iwájú: Rising Chef.
For example, imagine a recipe system based on Nigerian cooking traditions.
Players could experiment with ingredients, discover combinations and learn that preparation methods matter. Different cooking techniques could produce different results.
The game could also introduce local ingredients gradually rather than giving players a giant encyclopedia at the beginning.
That would make learning feel natural.
You discover something because the game gives you a reason to care about it.
Lagos gives the game an identity
Another advantage is the setting.
A cooking game could technically be set anywhere. The developers could have created a generic futuristic city and filled it with restaurants.
Instead, Lagos gives the game personality.
Markets, streets, transportation, architecture, music and characters can all contribute to the atmosphere.
This is especially important because games often struggle with representing African cities.
There is a tendency to treat "Africa" as if it were one giant location.
It isn't.
Lagos doesn't look like Nairobi.
Nairobi doesn't feel like Dakar.
Dakar doesn't resemble Johannesburg.
And Johannesburg is completely different from Yaoundé or Accra.
A game becomes more interesting when it understands those differences.
The Disney connection makes the project even more interesting
There is another reason Iwájú: Rising Chef deserves attention.
Disney has enormous global reach.
When a major international entertainment company works with African creators and places an African city at the center of a project, it can introduce that setting to audiences who might otherwise never encounter it.
But representation works best when African culture isn't treated as an exotic background.
The creators need to make the world feel like a real place inhabited by real people.
That's one of the things that makes the Iwájú concept exciting.
The project isn't simply saying, “Let's put an African character in a Disney story.”
It's saying, “Let's build a story around a futuristic African city.”
That is a much bigger idea.
What African game developers can learn from it
There is a lesson here for Nigerian and African developers.
You don't necessarily need to make another giant action RPG to create an African game.
You can start with something very familiar.
Food.
Music.
Fashion.
Markets.
Football.
Traditional games.
Folklore.
Transportation.
Street culture.
Family life.
All of these things can become game mechanics.
Imagine a Nigerian game where the main progression system is based on cooking.
Another game could use traditional Nigerian riddles as puzzles.
Another could turn masquerade traditions into supernatural characters.
Another could build an adventure game around oral storytelling.
The important thing is that culture shouldn't only be visible.
It should be playable.
Could the concept become something bigger?
That's probably the most interesting question.
A successful African cooking game could potentially become the foundation for a much larger fictional universe.
Imagine expanding beyond restaurants.
The player could travel across different parts of Nigeria, with every region introducing different foods, characters and stories.
One area might focus on coastal cuisine.
Another could introduce northern Nigerian food traditions.
Another could explore the food culture of the southeast.
The game could even introduce festivals, competitions and rival chefs.
At that point, the cooking system becomes the framework for exploring an entire country.
And that is where an apparently simple idea could become something much more ambitious.
African games don't have to copy Western formulas
For years, African developers have often faced the question of how to compete with huge international studios.
The obvious answer might seem to be making African versions of existing Western games.
An African GTA-style game.
An African Assassin's Creed.
An African God of War.
Those ideas can certainly work, but they aren't the only possibilities.
Sometimes the stronger approach is to start with something that naturally belongs to the culture.
Iwájú: Rising Chef demonstrates that food itself can become the starting point.
That is a valuable idea because it avoids trying to force African culture into a gameplay formula that wasn't designed for it.
Instead, the gameplay grows from the culture.
Why Iwájú matters for the future of African gaming
The significance of Iwájú: Rising Chef isn't necessarily that it is going to revolutionize the entire gaming industry.
Its importance is more straightforward.
It shows that African culture can be the foundation of a game rather than just decoration.
And that's something the African gaming industry needs more of.
Nigeria has an enormous cultural library that game developers could explore.
There are myths, legends, historical figures, traditional sports, cuisines, music styles, cities and thousands of stories that could become interactive experiences.
The challenge is finding creative ways to turn those things into gameplay.
Iwájú: Rising Chef offers one possible answer.
Start with something people already understand.
Food.
Then build a world around it.
A small idea with a big message
There is something fitting about using cooking to introduce players to a futuristic Lagos.
Food crosses boundaries.
Someone doesn't need to understand every detail of Nigerian history to appreciate a good plate of jollof rice. A player doesn't need to know Yoruba mythology before becoming interested in a character.
Food creates curiosity.
And curiosity can lead somewhere else.
A player who discovers a Nigerian dish through a game might become interested in Lagos. Someone fascinated by the game's setting might search for more information about Nigeria. Someone who enjoys the characters might eventually explore other African stories.
That's the real potential of culturally focused games.
They entertain first.
They educate almost accidentally.
And when done properly, they make players curious enough to keep exploring.
Iwájú: Rising Chef is therefore more than a cooking concept attached to a Disney property. It represents an interesting direction for African-inspired games: taking something deeply connected to everyday life and turning it into an interactive experience.
The future of African gaming doesn't have to be built entirely around copying the biggest games from Europe, America or Japan.
Sometimes, the most original ideas are already sitting on the dinner table.
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