WHO WE ARE

We are Mattador Starfish, making the world a better place, one video game at a time.

We are a group of people from different backgrounds and fields of expertise who have come together to make a difference in the world. Our aim is to harness the positive power of video games and interactive media. We strive to use these to form good habits and behaviours, help overcome daily struggles and even as a means to collaboratively solve world problems.

Yes, these are lofty, pie in the sky kind of goals. It almost sounds too good to be true right? We don’t approach this task lightly and we also know we can’t do this alone. Crazy goals like this only work with community input, collaboration with our fans and users and trial and error. We’re still in the very early phase of this journey, but a first step is a step none the less… ​

Our Current Focus

Education

We are passionate about video games and education but these two don’t always go very well together. “Codex Knights” is our first foray into making a game that’s about fun first but has an underlying educational aspect. We have big ideas for the future but before we can jump into the industry headfirst and bring about real, sustainable change, we need to find a formula that works. We are implementing mechanics in the game that are intended to gamify reading. The game will require the player to read the books included in the game so they can solve puzzles and complete quests. This is the very early version of the idea (and it still has a ways to go) but through continuous development and user feedback, we’re aiming to refine this into a very effective formula that can be used in multiple contexts in the future. For example, we could use this mechanic to build a game or app to incentivise students to study.

African Stories

As someone who was born and raised in South Africa, I’ve been immersed in the vibrant and colourful culture of Southern Africa. Africa is a melting pot of diverse cultures, colourful clothes, innovation and beautiful vistas. However, Africa doesn’t always have the best reputation. We tend to only hear about the negative things, especially in the media. There are many positive things about Africa though and we want to showcase these things. We want to empower young people in Africa to tell the stories that have not been told yet. We are actively looking for young African citizens to submit their story ideas, particularly stories that are of a fantasy or science-fiction nature.

Our Projects

Codex Knights

Codex Knights is an open-world adventure game designed to combine the wonder of reading with the immersion of video games. As Jiara Maverick, explore multiple living, breathing, story worlds based on African stories written by young African writers (and one or two classics thrown into the mix).