Swipe to the left to dodge the car ahead. Swipe to the right to swerve around a heap of tyres blocking the road. Hit the brake as you approach the yellow-lined bus stop. Passengers tumble out, new ones climb in, and you hit the gas to keep going. A 3D figure carrying a tray steps into the road, so you hit the horn and the familiar pom-pom-pom rings out.
This is Lagos Run, a browser-based endless runner that has taken over Nigerian social media timelines over the past two days. Built by Opeyemi Adeniran, a Berlin-based senior frontend engineer who posts on X as Eureka, the game has drawn more than 20,000 players within two days of its public release, according to him.
Like most endless-runner games, the rules are simple. Players use swipe gestures to steer a danfo, the yellow, black-lined public buses particular to Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city, collecting coins and boosters along the way. Players must pull over at bus stops to drop off and pick up passengers, dodge other vehicles and pedestrians crossing the road, swerve around roadblocks, and navigate the traffic without crashing.
There are road signs, missions and levels to complete, a leaderboard to compete on, and a radio playing in the background. The result is a digital Lagos, rooted in Ojuelegba, a suburb where Adeniran grew up.
Originally published by TechCabal.