13th Month · a game studio
Our stories, our heroes, our 13th month.
We make games set in Ethiopia, with Ethiopian heroes: kids racing wooden boards down Piassa, a grandmother's coffee ceremony, the café's card table, a stall in Merkato, the old game of strategy. The heroes are ours, and so are the stories.
Games take us to a thousand cities.
Rarely to Addis Ababa.
So we build our own, street by street.
Our heroes race hand-built boards.
They spill the first cup, and try again.
They play cards until the café closes.
They haggle in Merkato at golden hour.
They play ሰንጠረዥ, Ethiopia's game of strategy.
Three pours, three games, for our elders and our little ones.
Our stories, told by us.
How we tell them
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01
Real places
Piassa's streets, Merkato's alleys, the café table on the corner. Places you can walk to in Addis Ababa, built to be played in.
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02
Our own heroes
A boy on a hand-built board, a girl at her grandmother's, a card player with the loudest laugh in the café. Heroes from next door, never extras in someone else's story.
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03
The culture is the rules
The three pours of a coffee ceremony set the day's three games. Senterej opens with the wärärä, when nobody takes turns. Merkato runs on kirkir, the haggle. It is how the games play, not paint on top.
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04
Fidel on the screen
Ge'ez script stands beside the Latin alphabet in our titles, and Ethio Brains, Ras Merkato and Senterej already speak Amharic as well as English.
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05
Every age at the table
A storybook for small children, a downhill race, card games for the café, and three short games a day for grandparents and their grandchildren.
- Carta in Piassa
- Mimi's Day at Nana'sEthio Brains
- Senterej
- The Last Kushineta in Piassa
- Ras Merkato
- Budin (to be revealed)
- Secret project …
Why 13th Month
A year with a 13th month
Ethiopia's calendar has twelve months of thirty days, then a thirteenth: Pagume, five days long, six in a leap year. Our name comes from it, and so do our games.
Spin the year. Tap a month.
Six games. Pick one.
Each one is its own world, with its own look, its own sound and its own rules.
Our Games · six in the making
Six worlds from the 13th month.
A downhill race through Piassa on a hand-built board. A storybook day at Nana's. The café's card games. A stall in Merkato to grow into a trading house. The old game of strategy. Three short games a day for our elders and our little ones. Six mobile games in the making.
Market
For elders and little ones
Pick a world
Downhill raceriPhone and AndroidIn developmentFebruary 2027
The LastKushinetain Piassa
Kids race hand-built wooden boards down the real streets of Piassa. You steer with your weight and brake with your sandal against the wheel. Hold it too long and the sole cooks.
Chapter 1: One Day
The story plays between races, inked like a comic. These panels are taken from its opening film. Hover a panel to push in.
SKRRRT
Same bet. Last one to Legehar carries the bags.
I found a new shortcut.
One day I'll win Entoto.
On Abel's old plank?
On one I
build myself.
Heel on the wheel, not toes.
I'll ride with you to the cobbles.
TAP TAP
When the bus honks, we go.
3D storybook platformerPhonesFreeDecember 2026
Mimi's Day at Nana's
Mimi spends a day at her grandmother's house: a coffee ceremony to serve, cousins to find, goats to follow through Nana's story of Kaffa, and a dream of floating cups. Every beat of the book, in its order.
Adapted from the children's book by Hanna Tadesse Haile, published by Adey Books.
Trying is the win.
No timers, no scores, no fail screen, no mistake counter. The first cup Mimi carries always spills, and a spill gets the same warmth as a full cup. The game rewards trying.
Waking Mimi up
Play with her here
Mimi, in the game's own look
The toon shading and ink line are the game's, ported line for line to the browser: shade that turns warm violet, never grey, and a brown ink line, never black.
- Tapthe ground and she runs there
- Tap heror press Space to jump
- Twicefor her double bounce, a tucked front flip
- Tap a goatand see what it does
Everyone at Nana's
The family, as the book names them.
Mimi
Nana
Mama
Kiros
Delina
Alganesh
Lili
Dagy
Makda
Lemlem
Card gamesAndroid: closed test on Google PlayiPhone nextNovember 2026
ካርታ በፒያሳCarta in Piassa
Three Ethiopian card games, the way one Addis table plays them. Play the phone, pass it round the table, or play online. A story campaign of twelve chapters runs through Emama Meaza's café.
Find the joker
Watch the jebena. I shuffle, you pick.
The café's regulars
Ten people at Emama Meaza's table, each with four faces for the story's moods. Tap a card to turn it over.
ManagementAmharic firstPhonesIn developmentMarch 2027
ራስ መርካቶRas Merkato
Spread a cloth at Autobus Tera, earn a good name, and rise from gulit seller to Ras of Merkato. Roast buna, fry kolo, shine shoes, haggle with the big buyers and hire help. Birr grows your business. Only a good name makes Merkato listen to you.
Every picture in the game is painted by code, in the light of the hour.
On the phone
One thumb, portrait, in Amharic or English. The map is the game, and every stall you build shows on it.
StrategyAndroid and iPhoneOnline with friendsEnglish, French, AmharicJanuary 2027
ሰንጠረዥSenterejThe Ethiopian game of strategy
Chess with its own pieces, its own moves and its own manners. It opens with the wärärä, when nobody takes turns: both sides set out their troops as fast as their hands allow, until the first capture.
Against the computer, two players on one phone, or online with a friend through a room code sent on Telegram.
Wärärä. No turns. Move any of your pieces; the first capture ends it.
Try it here
The wärärä
Your pieces stand at the bottom. Move as many as you like, in any order, while the computer sets out its own at its own pace. A médéq may run up to four squares in the wärärä. The first capture, by either side, ends it.
NegusንጉሥThe king. One square, any way.
FerzፈርዝThe king's counsellor. One square, diagonally.
SäbäሰበJumps exactly two squares diagonally.
FäräsፈረስThe horse. Leaps in an L.
DerድርThe castle. Straight, any distance.
MédéqሜደቅThe soldier. One forward, takes diagonally.
The honour of a mate
Every checkmate wins the game, but they are not worth the same. A good player looks for the most beautiful mate, not the quickest, and the app names the one you gave. It is prestige, not points.
Each rule in the app's rulebook names its source: the reference document, Plowden's eyewitness account of 1868, our own rulings, or a choice the engine had to make.- Mate with a derRather dishonourable
- Mate with a färäsUnworthy of a good player
- Mate with the ferzBarely acceptable
- Nätäla säbäነጠላ ሰበOne säbä: a good mate
- Säbä sälatinሰበ ሰላጢንBoth säbä: a beautiful mate
- Mate with médéqHighly esteemed. With three or four, the summit of Senterej
On the phone
Three languages, two sets of pieces, and a board that zooms for players who do not see well.
Brain trainingFor elders and little onesAmharic and EnglishAndroid · freeDecember 2026
ኢትዮ ብሬንስEthio BrainsA daily exercise for the mind
Three short games a day, like the three pours of a coffee ceremony. Ten games practise memory, attention, speed, wits and language, and a word of the day in Fidel waits after the coffee.
Made for elders and little ones alike: big buttons, calm motion, no clock unless speed is the game, and colour never the only clue.
Play one here
Colours · ቀለማት
A colour's name is written in an ink. Do they agree? Answer before the band runs out. Three right in a row and it gets a little harder; one miss and it gets a little easier.
- 1One word: is its ink the colour it names?
- 2From level 5, two words: does the top word's meaning match the bottom word's ink?
- 3From level 8, the top word is inked too, to mislead you.
The inks are red, blue, green and black. Never yellow, and black reads well on cotton white for older eyes.
A colour's name is written in an ink. Do they agree? Answer before the time runs out.
On the phone
Home shows today's three games under the sky of the hour. Every game has a picture beside its words, for players who do not read.
