Shalom Rayhamen Built Lagos Life in Under 12 Hours
A recently developed simulation game, Lagos life, has got almost all Nigerians under a trance. People have been raving on social media about it, playing it for hours straight. This article takes a dive into the life of the developer, Shalom Rayhamen and how she developed such a fantastic game.
Shalom Rayhamen had no plans to build a game. She came across a danfo game on X, and the idea took hold. Less than 12 hours later, she created the first version of Lagos Life. Within nine days, millions of people had played it. Then investors and advertisers started flocking in. This article tells how she did it.
Who Is Shalom Rayhamen?
Shalom Rayhamen is a Nigerian software developer based in the UK. Arise names her as Ijeoma Shalom Rayhamen, who goes by Shalom online. She posts on X as @Shalom_HeyEliy.
However, reports differ on her surname. Vanguard and Arise use Rayhamen, while Condia and WeeTracker write Mathew. This article uses Rayhamen, the name in the game’s legal information.
She is no newcomer to code. JapaForum reviewed her LinkedIn profile, which lists almost a decade of front end and backend experience. Her skills include ReactJS, NextJS and React Native. The profile also says the UK recognized her under its Global Talent route.
The Spark: A Danfo Game on X
Lagos Run came out first. Berlin-based Nigerian engineer Opeyemi Adeniran released the game on 26 September as a side project. In the game, players drive a yellow danfo through Lagos traffic. Within a few days, tens of thousands of people had played it.
Shalom Rayhamen saw it and had a Eureka moment. You see, she grew up playing The Sims 3. She wrote on X that she always wondered how Sims would live in a world inspired by real life. Lagos Run gave her the inspiration to build a simulation game based in Lagos.
Condia reports that she built the first version in under 12 hours. AI helped her move faster, according to the same report.
What Players Do Inside Lagos Life
Lagos Life launched on 1 October, Nigeria’s Independence Day. It runs in a browser, so players need no download. Each player starts as either a “Nepo” or a “Lapo. Nepo nods to wealth and connections. Lapo nods to microfinance loans and the hustle of young Nigerians.
From there, players work jobs, buy food, pay rent and socialize. They also visit landmarks such as Amala Shitta and Quilox. The game runs in real time, so its virtual day follows the real one.
Why the Game Spread So Fast
One major reason the game grew so fast is that it is easy to access. According to Games Industry Africa, Nigeria has more than 46 million active gamers. However, WeeTracker reports that only about 3.5% of Nigerians have access to credit cards. This makes it difficult to sell paid games and in-game purchases. Since Lagos Life is free to play in a browser, people can simply click a link and start playing. The link itself became the easiest way to reach players.
Meanwhile, Google Trends data shows that searches for “Lagos life” in Nigeria increased by more than 5,000% in the week after the game launched. Other developers quickly followed suit. Within days, a game called PH Lifestyle, based on life in Port Harcourt, also appeared.
The Numbers So Far
The numbers behind the game’s growth are impressive. Techpoint reported that Lagos Life crossed one million players within three days. By 5 October, the game’s dashboard showed 1,212,477 players and more than 9.6 million visits. Later that week, WeeTracker reported that the game had attracted more than two million players, with 145,000 people playing at the same time.
However, these figures came from the game’s own dashboard and have not been independently verified. Some players have also questioned how the game counts its players. Meanwhile, Rayhamen added Abuja and Port Harcourt to the game map within the first week.
How Rayhamen Pays for It
Keeping a free game running for thousands of players at once costs money. To cover these costs, Shalom Rayhamen sells advertising space inside the game. Businesses can rent one of 38 virtual billboards for ₦5,000 a week. A larger plot of land near the lagoon costs ₦18,000 per week.
Techpoint reports that some of the businesses that have bought advertising space include Salary Index, Leadway Lifestyle Fair, MyDecorTrade and ONErpm. Artists can also pay ₦50,000 to have their music played in virtual clubs. Rayhamen also shared figures on X showing that the game made $46,900 in revenue within its first four days.
However, there are still questions about whether this business model can work in the long run. In 2016, Gamsole founder Abiola Olaniran told Techpoint Africa that advertising was not a sustainable way to fund Nigerian games. Lagos Life now tests whether a bigger audience changes that math. Neither Rayhamen nor Vatar has shared what the game costs to run.
When Growth Broke Things
The game’s rapid growth also came with some challenges. On 2 October, the game briefly went offline. Rayhamen apologized by giving every player ₦100,000 in virtual cash.
Another problem came up when some players found a way to generate huge amounts of virtual money unfairly. Rayhamen reset the fake balances and restored the money that legitimate players had earned. She also promised to introduce features such as income tax to prevent the problem from happening again.
Many players responded with jokes about how real-life financial problems were now following them into the game.
Separately, an unrelated account launched a crypto token called $LAGOSLIFE. Rayhamen has not presented it as an official product.
From Game to Company: Vatar
On 9 October, Condia reported that Vatar had raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding, giving the company a valuation of $10 million.
Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola invested through his fund, Resilience17. Other investors included Oo Nwoye, Nathan Nwachuku and Abdulhamid Hassan. The funding round reportedly closed within a day.
Vatar says Lagos is only the beginning. According to the company, more than 4.7 million people had played Lagos Life. It now plans to build what it describes as “entire worlds”.
What Comes Next for Shalom Rayhamen
Despite the game’s success, some important questions remain unanswered. Vatar has not said whether it plans to expand into other countries. It has also not explained how it will turn millions of players into a steady source of income.
Keeping players interested over time will be important. Many browser games attract large crowds at first but lose players when the excitement dies down.
Still, Rayhamen has shown that Nigerian-made games can attract a huge audience when they are easy to access and reflect people’s everyday lives. Players saw familiar Lagos experiences in the game, and millions came to try it.
If one developer can create a virtual version of Lagos that attracts millions of players in just a few days, the big question now is: what will make those players keep coming back next month?
For now, I’ll keep living my Nepo life in the game.
