There are in fact Gems in the Arctic freeze!

Okay, so I'm not normally one to talk about gaming really, but just recently and by that I mean yesterday actually I actually discovered this wonderful little gem of a game called Never Alone or Kisima Ingitchuna in Iñupiat. A brilliant little piece of game design, comes from E-Line Media and Upper One Games, and tells the story of Kunuuksaayuka first told by Robert Nasruk Cleveland.

Drawing from native Alaskan art and help gathered from nearly 40 different Nearly Alaska Native elders, storytellers, and community members this game is a work of art to say the least. To quote a bit of Wikipedia:

Told in the form of an oral tale, unlike traditional platformer games, which involve overcoming obstacles and defeating enemies, Never Alone rewards players with collectible "cultural insights" - video vignettes of Iñupiaq elders, storytellers, and community members sharing their stories

Those little insights, they're worth the fifteen dollar price tag alone if you ask me, and you want to learn about Iñupiat culture, their way of life, legends and their beliefs. There's also DLC for the game, which re-tells the tale of The Two Coastal Brothers only with the game's protagonist Nuna and her fox companion in their stead. Now, I admit in this political climate a girl taking the place of male heroes might turn a few of you off, but it never felt that way to me. The core stories are intact, and actually I quote New-Line themselves.

We get asked quite frequently why we chose to feature a young girl as the hero of Never Alone.

The team really wanted to create a strong, resourceful, smart, brave character who could be a great role model for girls. Great female characters have historically been woefully under-represented in video games and the team wanted to help change that – particularly since many have young daughters themselves.

Although the original Kunuuksaayuka story featured a young boy, instead of a girl, the change to Nuna has no impact on the story itself. Inupiaq stories are filled with boys and girls, men and women, and the gender of the characters is much less important than the wisdom and learning contained in the story.

However, the team wanted to make sure that any changes to the original were made in cooperation and consultation with the community so we worked directly with Minnie Gray, the daughter of Robert Nasruk Cleveland who was the Inupiaq storyteller first recorded telling the Kunuuksaayuka tale.

In Inupiaq culture, the storyteller who has been telling a story for the longest time is considered to “own” the story and other storytellers will refer to that person when telling “his or her” story – for example, another storyteller might start off by saying “This is Nasruk’s story” or “I heard this story from Nasruk.” before telling Kunuuksaayuka.

Minnie blessed the change from boy to girl and worked with the team to ensure that all the important elements of the Kunuuksaayuka story remained intact as it was adapted to meet the needs of a video game.

Seriously, I urge you to check this game out if you want something different, and something with a little bit of culture.