Hit video game to be presented at State Fair

WASILLA — In an apparent marriage of opposites, modern technology and traditional Alaska Native culture have come together in the form of a video game.

“Never Alone” — translated as “Kisima Ingitchuna” in Inupiaq — was developed by Upper One Games and E-Line Media. Upper One was launched by the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) in Anchorage to create video games that could “empower indigenous communities around the world to share their stories in an authentic, engaging, and entertaining way,” according to press documents.

“We want to be innovators in social enterprise. With our move into digital games we have the opportunity not only to tell our story — but to chart our own destiny and forge new career opportunities for our youth in an exciting, leading edge sector of entertainment media,” said CITC CEO and Upper One founder Gloria O’Neill in a press release.

In the game, users start playing as a young Alaska Native girl, Nuna, who is on a mission to find the source of a relentless blizzard. While trying to escape a hungry polar bear, Nuna comes across an Arctic fox who saves her. From that point forward, users have the option to switch back and forth between Nuna and her pet fox to complete tasks, or add another controller for a second player to move as one character.

When Nuna and Fox return to their village to find it smoldering and barren, they must again venture into the unknown to discover what happened, and make it right.

“You can tell they really focused a lot on making it a beautiful game, rather than just a blank slate that you run through,” said Palmer’s Raymond Chapman, who reviewed game on his YouTube channel, “TheRedShed.”

Chapman, who worked on the production of “Moose: The Movie,” is not of Native descent, but said he related to many aspects of the game — such as the harsh winds and frozen ground with bits of grass poking through — as someone who grew up in Alaska.

“It kinda felt like home at some points,” Chapman said.

The game follows a narrative based on the Inupiat tale of Kunuuksaayuka, spoken in Inupiaq by James Nageak. Nageak is also featured as a “cultural ambassador” in some of the “cultural insights” videos unlocked by users’ achievements in the game.

While perhaps not as exciting as unlocking special tools, abilities or levels, the insights do include clues to certain aspects of the game. And through 30 minutes of interviews with 16 members of the Alaska Native community, players can’t help but hear the wisdom, stories and spirituality of their culture.

Cordelia Kellie, a 2007 graduate of Colony High School, is also featured in several of the cultural insights videos. She was traveling for work this week, and responded to questions via Facebook message.

“During the time the game was being developed, I was facilitating engagements between the entity I worked for and Arctic communities. Working with people with diverse backgrounds, it provided an opportunity to share what I have been taught by my elders, family members and community. My mother has a love for sharing and teaching, and I think I learned that from her,” Kellie wrote.

Growing up in the Valley, Kellie may not have had quite the experience of Alaska Native living that her mother did, but her connection to her heritage through the game was no less meaningful.

“Growing up in a location that is different than where your family originates doesn't make the lessons and values you've learned from them less valid, nor does it make the stories from your parents, grandparents, great uncles and aunts less real. Anyone who says anything otherwise sends a message that culture isn't strong enough (to transcend geography), and that is insulting to many,” she said.

Amy Fredeen, executive vice president for CITC and Chief Financial Officer for E-Line Media, is another one of the Inupiat people featured in the game as a cultural ambassador. At first, she said, the team of developers worried that the insights might be too intrusive for young users who just want to play the game.

“You don’t wanna interrupt fun game play with something that might feel educational,” Fredeen said knowingly, as a mother of two video game-playing boys.

But as it turned out, the insights have drawn many users to the game.

“What we found is that’s been the thing that sparked the most curiosity and interest in Never Alone,” she said.

The project has also been personally meaningful for Fredeen.

“I’m a third generation removed from the traditional subsistence lifestyle, so I knew about the culture, but I had never been able to connect to it so deeply,” she said.

The game became especially impactful when she watched her boys playing it, she said — not only because they were learning about their heritage, but because one of her sons is deaf, and connects to people best when playing a game with them.

Never Alone has also been a significant money maker for CITC. As a nonprofit organization, Fredeen said, the council received as much as 85 percent of its annual operating budget from the federal government until recently. Upper One was launched in 2012, in part to complement CITC’s effort to become more self-sufficient, Fredeen said. Before then, “we didn’t have a social enterprise that really connected with our youth,” she said.

Since the game was launched, Upper One and E-Line have seen more than two million downloads of the original game, Fredeen said, and more are cropping up since the launch of the game’s first expansion pack, “Foxtales,” less than a month ago.

“The initial results are really promising,” she said. “It shows that this type of game can be really successful in the marketplace.”

“Never Alone” is available in six different languages — Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and Swedish (in addition to Inupiaq) — on XBOX One, Play Station 4, Steam, Nvidia Shield and Nintendo Wii U. It has received numerous awards, such as 2015 Game of the Year, Best Game Play and Most Significant Impact by Games for Change, and 2015 Best Debut Game by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

The game will be presented locally by Amy Fredeen and other game representatives at during an event at the Alaska State Fair on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. in the Wineck Barn, next to the Colony Stage.

For more information about Never Alone, visit neveralonegame.com. To learn more about Upper One Games, visit upperonegames.citci.org.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.