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Friday, January 28, 2022

“Never Alone” – Gorgeous New Game From Alaska Native Owned Game Company

Screen Shot 2014-05-10 at 4.23.05 PMI’m not much of a gamer but this game looks awesome and for $15… It’s a no-brainer purchase.

Never Alone, or Kisima Ingitchuna is a “puzzle-adventure game depicting a young Iñupiaq protagonist and her arctic fox companion.” You can check out more images from the game at neveralonegame.com. While a game featuring stunning art and a Native Alaskan might be newsworthy enough – it’s the story behind the game grabbed my attention.

In 2012 Alaska’s Cook Inlet Tribal Council was looking for new ways to invest. So it decided to create a video game company with an educational edge. That’s Upper One Games – the first indigenously owned video game company. [I feel stupid for not making this connection myself, but as Kotaku.com pointed out “As for the studio’s name, Upper One is a play on Lower 48, the term by which Alaskans commonly refer to the contiguous United States.”]

According to Upper One Games website it “was formed to create highly engaging digital game experiences while sharing the rich traditions of Alaska Native culture and values with the world at large. With a mission to create a financially successful global gaming brand, Upper One Games will contribute revenue toward CITC programs and services, as well as promote game design and development as a viable industry and career path in Alaska.”

Never Alone is their first game it will be available this Fall for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Description From NeverAloneGame.com

Welcome to the top of the world.

Where nature challenges life in the extreme. Where death lies waiting in the cold. Where you must explore the fantastical world of Iñupiaq stories to help a young girl save her people from an endless blizzard.

You must succeed or all is lost.

This is the first in a new category of games — games which draw fully upon the richness of unique cultures to create complex and fascinating game worlds.

Upper One Games paired world class game developers with Alaska Native storytellers and elders to create Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa), a game based on stories that have been handed down for thousands of years. A game which delves deeply into the traditional lore of the Iñupiat people to present an experience like no other. An atmospheric puzzle platformer of wondrous adventure. A game of survival in a place where survival shouldn’t be possible. A game that opens a gateway to explore what it means to be human.

Never Alone – Game Trailer from Never Alone on Vimeo.

Read more on the Never Alone, Upper One and Cook Inlet Tribal Council at the links below.

USA Today Story on Upper One

Kotaku story on Never Alone.

Native Peoples Magazine on Never Alone

Comments

comments

Comments
13 Responses to ““Never Alone” – Gorgeous New Game From Alaska Native Owned Game Company”
  1. LisaB says:

    This looks awesome. The last game I got to play as a wolf was Okami. 😀 I don’t have a PS4 yet, but will probably get one for the new Batman game. There’s a dearth of good adventure games out there, particularly in 3rd person, so consider me excited.

    I’m going to go plug it on a couple of gameboards.

  2. Your comments are a bright spot in my day…!! Thank you…

  3. mike from iowa says:

    Hapy Mothers Day to all Moters,to all soon to be Mothers,to all wanna be Mothers, and all Mothers of all Mothers.

  4. Zyxomma says:

    I don’t play video games (in fact, not many games at all: Scrabble, a few card games), but this looks beautiful.

  5. Dagian says:

    Please post a reminder this autumn because I would love to purchase this one!

    • Zach Roberts says:

      I’m on the mailing list so I should get a notice when it’s available…. Now I just have to find a way to play it as I don’t have any of those devices.

      • nDjinn says:

        Perhaps it will be released on STEAM so those of us with Macs can play it.

  6. mike from iowa says:

    Please forgive my insignificant self,but all is lost. I choke under pressure. Good to know I’m a contiguous something or other.

    • slipstream says:

      Hang in there, Mike. No one is more contiguous than you.

    • Beaglemom says:

      I would like to get the game when it becomes available for my grandson. Please keep everyone posted. It looks just beautiful, better than bands of marauding zombie soldiers killing and pillaging.

      • Beaglemom says:

        Oops, this was meant for Zach Roberts. I don’t know how my click went awry.