I love a good puzzle game, and this is a really fun one, with a conceit that switches halfway through. It’s not super complicated and there are no time limits; it’s just a soothing figure-out-the-puzzle game with fun animation that’s mostly easy on the eyes.
In Thunderbird Strike, a new side-scrolling game that launches at the ImagineNATIVEfestival this week in Toronto, players can control a thunderbird—a symbol in several Indigenous cultures—that destroys as much of the oil industry’s machinery and pipelines as it possibly can. And it’s so satisfying.
The game was created by Elizabeth LaPensée, an Anishinaabe, Métis, and Irish games developer, and assistant professor of media and information at Michigan State University. She told me in an interview that she wanted to create a game where Indigenous players could reclaim some agency around oil pipelines, even if through a video game.
“Especially when we’re talking in the context of pipelines, and the oil industry, there are some wins we can have. But ultimately protectors will be pushed out and the processes are going to move forward. It’s happening with mining and it’s happening with pipelines,” LaPensée told me over the phone.
The creator of this game is getting attacked and defamed by oil lobbyists and racists
(and let’s be honest, the venn diagram circle of “oil lobbyists” is just a small circle in the larger circle of “racists”) and could really use support and advocacy:
For thousands of years, we told stories from one generation to the next. Our stories help us to understand how the world is ordered and our place within it. But what good are old stories if the wisdom they contain is not shared?
In Never Alone, players take on the roles of Nuna, a young Iñupiaq girl and an Arctic fox, in an atmospheric puzzle platformer that combines traditional folklore, stories, settings, and characters handed down over many generations by Alaska Native people whose roots and heritage date back millennia.
Featuring imagery and themes drawn directly from Iñupiat and other Alaska Native cultures, Never Alone features striking visuals, emphasizes the sensibilities and perspective of these indigenous Arctic people and requires players to work cooperatively to succeed in challenging and harsh environments. [x]
Can we also talk about how this is being created by the first indigenous game company in the US?
I saw the dev session at Eurogamer and the story of the studio is absolutely amazing. They had the most beautiful photo of one of the most respected storytellers, a woman in her eighties, utterly delighted by the game, controller in hands.
Definitely pick this up and support the wonderful people behind this game.
This is the type of game I’ve been waiting forever for.
knitting in the dark 