It’s a new year and a new chance for us to Intelligame together. We start with Never Alone, a game diving deep into the culture of the Iñupiat, a group of Alaskan Native people. Our live discussion is Jan 30th, and you’re invited to join in.
January 2018’s IG Game Club:
Never Alone
Games are multi-faceted mediums, experiences that create empathy and convey understanding. Still, it feels like only recently have games used that power to boost the voices of less-dominant cultures in the world. In 2014, former triple-A developers teamed up with close to 40 members of the Iñupiat community to create Never Alone, a tale of a girl traveling with an arctic fox to find the source of an eternal blizzard. The puzzle-platformer released to large acclaim, winning multiple industry awards.
Developer Upper One Games aimed to start a genre called “world games” with this title. According to their website, they wanted to “empower indigenous communities around the world to share their stories in an authentic, engaging, and entertaining way.” Never Alone combines approachable puzzle solving with a gorgeous world and a look into a culture many of us never learned about. After all, stories about indigenous people in gaming are few and far between, particularly when trying to escape the tropes of characters like Turok.
Join the IG Game Club
IG Game Club gives the community a chance to play a game individually, then discuss it communally. Think of it as book club, but for video games! Discussion topics range from game mechanics to narrative, social implications and more. Over the past few months we’ve had amazing discussions about games like To the Moon and Firewatch. Chat ranges from analytical to deeply personal, and it’s many people’s favorite part of Intelligame. It’s an amazing way to learn more about games while also getting to know other members of the IG community.
Our discussion will take place live on the Intelligame Twitch channel on Tuesday, January 30th at 6p Pacific. Everyone is invited to join the Twitch chat, ask questions, and discuss. For folks who really want to speak their minds, patrons who donate $5/month or more to Intelligame on Patreon can join EIC Josh Boykin in the Patrons-only voice chat on our Discord channel. (The Discord server is free to join, so come in anyway!) Whether you chat in text, join the voice channel, or listen to the stream in the background, it’s a great way to Intelligame.
To join in the fun, pick up Never Alone on your platform of choice. It’s available on virtually everything maginable, including iOS and Android. Game completion time is estimated between 3 and 4 hours, so you can play bits and pieces over weeks, or clear it in a weekend.
If you want some bonus points, make sure you follow the Intelligame Twitch channel and enable notifications for a reminder when we go live. Also, help the IG community by posting on social media. like or follow on Facebook or Twitter, and tag @LetsIntelligame with the hashtag #IGGC.
Welcome to the #IGGC! See you on Jan 30th at 6p Pacific.