Analysis of Never Alone Game Essay Example

When I first played the game Never Alone, within the first ten minutes I understood why we were playing the game for the class. The premise of the game is that a horrible blizzard is bearing down on this village and a girl named Nuna leaves to find the source and end the blizzard so that her village can live in peace. The starting documentary-style videos, and cutscenes, tell the player that this game is a story first and platformer second. The game takes no time in centering its existence as a game that is a labor of love for Iñupiaq and Alaskan native peoples; the themes and gameplay are entirely through the lens of native ethics and culture. My experience with the game is an overall positive one, and I have had to take time to try and fully understand the game in its entirety. Reflecting on my experience requires introspection on my part and study of the lessons taught within the game itself. Each part of the game allows me to ask myself why a certain aspect is how it is and how the culture influenced it exactly and how it can be learned from.

The name of the game is the first impression, it is the foundation for expectations, for the setting and themes. The name Kisima Ingitchuna translated as “Never Alone” has another translation of “I Am Not Alone”, it is this alternate translation that emphasizes what loneliness means. Whether it be in gameplay with the Fox assisting and spirits guiding you throughout the game, relying on each other, or the community that you seek to save from the blizzard, you are not alone in the story. The beginning of the game states clearly “She would have died had she been alone”, when the Fox companion is introduced.

One ethical lesson within the game is with “The Manslayer”, the one who destroyed the village while Nuna was away, acting selfishly and destroying the village and community who was already devastated by the blizzard. Within the course of the game, he is eventually defeated by the fires that he created, and he is responsible for his demise. Just that it can only take one person to help so many; one person can also hurt so many. The role and importance of the community in indigenous ethics are important to not only the culture of the game but for understanding the role of the environment in those ethics as well. The Manslayer is the direct opposite of Nuna, the selfish versus the selfless, the attacker of a community versus its helper. 

McGrath, in the passage on Sila, writes, “...with our abilities to impact nature in many ways, we also bear serious responsibilities that need to be acknowledged.” Nuna trying to end the blizzard is her attempt to impact nature in this way, and she sees her responsibility to her community as serious as that impact. McGrath continued, “What we do to our natural environment and to other beings, we do to ourselves; we have an obligation to endeavor to live in harmony with all forms of life”. This passage finds its way into the game in many ways, the violent polar bear from the beginning of the game at the very end is running away in the same vein as you are. The giant’s ax breaking was itself a way to restore harmony, that the giant's actions were affecting the weather and hurting the village and only by stopping the breaking of the mountain could the blizzard end.

Indigenous knowledge is very well integrated into the game, the game coming from native peoples means that the entire development process was created with the goal of this integration of culture and lessons. In the passage on worldviews, Fornoff writes, “It urges us to look for other models that conceptualize the relationship between human and nonhuman not as disconnected but as intimate and enmeshed”. This type of model is identified in the game, knowledge of the indigenous relationships with the climate is taught out not simply through the short videos, but also in the narration, world-building, and gameplay. The cycle of gameplay into video allows for both passive and active learning, which is different from other sources from the class such as full feature-length documentaries or passages from journals. Sila is the name for climate, and it is very purposeful that the character who deals with the blizzard is name Nuna, meaning land.

Never Alone is about community and how they deal with the climate, how it gives and how it takes away, and how community can allow one to overcome the obstacles that come with it. The way in which the game portrays the environment is very rich and the threat of the blizzard can be felt even in the level design. 

http://neveralonegame.com/game/

Upper One Games. 2014. Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa). E-Line Media. PC.