Until recently, no videogames on the market have told the story of an indigenous people from their perspective. But a group of Alaska Natives have partnered with a game developer to change that.

Like in movies, Native characters in video games tend toward stereotype. And few are heroes. But this game’s different.

It’s based on a traditional story known as Kunuuksaayuka and the experiences of Alaska elders, storytellers and youth.

The story follows a young Inupiaq girl and an Arctic fox as they go on an adventure to save her village from a blizzard that never ends.

Game developer Sean Vesce has 20 years of experience in the industry working on big-budget action titles. He went to Barrow to watch the students play a demo of the game. He says that day was his most memorable experience from the project.

“It was such a special moment because they were literally sitting forward, you know yelling and screaming at the players to avoid enemies and to navigate around obstacles,” he says.

Vesce’s introduction to Alaska Native storytelling began two years earlier. It arrived in boxes of transcribed stories. He says they contained tales and creatures as interesting and imaginative as anything in the movies today.

“We were just blown away at the richness and the beauty and the depth of that storytelling tradition and we realized that none of that had really been ever explored in a videogame,” Vesce says.