Never Alone tells a tale of a native Alaskan girl and her arctic fox friend

Leaping blizzards

When people lament the lack of diversity in videogame characters, one argument that always seems to crop up is that those who point out the disparity should have the sole responsibility of remedying it. Despite the fallacy of that argument, it seems like Upper One Games is doing just that with Never Alone (or Kisima Inŋitchuŋa in Iñupiat), which aims to represent the culture of the native Alaskan tribe without using harmful or dated stereotypes.

Never Alone is a puzzle platformer starring an Iñupiaq girl named Nuna and her arctic fox sidekick. It can be played as either a two-player cooperative experience or solo with the player switching between the two roles at will. From a pure gameplay perspective, it looks fairly standard, but as a use of the medium to share culture with an otherwise ignorant audience (and I include myself in that), it could be very special.

If the fox dies at the end I will not forgive the developers.