Release Date: Spring 2023 Platforms: Mac/PC Price: TBD
Developer: Studio Ekosi Publisher: Self-published Location: Edmonton, AB
Links: Steam page Itch.io page Website: coming soon
Contact: [email protected]
Mikiwam is a visual novel about people rebuilding their relationships to themselves and each other in the aftermath of decolonization.
The story is set in a post-colonial fantasy world with its own magical lore, where you play as Awâsis, an herbalist’s apprentice who is struggling to understand her powers and her place in the world. Characters will visit looking for help, and the player’s choice of plants will affect the story.
Awâsis sees people's moods as elements, and she can influence people by giving them a tea to shift them into a different element. Use her gift to influence the lives of a unique cast of characters. Your choices ripple out to affect people's relationships and the larger community's development. As you learn about new plants, you can find new reactions and storylines.
After attending imagineNATIVE festival in 2019 and being inspired by the inDigital space full of Indigenous-made games, sisters Keara and Caeleigh Lightning decided to make a videogame before the next year’s festival. Their first game, a prototype of Mikiwam, was exhibited in the online imagineNATIVE 2020 festival. After receiving generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, they were able to continue work on Mikiwam in 2021-2022. They exhibited the new demo in imagineNATIVE 2022 and won the New Artist in Digital + Interactive Award presented by the Indigenous Screen Office. The demo is available now on itch.io.
Mikiwam Announcement Trailer Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfc3m9XfhjQ
download all screenshots, logos and gifs as a .zip (9.9 MB)
Keara Lightning - Programming / Writing