What might first contact between Indigenous and settler peoples look like thousands of years in the future?
Set on a post-post-apocalyptic Earth reclaimed by water and overgrowth, this two-player, cooperative game follows the parallel stories of Terra, an elder Earthborn landkeeper, and Nova, an inquisitive Starborn youth, at the moment when their contrasting lives intersect. Through exploration and interaction with their environment, players will uncover a mystery that ties these characters together despite the stark differences that appear to separate them.
Players engage with Terra and Nova’s stories in a balanced, vertical split-screen perspective that encourages live cooperation and communication. The game presents the challenging theme of colonization found often in science fiction narratives and aims to break down the dichotomous humans-versus-aliens trope by requiring Terra and Nova to work together.
Terra Nova’s fresh take on the sci-fi genre, along with hauntingly beautiful visuals by Mi’gmaq artist Ray Caplin, makes this a must-play title for anyone interested in games made by Indigenous creators. It won the Best Emerging Digital or Interactive Work award at the 2019 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.
Maize Longboat (Kanien’kehá:ka) is the creator of Terra Nova, a digital media educator, producer, and Developer Relations Manager at Unity Technologies.
