Experience first contact in the future! This 2-player cooperative platformer explores what first contact between Indigenous and Settler peoples might look like thousands of years from now. The game follows the stories of Terra, an Elder Earthborn landkeeper, and Nova, a youthful Starborn inventor as they explore their respective environments and interact with the people in their communities. Their two worlds collide after a mysterious spacecraft crash-lands in Earthborn territory and Terra is sent to investigate. Nova, in the meantime, is separated from the rest of his people and must try to find them in an alien world. Inevitably, they encounter one another and must work together to uncover mysteries of the past.
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Development Team
Maize Longboat – Creative Director, Producer
Mehrdad Dehdashti – Technical Director
Ray Caplin – Artist
Beatrix Moersch – Sound Designer
Generously Supported by
Initiative for Indigenous Futures
Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace
Hexagram Network
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
Special thanks to
Obx Labs
Technoculture, Art and Games Research Centre
mLab
Grand River Post Secondary Education Office
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Terra Nova was created as part of a research-creation project examining Indigenous videogame development from the perspective of a first-time Kanien’kehá ka (Mohawk) developer. Maize Longboat is recent graduate of the Master’s in Media Studies Program with the Communication Studies Department at Concordia University.
Website: https://maizelongboat.itch.io/terra-novaterranovagame.com
Release Date: Fall 2019
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Exhibitions
“Art and Experimental Media.” HASTAC 2019: Decolonizing Technologies, Reprogramming Education. Hatch Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. May 17-18, 2019.
“Mardi Culturel TD : Pixelles + popagenda.” Arsenal Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC. May 28, 2019.