Minnesota developers create video game with a special mission: helping preserve the Ojibwe language

Upon awaking in a forest at the start of "Reclaim!" — a video game created by Minnesota-based nonprofit Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia — a young Ojibwe girl realizes she must converse with animals to make her way home. Players click around to make the cartoon protagonist walk around the 3-D environment, solving puzzles as she talks with an all-knowing cat and other creatures for hints on how to repair her tobacco pouch.

Unlike most point-and-click adventure games, this one has a unique purpose: It's intended to act as a tool to help teach and preserve the Ojibwe language, also known as Ojibwemowin. Every conversation in the game includes at least a few Ojibwe words mixed in with English text displayed on the screen, and voice-over actors provide dubbed audio that's delivered entirely in Ojibwemowin.

The creators said the game is intended to teach and highlight the Ojibwe language and its culture without having to sacrifice the fun of a video game. They said they saw a need for entertainment that uses the Ojibwe language outside of a school environment.

"We need a place to use the language that's not a classroom or ceremony, so we wanted to make an entertaining game that could also serve as a scaffold for learning," said Anangookwe Hermes-Roach, the game's lead developer.

The leadership team behind "Reclaim!" is made up of all Native American developers. University of Minnesota Prof. Mary Hermes, the founder and director of the nonprofit, said she hopes it can be offered for kids to play in school and at home when they might not otherwise be speaking Ojibwemowin.

The creators have partnered with St. Paul Public Schools, which is assisting with funding the game and a separate Ojibwe language learning platform called Ojibwe 7000. SPPS is funding the learning application using a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education, with the aim of increasing fluency in the language by students and families, a district spokesperson said.

The game has been in development for two and a half years and is expected to be completed by 2026, Hermes said.

While "Reclaim!" is intended to help others learn the Ojibwe language and culture, a couple of developers said it's helping them to embrace and understand their own identities as Native people.

Joshua Herron, a storyboard artist who worked on popular animated shows like "Bob's Burgers" and "BoJack Horseman," said working on the game has helped him become proud of his heritage.

"I've been somebody who's struggled with imposter syndrome for a very long time, and this was kind of a beautiful entry of acceptance, and really showing what it's like to come around and be proud of who you are," said Herron, who moved to Minnesota recently from Los Angeles. "It's about seeing how my culture isn't just this thing that's from the past, and that it's still a very thriving thing."

Herron and fellow designers said they want the game to have the look and feel of a Saturday morning cartoon, mixing in serene environments that elevate the characters rather than distract from them. Hermes-Roach noted that the game's design was inspired by other adventure games such as "Night in the Woods," and children's "edutainment" games like "Freddi Fish."

While both have experience in games or animation, Herron and lead artist Renee Nejo acknowledged they have had to grapple with representing Native culture in an accurate way that doesn't lean into stereotypes. Too often, Nejo said, it feels like Native people are pigeonholed and known only for their roles in American history and colonization. They want instead to create a modern game that still showcases Native-inspired characters and environments.

"We're really trying to make this cool thing because Ojibwe kids deserve cool games too," Nejo said. "A game that doesn't feel like a textbook, or like something that belongs in a museum."

A demo is free to download online for Windows and Mac at gim-ojibwe.org/reclaim.