2022 APP STORE AWARDS
Cultural Impact winner
Inua - A Story in Ice and Time
We love how Inua honours the Indigenous people of the Arctic, whose folklore gives this time-travelling mystery its beating heart.
– App Store Editors
Good stories transport us to another place and time, but great stories like Inua – A Story in Ice and Time make us feel connected to the people we meet there.
In this historical adventure, you bounce among characters to solve the mystery of the doomed Franklin Expedition, a real-world effort to map uncharted Arctic waters in the 1840s.
One minute you’re inside the head of Taïna, a present-day journalist covering the recently discovered wreckage, then suddenly you’re Simon, a 19th-century crewman trying to rally his mates in the midst of a mutiny. Why did the HMS Terror sink? What happened to its crew? Only by tapping into the minds of each character will you find the answers.
The game’s time-travelling twist leads to some inspired moments. At one point, we couldn’t get a clear view of mysterious rock carvings because a tree was blocking the way. So we warped back to Simon’s century and cut the tree down, clearing the path in the future.
And it was a surprise to learn that Nuna, the present-day Inuit elder, is in fact a cheeky kid we’d meet while travelling through the past.
While the game’s protagonists seem at first to be the heroes, Inua examines how these outsiders treat the Indigenous people they rely on for help.
At times there’s respect and curiosity but also ignorance and fear. Our headstrong heroes fail to heed warnings from their Inuit companions, and may ultimately pay a price.
Read more about the 2022 winners
Our favourite moment
Early in the game, Sammy Issaluk – a young Inuit hired to guide Taïna – offers some shocking news: his people knew the location of the Franklin Expedition shipwreck decades before researchers arrived.
When Taïna, the journalist, asks why they didn’t tell anyone, Issaluk scoffs. “You have many Inuit interviews lined up for your piece? I know at least three elders who’d heard about the great European ships caught in the ice... but nobody listened.”
Fun fact
Thomassie Mangiok, an educator who strives to keep Inuit kids connected to their culture, co-wrote part of Inua’s story. He joined the team after discovering the name of the game was the same name he’d chosen for his fourth child – who was born four days later.
Meet the creator
Inua is a collaboration between Pixel Hunt (maker of the poignant Bury Me, My Love), documentary film studio Iko and the European culture TV channel ARTE. A wealth of Inuit actors, artists and musicians contributed to the game, including Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer who has collaborated with Björk, Buffy Sainte-Marie and other artists.
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