Igal here, co-producer on the project. A story and a narrative are not the same thing, and I wanted to tell you about [b]how we made Inua’s original story into a video game narrative[/b] because that is the biggest challenge we've had to overcome. This story was born at the end of the 90s, in the minds of two brilliant and prolific authors, Frédéric Bouvier and Natalie Frassoni, coming from films. Over the years, this story has continued to evolve, to gain in depth. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40083292/454bd4c9671a981f12552286371e537d47a7ccc8.jpg[/img] When they presented it to us in 2015, it blew our minds. It was singular, free, and functioned on multiple levels: Three characters (and a bear) lost in the great Canadian north, across three eras, interconnected by a dense lore and inspired by authentic historical events (The Franklin Expedition) and Inuit spirituality. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40083292/76194cb9711a3c1def6d73dcb89b8247bf9e48fe.jpg[/img] There was Frank Herbert, Apocalypse Now, Dan Simmons, a coming-of-age story, journalistic investigation, and a deep metaphysical, mythological significance. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40083292/0e0ea8c4e48b17ee3e9d994711c0c9cdff6d0bbd.jpg[/img] It was originally intended to be made into a movie script, but we knew we'd never get the millions needed to bring it to the big screen. And because it was such a dense material, we thought maybe there were ways to make it into a game. We were faced with a challenge that the designers of narrative games know very well: How can we blend narrative and gameplay? How can we give the player freedom while preserving our own freedom to craft an impactful and authentic narrative? We knew that such a dense story wouldn't easily fit into Excel tables. So we called on several narrative designers and we tackled the most difficult task of the entire production: refining this story, patiently, for months, years, version after version to make it into the narrative for a video game. Inevitably, we had to simplify. One of the most important decisions was to unify locations between eras. Since the three main characters were linked by their respective fates, we decided to take them through the same locations so we could slip in more material elements that could travel through time. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40083292/7e70f9f507c64dcfff76bbb90126584b0d9fd49c.jpg[/img] This allowed the temporal aspect of the story to stand out better. It also helped us to better divide the narrative into chapters, breaking it down into clear levels, and to start defining the scale of production. With these well-defined environments, we were able to open up spaces to give the player the freedom to explore and make some room for choices and gameplay. Of course, we also had to patiently reduce or modify many elements of the original story, sometimes making painful choices, but we tried to keep its unique identity intact as much as possible. That's where the strength of this story lies: like all cautionary tales, it is a fable so rich in meaning that it could take many forms, a novel or a comic book, a role-playing game, or an animated film. Each version would be very different as the result of its own compromises, but the message conveyed would still be strong. We are grateful to the whole team for being able to see this work through to the end. We hope that Inua's narrative blows your mind too. 🐻‍❄️ 🧊⏳ [b]Follow and wishlist the game, it helps so much.[/b]