A digital version of Back to Batoche is giving Metis youth a new way to connect with culture while learning skills that could lead to careers in game development.
Maskwa Games built the Roblox experience in partnership with Metis Nation-Saskatchewan. Founder Josh Nilson said the project recreates parts of the annual gathering, including race tracks, Voyageur games, rodeo events, jigging and cultural learning.
The festival takes place once a year, but Nilson said the digital version allows people to “take Batoche home” and return to it throughout the year.
The project was tested during Back to Batoche Days in July. Visitors could explore the experience and receive digital Metis clothing for their Roblox characters. Nilson said the virtual shirts disappeared faster than the physical shirts handed out at the booth.
“That tells you that kids want the digital shirt, so they could wear a Metis shirt in Roblox and show that off,” he said.
Submitted photo/Maskwa Games/MN-S
The Back to Batoche Roblox experience at the Maskwa Games booth during Back to Batoche Days.
Nilson said the game is also designed to support language learning. Common words and phrases appear in Michif, and the team plans to add more as the experience develops.
“We like to say, ‘teach, don’t preach,'” he said. “People will eventually start picking up Michif words.”
The larger goal is not simply to get young people playing. Maskwa Games plans to work with MN-S citizens who want to learn how to build and update the experience themselves.
Nilson said participants will begin with an intensive course covering the basics of game development. They will create their own projects before returning to work on the live Batoche game with a professional studio.
“They get all aspects of it, the introduction, breaking through the barriers and working on an actual live game that people are playing,” Nilson said. “It’s like a real job experience.”
Nilson said he met a teenage MN-S citizen at Batoche who told him a Roblox game he created had attracted one million players.
“There are all these developers already in the community doing this at a very grassroots level,” he said.
Ownership is also central to the project. Nilson said the Batoche game and its source code belong to Metis Nation-Saskatchewan, allowing the Nation and its citizens to continue developing it.
Maskwa Games works with Elders, knowledge keepers and community teams to ensure cultural material is represented properly. Nilson said the company does not treat that knowledge as something it can reuse in unrelated projects.
“This culture isn’t ours to use later for other games,” he said. “This belongs to them.”
Game development can involve coding, art, writing, marketing, quality assurance, administration and accounting. Nilson said young people may begin as generalists before discovering which part of the industry suits them.
Creating games can also develop problem-solving, time management, budgeting and the ability to recover from failure.
“The thing that kept me out of trouble was making games,” Nilson said of his own youth. “If we provide a focus for young people and a way that they can learn a skill that’s going to be valuable in the world, this is good.”
For youth in rural and northern communities, digital work can also reduce the pressure to leave home. Nilson said a person with internet access can build a project, upload it and reach players around the world.
He grew up in a community of about 150 people and moved to Vancouver to work in technology. Today, he said, young developers may be able to remain closer to family and community while working remotely.
Nilson said young people can begin by following free tutorials and advice available through YouTube, Reddit and Discord, while using library computers and accessible platforms such as Roblox.
Maskwa Games has set a goal of supporting 1,000 new Indigenous digital creators over two years.
Nilson said success would mean seeing more Indigenous developers creating games, telling their own stories and building projects that communities own.
“Games are for everyone,” he said. “Everyone belongs making games.”
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
