Press release:
Tampere, Finland – 3rd September 2021:
The France-based indie games publisher PID Games and Finland-based indie games developer Red Stage Entertainment, today announced with great excitement and joy that their narrative adventure/exploration game “Skábma Snowfall” (which is inspired by lores from the indigenous Sámi people) is coming to PC (via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store) in Q1 2022.
Based on the culture and stories of Sámi, Skábma tells a fictional story of Áilu, a young reindeer herder who becomes mingled in an adventure of celestial proportions after finding an old Sámi shaman drum. As they attempt to fight the disease spreading across their land, they step onto a challenging path of
becoming the first Noaidi, Sámi shaman, in centuries.
With spellbinding traditional Yoik-singing music from award-winning Sámi musician Hildá Länsman and voiced in the Northern Sámi language, Skábma combines environmental puzzles and platforming challenges with a never-before-seen representation of indigenous Sámi stories and culture.
“The world is full of diverse cultures and stories but only a small portion of them are shown in games. As storytellers by heart, we wanted to introduce players to a game world and characters inspired by indigenous Sámi stories and culture,” says Eira-Teresá Joret Mariánná, Writer of Skábma.
“Skábma – Snowfall brings something new, yet very old, to the players through the journey of a young Sámi reindeer herder, Áilu,” continues Sahin Cengiz, Director & Designer, both at Red Stage Entertainment. Skábma will be available on PC in Q1 2022.
About PID Games
PID Games is the new publishing label created by Plug In Digital. We provide tailor-made publishing support for all platforms, from Ghost of a Tale to Paper Beast, including Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, Neon Beats, Unmemory.
Plug In Digital is one of the largest independent video game distributors. It helps studios and publishers distribute their games worldwide on PC, consoles and mobile. Plug In Digital supports indie successes such as Dead Cells, FURI or Ghost of a Tale and is a key partner for high-profile companies such as
Focus Home Interactive, Paradox Interactive, Konami, Nacon, Raw Fury or Curve Digital.
About Red Stage Entertainment
Red Stage Entertainment Oy is a small and lovable indie game studio located in the left kidney of Finland (Tampere). We believe games have something to say, tell meaningful stories and ultimately make people (and ourselves) happier. We are currently working on Skábma™ – Snowfall.
Sámi-themes for our games are not chosen randomly: almost half of the company is owned by Sámi. For us, Skábma – Snowfall is a very dear and personal project. Sámi: one nation, four countries The Sámi are the indigenous people of Northernmost Europe. Their homeland is called Sámiland (Sápmi in Northern Sámi language). Sámiland extends through four countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
From the ten Sámi languages, nine are still spoken, but all the languages are considered endangered: history of assimilation and boarding schools almost wiped out the languages and parts of the culture.
Snowfall is voice-acted in the most spoken of the languages: Northern Sámi (davvisámegiella). The Sámi’s world has changed and the traditional ways of living are facing many threats: all the way from global warming to the mining and forest industry taking over the Sápmi.
“Just a few decades ago the sámi families were in danger of losing their culture and languages: stories told from across generations were starting to be forgotten. It took hard work from the Sámi community to change that course. We are not in the clear yet though, the culture still faces many challenges and one of them is that the younger generation is moving to the bigger cities and abandoning the traditional livelihoods like reindeer herding.
Can the Sámi maintain their culture in the city and could the digital
media offer new ways for preserving and portraying the culture? Those were few of the questions we wanted to find an answer to, and ultimately that led us to creating this game,” says Eira-Teresá Joret Mariánná.
Skábma – Snowfall game is dedicated to the Sámi people and created to honour their culture. The characters from traditional Sámi stories and old Sámi beliefs presented in the game are intellectual property of Sámi. They are owned collectively by Sámi and do not belong to any individual or company.
Those wanting to learn more about the Sámi can visit:
https://www.samediggi.fi/sami-info/?lang=en
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Jonas “O.J” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
More by Jonas Ek:
Tags: Adventure games, Exploration games, Indie games, PC games, PID Games, Red Stage Entertainment, Skábma Snowfall