A Māori sci-fi fantasy video game is in development and NPM researcher Hine-Kaunuku (Morgana) Watson says it's been a long time coming.
Morgana (Taranaki, Te Atiawa, Te Atihaunui-a-Papaarangi, Ngāpuhi) has been under the spell of computer games since she was eight, when she became enthralled by the action-adventure games of the Atari 2600.
Thirty years later, computer gaming technology had advanced exponentially, but most of the game themes had not. For Morgana, games that reflected her own values and world views simply didn't exist.
“If you are a gamer, you know what you want to play and during my twenties I thought ‘I can’t wait until someone brings out a Māori God of War or a Māori Tomb Raider’. I reached my forties, and was still waiting, so I started writing an action adventure story for myself,” she says.
Morgana’s first test came when she sought her sons' feedback on her story. When she saw their excitement, she knew she was onto something good. “The most important thing in a video game is that it’s fun to play and has great story telling. However, I wanted to offer something specifically that Māori gamers, nerds, wāhine, and kohine would enjoy, so we embedded Te Ao Māori and traditional combat themes into the adventure.”
The game is called Ariki the Kaitiaki Saga, which Morgana has been evolving in her spare time while also working full-time. Because artistry and authenticity are also critical to game success, Morgana sought to collaborate with others who understood her vision. Artist Jojo Barber (Ngā Paerangi, Ngāti Kahungunu) agreed to come on board with the game development, as did kairākau exponent Matiu Awarāwhiti (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Taharora), who was already developing his own board game.
“Mau rākau is integral to the fighting scenes, and I needed someone who understood the complexity of how it could translate over to a game in an authentic way,” says Morgana. The team have been working together since the Covid lockdowns, and the storyline has evolved to reflect real-world Māori concepts in a more in-depth way.
“For example, we use tapu and noa as a game mechanic which has never happened before. In a standard game when you take hits, you heal up, you keep going, but that doesn’t happen in Te Ao Māori, or our game. After you’re in a whawhai, you need to go through a process of whakanoa to rebalance and enable you to continue. It reflects our own world, where toa returning from war needed that process to heal from the trauma that was inflicted,” says Morgana.
Another critical element of the game is its representation of wāhine, as Morgana has become increasingly dissatisfied by the objectification, sexualisation and gender stereotypes entrenched in most games. “Ariki the Kaitiaki Saga needed to be different and Matiu and Jojo are totally on board with this. Our characters reflect all aspects of human personality, where any gender can be powerful, gentle, fierce and magical,” she says.
While females make up over half of gamers today, Morgana says they are starkly underrepresented in the gaming workforce. “It’s getting better, but there is still massive misogyny, objectification, and still stories being made for men through the male gaze.
“I want women to see that not only do we play video games, but we can make them as well.” She says there are many facets to being a game developer and the industry has huge potential for young women. Careers include software engineers, writers, artists, voice actors, as well as camera work. “There are so many diverse aspects that make up a good video game and wāhine can be part of this world,” she says.
Morgana says over 90% of homes have consoles or a smartphone and this technology has become part of who we are. She wants her NPM sponsored PhD to explore how interactive and authentic story telling might be a conduit to inspire people to visualise their own futures where they can manifest their own stories in the real world.
“That’s what Maori futurism is – it’s about the futures we create for ourselves. Free from colonial constructs, our narratives can work for us and reflect our own identities and visions.”
“It’s important for us to be able to create our own worlds, in our voice. If we don’t fill the space, someone else will and that’s been happening for too long. We need to tell our own stories.”