itch.io

Hey, thank you for the thoughtful response! It does actually make me feel way better knowing that that was your intention, and it wasn't just done thoughtlessly.

I think in the future, any sort of wink and nudge that shows that the game knows what it's doing helps a lot. Even something small, like if when you first looked at the book your friend said something like, "Oh yeah, my uncle was obsessed with that thing. It's kind of embarrassing. We're not Inuit and I don't think he's ever even met an Inuit person? He was just obsessed with that one story with no other context..." That shows that the character himself is appropriating the story, rather than making it feel like the game is. I'm not sure in this case if it would fix the finger-chopping pages being hidden in the basement to ratchet up the tension or the assumption that no one playing would be Inuit or familiar with Inuit religion, but it would help a lot. And I believe you when you say that going forward you're going to continue making the effort to be mindful of how cultural stories are integrated in your work.

Just want to emphasize again that I enjoyed the game. It was creative and well-designed, and I'm definitely going to check out The Third Shift and your other work. I hope you keep making games! Thank you for listening and staying humble.