Indigenous traditions inspire new video game from Nebraska, Wisconsin stations

At this year’s Menominee Contest Powwow in northeast Wisconsin, Nebraska Public Media and PBS Wisconsin launched their new immersive video game, Powwow Bound. 

Inviting players into a virtual representation of the powwow grounds, the game tells the story of a 15-year-old girl, Deborah Jo or DJ, as she travels with her family to the reservation and investigates why her mom no longer dances in the competition. Along the way, players help DJ learn some dance steps in a minigame with the computer’s arrow keys. 

Jacob Schwitzer, a software developer at Nebraska Public Media and a Menominee first descendant, and Angelina Shi, an interactive media producer at PBS Wisconsin, co-led the collaborative production. Over nearly three years, PBS Wisconsin oversaw the game’s creative development while Nebraska Public Media — relying on its labs department — managed technical production. 

The game’s creative team aimed to show authentic Menominee life in the present day and counter stereotypical representations of Indigenous people still seen in other media. 

And reactions from community members who demoed the game at the August powwow, where the public media partners hosted a tent, would suggest it did just that. 

“Everyone who came up was blown away by not only the design of the world — the fact that it reflected the actual space that we were in during the powwow — but the attention to detail that was taken by our artists of … specific elements within our powwow grounds,” Schwitzer said. “People were just flabbergasted, honestly, that anybody made something like this.” 

Jacob’s twin brother Nicholas Schwitzer developed characters for the game and participated in the launch at the powwow. He heard similar reactions from children who played a demo of the game at the powwow. 

Looking at kid characters who appear in the background of the game, they said “Hey that’s me!” or “Oh, that could be me, though it just needs a red shirt,” Nicholas recalled.

Journey to the dance circle

Nicholas was one of the eight Menominee descendants and enrolled members who worked on the game as advisers or designers. 

Early on, Jacob brought colleagues from both PBS Wisconsin and Nebraska Public Media to the reservation near Keshena, Wis., to meet Menominee members and see the Woodland Bowl where the powwow contest takes place. The project team also tested earlier versions of the game in sessions on the reservation. 

Nebraska Public Media and PBS Wisconsin organizations split costs evenly, according to Kim Rogers, a senior communication specialist at Nebraska Public Media. Vision Maker Media, an organization that funds and creates content for public media by and about Native Americans, also provided funding for some pieces of the project. 

Playable on Mac and Windows devices, Powwow Bound is targeted at children in grades three and above. An educators’ guide for the game provides more background information, guiding questions and suggestions for classroom extension activities. 

As players click through dialogue boxes between DJ and her family, they learn some common Menominee phrases. They also complete a photo scavenger hunt and a dance minigame. 

The story unfolds through that dialogue as DJ seeks to find out why her mom — Laura — brought her regalia this year, despite having not joined the dance circle since before DJ and her brother were born. 

“Really, the mom’s story is told through the daughter’s eyes,” Jacob said. “It’s really about her journey back into that dance circle. But within the game, we’re getting a whole lifetime of experiences over the course of one day and one weekend.”

In addition to the websites of both public media organizations, the game is available for free play on the Wisconsin First Nations website, which provides learning materials for American Indian studies in Wisconsin. 

Authentic portrayals of Menominee life

Jacob partnered with a mentor from high school, Jud Gauthier, to create the storyline. He and the team then developed gameplay elements to fit with the story, ultimately deciding to focus on a dancing minigame. 

Gauthier, who has a master’s in fine arts in screenwriting from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., met with Jacob regularly and developed a script from their discussions. 

Gauthier and Jacob began story development by discussing their experiences growing up with different Menominee backgrounds, Gauthier said. Gauthier is an enrolled tribal member, and one of Jacob’s parents is a Menominee member. 

From those conversations, they decided to focus on the experience of a child descendant member returning. That creative decision was based in part on wanting the story to reflect modern aspects of Menominee life, like the fact that many members no longer live on the reservation, Jacob said. 

They then began developing characters for the protagonist’s family, including DJ’s uncles, cousin and grandmother, Gauthier said. These relatives serve as culture keepers, explaining different Menominee traditions and values to DJ throughout the game. For Gauthier, their presence also shows the value of face-to-face conversation. 

“One of the main parts of the script that I wanted to feature was the fact that in order to progress in the story, you actually had to speak to your family,” he said.  

Language & Material Culture Revitalization Artist Naneque LaTender provided advice on adding Menominee words to the dialogue. She also voice acted for DJ and assisted other voice actors with pronunciation.

Translating the script into an immersive, stylized game provided more opportunities for Menominee involvement. Jacob wanted to make sure that the characters representing Menominee people were portrayed authentically and didn’t turn into stereotypes. 

For that, Jacob turned to Nicholas, who had been a sounding board for the project all along. Nicholas also has training in entertainment design, comics and sequential arts from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. 

Working from a set of traits provided for each character, Nicholas sketched thumbnail images of what they looked like. To create authentic characters, he pulled physical traits from the Menominee people he knew or had encountered on the reservation. 

“It was more so trying to find a cartoon representation from realistic studies,” he said. “… I was like, ‘Who are people that I’m seeing today and getting inspiration?’”

Nicholas designed all of the main characters with dialogue in the game. He also drew each character “in their element” interacting with different objects and locations in the game. 

Menominee artists helped design other stylized game elements like Woodland Floral Art and beadwork. 

Next steps 

Jacob is eager to add more gameplay elements to Powwow Bound, but for the next few months, the team will focus on bug fixes and minor updates for the game. 

He mentioned wanting to add a fishing minigame, which had to be dropped so the team could focus on perfecting the dance minigame. 

Gauthier hopes to incorporate more of the Menominee language, with characters code-switching from English to Menominee in different conversations, he said. 

But already, its creators say the game’s impact is palpable. Jacob called the launch the “highlight of my year.” 

LaTender said it was “hard to put into words how important it is for us to see ourselves in this game,” she said. 

Some creators also hope Powwow Bound can serve as a model for similar projects with other tribes. 

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how this project potentially becomes something that is replicated throughout Indian Country and for other organizations to represent Indigenous people in a way that’s also very collaborative, in that there are multiple people that have hands on the wheel,” Nicholas said. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described stylized game elements designed by Menominee artists. Their contributions included both Woodland Floral Art and beadwork.