There are plenty of videogames made in Canada, but videogames set in Canada are a rare beast. Kôna looks like it will be one of them: It appears on the surfaceto be a vaguely Ethan Carter-esque investigative adventure, but it's set in 1970 in Atamipek Lake, a small village in the Great White North that's caught up in a dispute between the local Cree community and wealthy industrialist W. Hamilton.
Hamilton claims members of the Cree community have vandalized and robbed his summer home; the Cree say Hamilton is destroying sacred lands just to make a buck. You, as Korean War veteran turned private investigator Carl Faubert, agree to investigate—but Hamilton fails to meet you as planned when you arrive. And he's not the only one who's missing—the whole village appears to be deserted.
The trailer doesn't provide much insight into what Kôna is about beyond that very basic setup, nor how it will play, but the description at Konagame.com says it "combines the atmosphere and immersion of a modern survival title with the deep storytelling and puzzle-solving aspects of a traditional adventure game." The Steam Greenlight page reveals more: The emphasis is on exploration and investigation, but survival will be an issue as well, as players will have to deal with both "unexpected threats" and the harsh weather conditions. There will also be a Wendigo.
"While we can't say why it exists (to avoid spoilers), a Wendigo roams in the game," the developers wrote. "We have to make it clear though that this awesome half-beast is not there to cause useless jump scares (Kôna IS NOT a Slender-Like)."
Color me intrigued, as they say. The plan is to release Kôna over four episodes, each running one to two hours in length, with the first set to come out in January 2016. And because I know you're curious, Kôna, according to the Online Cree Dictionary, means "snow."
