Sustaining Intangible Heritage Through Video Game Storytelling-The Case Of The Sami Game Jam

This article explores how game jams, a rapid collaborative game production format, can work to support the revitalisation of Indigenous self-narratives in the context of Sami culture. The study focuses on the Sami Game Jam, an event designed and carried out in the Northern Finish Sami community in Utsjoki, in February 2018. Using an ethnographic method including participatory observation, video interviews with Sami participants, and textual video game analysis, the study first discusses the event design, and how the creation of Sami themes and priorities created constraints for game design. The variety of themes selected for the jam reflects the diversity of concerns present in contemporary Sami society, and the need to reflect them in media. Secondly, we address the process of collaborative game development to explore current Sami experience in a dialogic, open-ended way. Finally, we discuss the games created during the game jam, and how their design translate Sami themes into playable artefacts. Based on the findings, we conclude how game jamming as a cultural practice can be appropriated for the purpose of sustaining intangible cultural heritage.