Huni Kuin Action Game Brings Amazonian Shamans' Tales to Steam
A game whose health and ability gauges are built from the Huni Kuin concept of yuxin, and whose cutscenes reuse illustrations by an indigenous artists' collective, is a case of a village's own cosmology setting the design rules rather than supplying decoration.
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
A side-scrolling action game developed with the Huni Kuin people of Acre, Brazil was shown at Brasil Game Show 2026 in Sao Paulo. Huni Kuin: Beya Xinã Bena is scheduled for PC in the first quarter of 2027, with a demo on Steam. Publisher APOTI's Guilherme Meneses says its foundation is seven folktales heard from village shamans, and that characters are voiced by villagers in the Huni Kuin language.
The demo's first chapter, "Yube Nawa Aĩbu," follows Dua Yube, who imitates a tapir and throws three jenipapo fruits into a lake, is taken to the world of the serpent people, and learns the secret of nixi pae, the Huni Kuin name for the brew Brazil knows as ayahuasca. In the full game, yuxin in the body forms the health gauge and yuxin in the eyes forms the special ability gauge, while a face in the upper right of the screen tracks the player's relationship with yuxibu, the forest's guardian spirit. Players switch between bow, spear, and club.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.