Te reo Māori is travelling from Te Whanganui-a-Tara to millions of screens around the world, with Wellington game studio Dinosaur Polo Club bringing the language into its international hit Mini Motorways.
Released during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, the free update gives players the option to experience the game’s interface and gameplay in te reo Māori. Mini Motorways has also been gifted the ingoa Māori Rori Riki by translation company Kūwaha Ltd.
The scale is significant. Dinosaur Polo Club says Mini Motorways has reached around nine million players worldwide, across platforms including Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch and Steam on PC and Mac.
The studio worked with Kūwaha and Head of Art Shalee Fitzsimmons, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who leads Māori and tikanga initiatives within Dinosaur Polo Club. The team says the project was designed as more than simply replacing English words with Māori, with cultural context and tikanga forming part of the localisation process.
It also puts te reo Māori into one of the spaces where many tamariki and rangatahi increasingly spend their time — digital entertainment.
Gaming allows players to encounter and repeatedly use kupu Māori while navigating menus, making decisions and playing, creating another pathway for normalising the language beyond traditional learning environments.
The kaupapa fits strongly with this year’s Ake, Ake, Ake – A Forever Language theme, which has focused on taking te reo into the everyday places where people live, work and connect.
For Aotearoa’s growing technology and gaming industries, Rori Riki is also an example of how te reo Māori and tikanga can be built into products reaching global audiences.
From Wellington to nine million players around the world, Rori Riki shows that the future of te reo Māori can be digital, interactive and international.
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