What if the world’s second-largest gaming platform became a tool for cultural preservation?

That’s the vision behind Métis Life, a new Roblox game developed by Maskwa Games and supported by the Métis National Council. Launched June 2, the game introduces players to Northern Michif — an endangered Métis language — through interactive storytelling and play. It’s the first time the Michif language has been featured on Roblox, where more than 85 million people log in daily.

But this wasn’t a top-down initiative. It began with a conversation — and a personal investment.

Josh Nilson wasn’t planning to return to game development. The longtime tech executive had shifted his focus to investing, backing underrepresented founders through his firm, Maskwa Investments. But a chat with Langley-based marketer Darian Kovacs changed that.

“He kind of tricked me into coming out of retirement,” Nilson said. “He told me: ‘There are no Métis games for kids — and all my kids do is play Roblox.’”

Nilson was intrigued. He pulled together a small team and began exploring what a Métis-focused game could look like. Using personal funds from Maskwa Investments, he hired two developers and a Métis artist from Ontario and built a working prototype in just two months. It was enough to catch the attention of the Métis National Council.

They had one request: add more language.

That pivot led the team to focus on Northern Michif — a critically endangered dialect with fewer than 200 fluent speakers. Over the next few months, they expanded the game to embed language lessons into the gameplay.

Roblox is fast to build on. It’s also where kids already are.

“I was amazed how quickly you can develop on Roblox,” Nilson said. “There’s a reason people are using it for corporate training and education. It’s powerful — and it’s familiar to youth.”

Rather than creating something new and hoping kids would come, Métis Life meets them where they already spend time. The game blends learning with play, wrapping Michif vocabulary and Métis traditions into an interactive world.

All monetization from the game currently goes to charity.

From the beginning, Nilson saw Métis Life as an impact project. “Even if no one played it, we’d still have something powerful — the first Métis-themed Roblox game in the world,” he said.

But players did come. The game has already hit its first milestone — 1,000 users — and Nilson has his sights set on 10,000, then 100,000. But the numbers only tell part of the story.

“The game is just a statement,” he said. “It says: We have a place here — and we’re not going anywhere.”

The bigger goal is to train a generation of Indigenous developers. Nilson and his team are preparing bootcamps to teach youth aged 16–25 how to build in Roblox — an entry point to coding, game design, and digital storytelling. He hopes to train 1,000 Métis and Indigenous developers in the next two years.

“We’re covering Northern Michif now,” he said. “But there’s Southern Michif, other Métis Nations, and hundreds of First Nations cultures with their own languages and traditions. This can scale — and we want to help communities build their own games.”

Some elders and educators have questioned the wisdom of encouraging more Roblox use. Nilson understands the hesitation — but believes the solution isn’t to pull back, it’s to engage.

“The internet isn’t going away. Roblox isn’t going away,” he said. “We have to modernize how we prepare our kids. If we don’t, they’ll fall behind.”

Not every kid will become a game developer. And that’s fine. “Some people draw, or play guitar — and never turn it into a job. That doesn’t make it less meaningful,” he said. “Creating digital content can be a hobby or a career. Either way, it’s a way to connect with your culture.”

Nilson has been presenting the game at schools and community events across the country. The response, he says, has been encouraging — not just from kids, but from decision-makers. He first demoed the game in front of Métis elders and leaders at a language summit in Alberta, where it earned support from MNC’s president and others.

“We don’t want this to be the only Indigenous game on Roblox,” Nilson said. “We want to open the door for dozens more.”

The current version of Métis Life is just the beginning. Future updates may include voice and speech features to help players pronounce complex words more accurately.

Beyond the game, the team hopes to roll out national training programs and support other Indigenous creators looking to bring their own languages and cultures to digital spaces.

“This isn’t about scaling one game,” Nilson said. “It’s about shifting who gets to build.”