Take Us North Kickstarter campaign launches for game about crossing the U.S.-Mexico border

Anima Interactive launched a Kickstarter campaign For his game, take us to the north, on the experiences of migrants and asylum seekers to cross the American-Mexican border.

Take Us North is an adventure / survival game that follows the trips of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the American-Mexican border. This is human history behind politics and big titles, and stories about what the real passage looks like. The game has collected $ 12,000 to date and aims to reach $ 30,000 in the next 26 days.

Interactive anima is a socially aware independent game studio. With video games as the largest entertainment medium in the world, CEO Karla Reyes, daughter of Guatemah immigrants, believes in the immense unexploited opportunity for the interactive media to trigger a positive cultural and social change.

Take Us North was inspired by real world stories and follows poignant cross -border trips.

“We recognize that it is a subject of strong and emotionally responsible; however, we are determined to humanize the experience of migrants and refugees and to portray it with sensitivity, respectfully and authentic,” said society in its campaign. “Our objective is to promote greater consciousness and greater empathy around questions which are unfortunately often reduced in traditional media to statistics or divisor rhetoric.”

This project is deeply personal for many members of the Anima team, and the team collaborates that the performance is both respectful and authentic. Team members interviewed migrants in Casa de la Misericordia in Nogales, Mexico, and creative director Reyes traced migrant trails in the Sonora desert.

“With rapidly evolving policies, migration and immigration are among the most urgent and critical problems of our time,” said Anima Interactive. “Our goal with taking us to the North goes beyond the development of games – we strive to contribute to a wider cultural conversation and to change our hearts and minds around this crucial subject.”

The company also hopes to galvanize the social movements which directly support humanitarian and activist communities alongside the game. For example, it collaborates in close collaboration with Casa de la Mierocordia y of Todas Las Naciones, a refuge for migrants and asylum seekers in Nugales, Mexico, and Salvision, an organization based in Tucson, Help for asylum seekers.

Take US North Blends with narrative depth, strategic crossing, resource management and stealth mechanisms to significantly connect the actors to the experience of migrants.

The players assume the role of a migrant guide whose objective is to make a group safely a group of migrants and asylum seekers through the American-Mexican border.

The game takes place mainly in the Sonora desert, one of the deadliest migrant trails in the world. Thousands of migrants have lost their lives by making this trip, and Anima Interactive aims to honor their stories with dignity and compassion.

Players must guide their traveler colleagues through a perilous field, bypass obstacles as dangerous fauna, the management of the limited supply of food and food and the exhaust of border patrols. The stories balance the tension with the reprieve.

The migrants’ journey is physically and emotionally difficult, and the developers aim to reflect this by taking us north. Moments of tension such as the stealth gameplay will be balanced with moments of rest and suspenders. When players can rest, they can come together around a campfire with the group and exchange stories: nostalgia for what they left, fears, hopes and dreams.

In addition to the Sonoran desert, we develop levels that represent other parts of the migrant path, including the Bestia (the beast), a perilous freight train that crosses Mexico that thousands of migrants roll in addition to traveling through Mexico, and the Darien Gap, a jungle between Colombia and Panama.

The team is a collective of artists, writers, creative technologists, researchers and activists strewn around the world. The countries represented by the contributors of the project include Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States

Take US North has collected financial support for Microsoft Xbox, Cinereach and Cleur Endeavour games.

The team’s efforts were highlighted during the Summit of Games and SDGs at the United Nations and GDC head office this year, and Take US North was listed among the best independent GDC games by Gameshub and NPR. The company has since presented other world festivals, including the London Games Festival, a labyrinth, a Latam and Tribeca game.

The company recognizes that it has a responsibility that has just told these stories, and it does not take it lightly. He therefore works in close collaboration with migration specialists, anthropologists and people with lived experience to ensure that the story is anchored, authentic and respectful. He takes support from Xbox and Cinereach partners.

The development team behind us Take Us North is strewn around the world, representing more than 15 countries.