Mexican programmers are striking back at Donald Trump—with video games
In a new video game where you play as Donald Trump, the objectives are simple: Collect as much money as you can. Avoid all minorities. Whip your hair around.
Released this week by Apto Communicacion Digital, a digital agency based in Guadalajara, Trumpada is a side-scrolling game for Android devices. The game is the brainchild of Apto co-founder and creative director Andres Preciado and co-founder and producer Alvaro Plasencia. It puts players into the body of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, with the goal of amassing wealth and making minorities go away by throwing money and whipping your enormous hair at them.
And while the game is goofy and addictive in the way that all good mobile games are, it also works as a piece of protest art against Trump made by young, tech-savvy Latinos—the sort of people office-seeking candidates are finding it more and more difficult to alienate or ignore.
In an email exchange, Plasencia explained Apto’s reasoning for releasing the app.
“Everybody hates this guy,” Plasencia said. “He has spoken crap about Mexicans, he is making fun of us all of the time. Every time he speaks, he causes trouble to Latin communities,” Plasencia said.
Donald Trump is currently polling historically badly among Hispanic voters.
“He is a really polemic character, and we thought ‘if we can make something fun based on the things he says,’ it could be something that sticks around for a while.”
Plasencia says that the game took three weeks to put together, which puts their starting time roughly around the time the Trump was running roughshod over his fellow Republican hopefuls at the first televised debate.
“It was an intense three weeks putting the team together, but the process was fun and the result is amazing.”
He went into more detail about the game’s name.
“It’s a very common word in Spanish, especially in Mexico, that means ‘hitting somebody hard enough.’ This game is for people who want to stop Trump in the presidential race.”
Plasencia say that the response so far in Mexico has been overwhelmingly positive.
“People are having a great time playing it. They enjoy that Donald always loses, it doesn’t matter what happens—he always loses. It’s a hard game; try to get the high score. Imagine that when he falls into the holes, he’s falling into Chapo Guzman’s tunnel.”
Apto isn’t alone among Mexican game developers. Fellow Guadalajara digital agency Karaokulta also just released a Trump game for Android called Trumpealo. Tagline: It’s up to you.
El Universal, a Spanish-language website with bureaus throughout Latin America, reports that the game “parodies the political situation in the United States” and lampoons “the constant controversial statements made by the magnate.”
In this Trump game, players are attending a Trump stump speech and are invited to throw a number of items, like balls, bottles, and even a cactus at the real estate mogul in order to chase him away from the stage. Conversely, supporters of Trump can shower him with money, which keeps him at the podium longer.
Speaking with El Universal, Karaokulta CEO Jorge Suarez discussed his company’s foray into anti-Trump gaming.
Suarez says that Trump has captured the attention of Hispanics everywhere “for better or for worse.” His company is taking Trump’s comments in stride though, seeing them as an opportunity to ridicule him. “We want to laugh at his follies.”
Suarez has some bigger picture ideas that this game is a part of.
“Video games are art, are a form of interactive expression. We want to make games about different subjects, and sometimes those subjects can be sensitive ones, but we’re Mexican. If we can laugh about death, why not everything else?”
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