Borders is a videogame talking about the dangers faced by migrants as they try to cross international borders.
Hiding oneself, trying to avoid being caught by the authorities and meeting the most basic of needs to survive is the daily drama experienced by migrants seeking to cross borders to reach a new life in other countries. The experience has become a videogame in 'Borders', made by the US game designer Gonzalo Alvarez to show how videogames can be a form or art denouncing the dangers that migrants have to deal with in illegally crossing borders in search of a future.
A game inspired by reality
"Borders is a game I designed about the hardships immigrants face crossing the border,'' Alvarez wrote on his website. ''The game was inspired by the stories my father and mother told me growing up about when they had to cross over.'' The game is set on the border between Mexico and the US and players have to try to cross the border while avoiding border police and seeking to remain hydrated. Every time a player dies, a skeleton remains in the environment of the game permanently, in order to symbolize the people who have died in the desert in an attempt to cross the border. ''I hope that seeing all these skeletons of hundreds of other players can help put in perspective the hundreds of lives that are lost to the Mexican desert,'' Alvarez told Huffington Post.