THE GAMER: Game spoofs hot-point issue

It’s very rare that we see satire used to tackle social and political issues in video games. This is most likely due to the fact that video games are still a young medium, although, I suspect it has more to do with the idea that it’s very difficult to build a game around a social issue. How do you make it “fun,” for example, to address the issue of ending world hunger, helping underprivileged kids go to college or legalizing same-sex marriage? How do you make it appeal to an audience that might not even care?

For Owlchemy Labs, the answer was a physics-based, 2-D racing game for the iPhone with a theme built around the issue of United States immigration law reform. They called their game “Smuggle Truck.”

The story is that “Smuggle Truck” was born out of the frustration experienced by friends of Owlchemy Labs who wanted to immigrate into the U.S. After 12 months of struggling to get in, what started as a joke — that it would be easier to smuggle themselves into the country than to follow official channels — quickly grew into a viable game concept.

In two days, it went from prototype to working iPhone game. As levels were built and graphics were polished, the largest hurdle would be getting the game past Apple’s app review board and into the iTunes App Store.

The premise of “Smuggle Truck” is to drive a pickup truck full of illegal immigrants across the border in the shortest amount of time while losing as few people as possible. It’s a difficult challenge, requiring a delicate touch to make sure you don’t send all of your passengers flying off the flatbed. Unfortunately for Owlchemy Labs, as fun as the core concept might be, that didn’t make up for the theme and subject matter of the game. The app review board rejected it.

Was it the idea of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border that the app review board at Apple, Inc. didn’t agree with? Or was it seeing the cute, cartoonish people, including babies, being accidentally flung off the back of a truck that they didn’t like? No one really knows, but it required some kind of change if Owlchemy Labs were ever to hope their game would see the light of day.

In a show of quick, clever thinking, the name of the game was changed to “Snuggle Truck” and the idea shifted away from illegal immigrants to cute, fuzzy animals trying to escape extinction by sneaking into a zoo. It’s a far cry from the original idea, but at least Owlchemy Labs were able to get their game on the app store and start making money from their work.

Meanwhile, for those who wish to experience “Smuggle Truck” in its original form, the PC and Mac version are available from Owlchemy Labs’ website for $4.99. As an added bonus, the PC/Mac version also contains “Snuggle Truck,” allowing you to play both versions. There’s also an upcoming expansion pack that will add more levels to the game for free.

“Smuggle/Snuggle Truck” may end up being a campy, bizarre way of raising awareness for immigration law reform, but it’s also quite brave. The game has received a lot of negative press for its subject matter, but the developers insist that they were very wary of stereotypes and took precautions against offending anyone. Even so, illegal immigration is a hotbed issue with a lot of folks.

I hope, as video games mature, and as we learn to embrace video games as art, that games like “Smuggle Truck” will become less rare. However, let’s not forget why we play games in the first place — to escape from reality and have a little fun. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever played a socially conscious satire on United States immigration law reform that was quite this fun.

For more information on “Smuggle Truck,” visit smuggletruck.com.

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