El Sol: A Nuclear Fallout-Inspired Video Game to Engage Gen Z in Nuclear Disarmament

Nuclear disarmament is a topic not widely discussed among people my age. I am in my mid twenties, and I am typically met with surprise when I bring up nuclear-related issues with my peers. My particular story as a Tularosa Basin Downwinder is often new information to the average person I talk to in America. 

How do we get Gen Z interested in nuclear disarmament? Nuclear weaponry is a complicated topic that brings ethical and existential dilemmas to humanity. How do we get a burnt out generation interested in yet another world-changing crisis?

Storytelling is how I educate my generation about the less discussed consequences of the first atomic bomb. Storytelling will always exist as long as humanity exists and carries with it lessons to ensure mankind moves forward. Experiences relate to the audience, draw them in, and ask them to care for a character or a situation they know nothing about. The power of storytelling is immense, and Gen Z responds to it more than any generation before them. 

As a member of Gen Z, however, I have become wary of the short-form content that flashes across my screen every day, so much so that I find myself flitting through the posts and the news headlines faster and faster, trying to outrun the news that the world is ending. It is overwhelming at times. Morale is low among my peers and faith in humanity might even be lower. 

This is why I wanted to create something new to inform my peers about my own story as a Tularosa Basin Downwinder. Together with a team of artists and software engineers, and as part of our thesis project for our BFA, we developed a browser-based game named El Sol, a 3D point-and-click video game designed to educate others about New Mexicans affected by the first atomic bomb. I came up with the concept with hopes of creating an immersive and educational experience for the player, which I expect to be a person of my age. 

El Sol is set in the summer of 1946, a year after the atomic bomb was first tested in New Mexico. The player is a journalist working for the Albuquerque Sun, a local newspaper. They are sent on assignment to Trinity, where several reports have come in depicting horrific monsters that have been preying on the locals, leaving people severely sick and deformed if left alive. The goal of the game is to photograph these creatures and “write” articles depicting traits of the creatures and the reports that have come in about them. After you have discovered and photographed all three creatures in the game, you are sent a cease and desist letter from the government demanding you not to publish your articles and photographs. You, as the journalist, are then tasked with a decision—do you scrap all of your work, fully well aware of the horrors that exist in southern New Mexico, or do you publish in spite of the cease and desist letter, in an attempt to save locals from the threats you’ve discovered, exposing the government for their crimes against the people of New Mexico?

While the game is fictional, it is based on real facts and the creatures each represent events that happened as a result of the testing of the first atomic bomb. The creatures are also inspired by real Hispanic folklore to pay homage to the culture of New Mexico. A creature I designed and modeled, named La Mala Hora, is a centipede that grew larger than most buildings from the radiation the blast of the testing emitted, and her spine is fused with a glassy green substance named Trinitite. This substance, never known to have existed until after the explosion, was formed from the heat of the bomb melting the sand in the desert. It is highly radioactive and still exists in a couple of New Mexico tourist gift shops and on various parts of the internet. Because the creation and testing of the atomic bomb was a heavily guarded secret, New Mexicans were unaware of the dangers of Trinitite, and would take it into their homes after collecting the pretty rocks in the desert. La Mala Hora represents this aspect of nuclear history. 

My hope is that after playing the game and feeling the “horror” of nuclear weaponry, players will turn to our resources page, which contains links to the resources my team and I used to research more about the Downwinders and nuclear history in New Mexico. 

There are other creatures within El Sol that have similar stories, and you can learn them by playing at elsolgame.com!

*Please note that the game takes some time to load.