After developers Bisma Zia and Anam Sajid each won different IGDA scholarships to travel to GDC 2020, they had their travel visas rejected. This inspired a Global Game Jam game about the topic.
Trying to Fly is a pretty simple and straightforward game. You want to go to America, and you need a visa for that. This means that you need to have an interview with someone who can reject or approve your visa. They will ask you questions, and you have three choices as to how to answer. Soon, you will find, your answers are wrong and you are rejected.
There are so many reasons for visa rejections – simple, small answers that you may feel are correct or not actually bad answers might end in you being rejected and unable to go to America. Playing through these different experiences, as an American who has immigrated over to England, just continues to strengthen my want for open borders.
Trying to Fly is simplistic – it doesn’t represent the pages of paperwork that these people probably did need to fill out, the checks that needed to be made, the language that had to be navigated, the money that needed to be spent for someone to just deny them. Even so, it captures the frustrations that come with having to answer questions, honestly that have a bad result if they aren’t exactly what your interviewer wants to hear. It’s a short experience, but it’s worth playing if only to share in the frustration the individuals who are rejected feel.
Trying to Fly is available on the developer’s Global Game Jam page.
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