A new game turns the H-1B visa system into a surreal simulation

More than half of the nine developers who worked on the game either obtained a US visa or tried and failed to do so. Most are from China, but the team has also intentionally recruited talent from other countries in hopes of incorporating more diverse immigrant perspectives.

“Everyone knows someone who has a visa, but not all of them are vocal about that part of their identity,” says Andrea Saravia Pérez, an immigrant from Colombia who joined the team in February as a story designer. “How can we develop a project that is interactive and shows people an immigration system that many Americans don’t know about?”

Yang says there’s a growing interest across the gaming industry in making political games. When her team brought H1B.Life to the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week, she said they received a tremendous amount of attention and support because they are tackling an important societal issue without the expectation of making a lot of profits. (The game was supported by a charitable organization and the developers also plan to raise additional funding in the future Kickstarter campaign.)

Yang says she’s also heard from people in Germany and Australia who are interested in licensing the game or adapting it for different countries. “The whole world is moving to the right, and life is becoming more difficult for all immigrants,” she says.

“If we can put people in our shoes, I think it can have a very positive impact,” Saravia Perez says. “As long as the players are having fun and can empathize and understand it a little bit more, I think we’ve done our job as a team.”

Courtesy of Reality Reloaded

Techniques versus emotions

The H-1B visa program, created in 1990, is one of the most reliable U.S. immigration paths for white-collar workers with college degrees. In recent years, the program has issued about 85,000 visas annually, but since the number of applicants is often greater than the number of applicants, a lottery system determines who is ultimately selected. If you don’t get it, you have to wait a whole year before you try again. Everyone who has gone through this process has a success or failure story to tell, including me.

The team behind H1B.Life began developing the game by interviewing immigrants. So far, Yang says they’ve talked to more than two dozen people about their H-1B journeys and used those interviews to make the game more realistic and accurate. The biggest challenge now is figuring out how to balance accurately explaining the complex immigration rules and ensuring the game remains entertaining.