''ICED! I Can End Deportation'' is a role-playing video game in which the player takes on the role of an

illegal immigrant Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

. The purpose of the game is to educate players about immigration and impact public opinion about immigration issues. The target demographics for the game include high school and college students. The game was developed with the

Torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...

game engine. It is available for free on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. As of October 2008, the game received about 110,000 downloads. It was developed by

GarageGames GarageGames was a game technology and software developer. GarageGames was the parent company of GG Interactive, developers of educational technology in the areas of computer science, video game development and programming. In addition, the compa ...

and Breakthrough (a human rights organization) and launched in 2008. The game was created and designed by Heidi Boisvert and Natalia Rodriguez. The name plays off the

Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

(ICE). The game puts the player in the role of an

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

in the United States, with five

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

options. It portrays the limits on immigrants' rights which were a result of immigration laws passed in 1996. Players must avoid deportation or incarceration; other endings include voluntary deportation or attaining citizenship. The player must answer myth-or-fact questions about immigration policy correctly to avoid detention; they can also engage in community service. The characters in the game were based on real situations. Aspects of the game were also inspired by the ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...

'' video game series. The game was featured in Teen Second Life. ICED has been a part of school curricula for better student understanding of legal and human rights issues. High school students in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, detained immigrants, and immigration lawyers were consulted for the development of the game. A questionnaire by the Center for Children & Technology suggested the game was effective in educating its audience on these topics.

References

External links

Breakthrough - Play onlineMSNBC News Article
2008 video games Social simulation video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement {{life-simulation-videogame-stub