“Mesoamerica needs your help. Tezcatlipoca, the God of the smoking mirror, has stolen 20 symbols from the inner ring of the Stone of the Sun and has hidden them in the past (…) if we do not recover it before the equinox, the world will be flooded.
This is how the new video game “” begins, a collaboration between Google Arts & Culture and the National Museum of Anthropology and History. The goal is to recover lost objects and return them to Chichen Itza in time for the equinox. For this, the game also features characters like Huizilopoztchli, the God of War, to Xbalanqué, one of the Mayan hero twins known for defeating the underworld.
This is an example of how video games can be used for educational purposes, opening the door to possibilities for people dedicated to the humanities, social sciences, arts and even teaching.
The video game industry requires all kinds of talent
The disciplines required by the video game market are as varied as all the titles that can exist. Chance Coughenour, Head of Preservation at Google Arts & Culture at a global level, explained that this video game required people from all areas: from archaeologists and historians to designers and illustrators.
“We had to find a balance between being historically accurate and factual while making it fun, exciting and even a little cute. There is a historical context of the characters, the food, the objects, and for that we had to do a very precise storyline , “explained Coughenour.
The video game industry is growing and, in Mexico, it is positioned as one of the 10 most important markets globally, with 65.9 million players over the age of six, according to data from The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU). ). In this country alone, during the first half of 2022, the industry accumulated 16,928 million pesos in revenue.
But, to make a video game, not only programmers and experts in information technology are needed; It also requires a good narrative, aesthetics and, above all, people interested in playing it. The more diverse the topics, the more audience will be involved.
Although this is the first full-length video game that Google Arts & Culture produces, Coughenour mentions that, from the educational side, there is still a lot to do to create video games that can be used in classrooms or for people who want to explore new cultures.
At the same time, he complements that one of the positive results that they have seen in the video game is that there is a great diversity of people interested in playing it; from fans of technology in general and gaming to teachers and people who want to start playing video games.
Talent in Mexico…wasted?
In Mexico there are universities specialized in social sciences and humanities. For example, the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH), which is the higher school of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). It has degrees in social and physical anthropology, linguistics, ethnology, history, archaeology, among others. However, during 2020, only 106 undergraduate and graduate students graduated, according to its 2021 annual report.
For his part, O mentioned that, in 2021, “sociology and anthropology” was the ninth career with the highest percentage of unemployment in Mexico, so the video game industry could represent a job opportunity for graduates of these disciplines and increasingly it becomes more necessary that it be considered as an option to have new narratives in the industry.
For example, the Virtual and Augmented Reality Laboratory of the Multimedia Center of the National Center for the Arts (CENART), offers a free course called , whose purpose is to promote the development of innovative video games that explore the possibilities in terms of narrative, aesthetics, mechanics game and technology.
On the other hand, universities and educational institutions such as e, , la and even platforms such as and offer courses and diplomas that can be taken to complement educational training and thus expand job opportunities.
