It's part toy, part political cartoon: Indies Alejandro "Aquma" Quan-Madrid and Arjun "Archie" Prakash have created an iOS and Android app that envisions Donald Trump, known immigrant-hater, as a piñata you can whack to produce candy.
"I'm half Chinese and half Mexican, and I feel like the crazy shit Trump says really demonizes both of my people," Aquma writes to me in an email. "Seeing as how physical Donald Trump piñatas were popular in Mexican communities throughout the country, we wondered why no digital version existed yet. So then we made one."
The game allows you to collect coins, candy and unlockable piñata accessories in what I'll elect to interpret as a considered parody of video games that are as empty, insulting and capitalistic as Trump's ideas. It's part of Aquma's USC Master's Thesis, as is Code Glitches Get Money, a game that juxtaposes the optimistic visual language of Sonic the Hedgehog with the concept of student loan debt, maybe to make a point about design education.
Arjun "Archie" Prakash was part of the team that made the bizarre and remarkable Sonic Dreams Collection earlier this year.
Get Trumpiñata, free on the App Store and Google Play, here.
