Online Programming: INVADERS (2015)

INVADERS

(2015)

Screen shot of Invaders

March 25th - June 24th 2021

Using Unity3D, a cross-platform game engine, LaPensée developed Invaders in 2015 with art by Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa/Choctaw) and music by Trevino Brings Plenty (Minneconjou Lakota).

Like the 1978 classic video game Space Invaders, the goal is to reach a new high score for shooting down aliens as they swarm in the sky, dropping bombs on the archers in wave after wave. In LaPensée’s version, Judd’s modified photos of the Native archers with their bows pointed to the sky contrast with the 8-bit depictions of aliens which reference the original game.

Featured in the 2015 ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, the game highlights the impact of colonization and poses: Who are the invaders?