Making Mulaka

Five years ago, I stumbled upon a Kickstarter campaign from a small studio in México looking to create a video game. Although I'm not much of a gamer, I instantly backed the campaign for two reasons; as a Mexican-American, I wanted to see this Mexican team succeed, but perhaps even more personally, as far as my dad's side of the family can gather, our native ancestors are the Tarahumara people. So I was very excited about the prospect of seeing a game about “my” people, even if in all fairness I may not actually play it. Unfortunately, that Kickstarter campaign wasn't successful. Such a bummer.

Fast forward a few years and again, I stumble upon a small independent game called Mulaka, released on the Nintendo Switch. “Wait, wasn't that the name of that one game I backed on Kickstarter?” It was! Despite that initial failure, the small team in México was able to make their game after all! This book tells the amazing story of how.

Making Mulaka is the fun, honest, and inspiring story not only about the resiliency of Lienzo, the developers behind Mulaka, but also about the resiliency of the Tarahumara people who inspired the game. An incredible tale of staying true to your vision, never giving up, and chasing your dreams no matter how far you'll have to go.

Fun fact: while reading this book, I found out one of the game developers and I share a family name. As he and my dad's family are from the same part of México, I like to believe there's a greater than small chance we might be distant cousins :)