We are Students at San Jose State University in our last year, and this is our Capstone/Thesis Project.

El Sol, a point and click 3-D video game, debuting in May 2025, designed to educate others about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, native New Mexicans affected by radioactive fallout from the testing of the first atomic bomb. El Sol will feature Hispanic folklore-inspired creatures conceived by this testing.

Story

Join us as we journey into the Land of Enchantment, where disfigured creatures haunt Los Alamos at night, preying upon the locals, representing the devastating consequences that laid waste to the New Mexican people. It is up to you, a journalist from Santa Fe, to capture visual evidence of these creatures to illuminate the threat they pose. But be careful, for the night is dark, the desert chill runs up your spine, the wind hums in your ears and the bushes rustle with a faint promise of death lurking beneath the surface.

On your journey you must navigate diverse landscapes, from desert, forests, to farmland. All the while, paying close attention to your surroundings. Your objective is to capture evidence of the foreboding Owl, the grotesque Boogeyman, the maniacal Chupacabra, and the poisonous Mala Hora. Keep your wits about you and remember, gather proof first, run second. Your actions and decisions have the power to decide the fate of generations to come.

Mackenzie's Story

Mackenzie Cordova is the director of El Sol, and the inspiration of this senior thesis project. Her ancestors were residents of Tularosa, New Mexico, people who lived near the Trinity testing site in 1945. She grew up listening to firsthand accounts of what it was like to wake up to what seemed like an early sunrise at 5 in the morning. It was described to her as the sun coming to the earth-brighter than what we typically see in the sky. There were two sun rises that day. New Mexicans were never warned or evacuated during the Manhattan Project due to its extremely classified nature, so locals continued on living with a question-did the sun really rise twice that day?

Living off the land was the way of life; New Mexico was still fairly new to the United States, and nearly all people in southern New Mexico were ranch hands, farmers, or homesteaders. As the radioactive debris fell to the earth from the first ever test of an atomic bomb, it contaminated the water, the plants, the air, and all life.

Mackenzie’s ancestors were poisoned by these factors, and in a way, cursing several generations with strange and innumerable cancers. Today Mackenzie is the fifth generation in her family to carry the remnants of the nuclear explosion, through thyroid cancer. The inspiration of her history and personal trials drives our team to create this game. Our biggest goal is to bring awareness to these New Mexicans affected by the Manhattan Project.

Mackenzie is just one of many, past and present, affected by the naive testing of nuclear weapons. We encourage all those interested in learning more to read the testimonies of the victims and the legislation being pushed, demanding acknowledgement as well as reparations from the U.S. Government.

Here: TrinityDownwinders

Creatures

Our team has taken 4 well known creatures from Hispanic and indigenous folklore and added our own twist to connect them to the consequences the atomic bomb had on Native people. From solid visual development, these creatures will be 3-D modeled and texture to fit seamlessly into our game.

The Owl

The Owl is a common creature of mysticism in Hispanic folklore, thought to oftentimes symbolize darkness and even death. Our Owl is pregnant, ready to explode in a gory doom. She sits above us, symbolizing the final moments on earth before the bomb was tested, unleashing a new age on humanity as we entered a world with nuclear weaponry that had the power to end entire generations.

El Hombre Gordo

This grotesque humanoid represents the scientists that moved into Los Alamos secretly, eventually contracting deadly cancers and diseases themselves from working with raw plutonium and uranium with almost no protections. Some scientists believed the atomic bomb would light the earth’s atmosphere on fire, and they moved forward with its construction anyway.

El Chupacabra

Suddenly, as livestock fell ill, hungry farmers ate their beef, pork, and crops, ingesting a curse. Some ranch hands claimed to have seen a “bloodsucker” attacking their livestock, but none truly knew what the creature was - El Chupacabra is representative of the radioactive fallout that plagued crops, cisterns, and livestock that New Mexicans depended on in their day to day lives.

La Mala Hora

New Mexicans wake to discover mysterious seas of green glass in the desert. Entranced, they brought these emerald crystals into their homes. This substance is known today as trinitite and is highly radioactive. La Mala Hora pays homage to the trinitite. Our version of La Mala Hora is a centipede, who’s exoskeletal spine has fused with the trinitite and has grown to a massive size, legs melted together, furiously in constant agony. She preys upon anyone who tries to steal her precious crystals. If one gets away, they will only live to be cursed with radiation that seeps into their pores.

Gameplay / Game Engine

Sound is paramount to El Sol. We want to bring you closer to the natural sounds of New Mexico; from the chirps of burrowing owls, the gentle whispers of the winds, to the cries of hidden monsters. With the help of our two sound designers Joel Pineda and Aurturo Villanueva, we want to provide our users with an immersive experience and bring you to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

A flashlight is your guiding light to navigate the darkness. Your vision is limited and so is your courage to continue on. What lurks just beyond that rock, or that bush?

Accessibility

We are prioritizing accessibility to the game to reach larger and diverse audiences. We are crafting our game engine with the help of our brilliant software engineer, Luke Cordova, using Three.js to put our game on the web-FOR FREE! There is no need to download or pay for large files; just click and play.

Our Goal is 4000$

We’ll be using the funds donated from this GoFundMe for:

Rewards

With great appreciation we will include you on our Generous Backers in our credits.

Core Team

Meet The Team!

MacKenzie Cordova- Director, Art Director

Nicole Padilla- Technical Director, 3-D Modeler

Katia Kasower- 3-D Director, Social Media Coordinator

Kaliya Mendez- Production Associate

Luke Cordova- Software Engineer

Travis Bui- Visual Development Artist

Arturo Villanueva- Sound Designer

Joel Pineda- Sound Designer

Keep it spooky! :)

& Thank you!