With President Bush’s recent plan announced to tackle illegal immigration head-on, it generated a flurry of press and focused the nation’s attention on the American states that border Mexico. Beyond the illegal immigrants and America’s larger border-crossing issue, we decided to highlight the everyday dangers that the Mexican police and government officials face in the border towns of Mexico.

In Mexican towns along the Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas borders, violence plagues the villages. Authorities are routinely attacked and often die for their participation in protecting their citizens from drug cartels, but the unsuccessful assassination attempt in Mexicali last month caught our attention.

Though the target of the attack escaped, due mostly in part to his armored vehicle, his bodyguards in the car behind him weren’t so lucky. We wanted to recreate the map because it was a huge operation against a small target. We thought it would be really challenging to face a situation where a ton of grenades were launched and almost 700 shots were fired at just two passenger vehicles. But the real challenge for us was creating a realistic exercise without many details to work with.

Reporters and journalists in Mexico are every bit in as much danger as law enforcement officials. So the reports of events such as this are not reported completely, if they’re reported at all. So we had to use our best judgment in deciphering what really took place that day, and alter the map enough to make an engaging game based on the real event.

What would have happened if Lerma’s car hadn’t made a clean getaway? What if he was forced to fight the drug dealers before escaping? We decided the enemy wouldn’t retreat easily and the officers most likely would have been attacked again, which is what we simulate in the game.