Dutch artist responds to the White House's Build the Wall game with Build that Bridge

"Play along and make yourself heard."

A Dutch artist has released Build that Bridge, a free browser game built as a direct response to Build the Wall, the Tetris-style minigame the White House launched on Arcade.Gov last week.

The Trump administration's site includes games inspired by old favourites. For example, Rio Run is a Snake-like game that wants you to collect a chain of prisoners in orange jumpsuits, tallying a "deported" count at the end of each run, and Build the Wall: Zombie Border Siege, a Tetris riff where players stack bricks against incoming "aliens" at the "Southern Border".

Whereas the White House version has players stack blocks into a wall, artist and social designer Wouter Sieuwerts's version, Build that Bridge, uses the same mechanics in reverse: clearing lines grows a bridge from both riverbanks toward the middle.

"Just as the colonisation of America was turned into child's play, the White House now makes a game out of excluding migrants," Sieuwerts said.

"But play is precisely how you discover the world and get to know new people and customs. So for everyone who would rather build bridges than walls, I made Build that Bridge. Play along and make yourself heard."

Players can start their own bridge or join someone else's, and can see where fellow builders are joining from via markers on the riverbanks. A live counter tracks how many people have built a bridge so far, how many are building right now, and how many "meetings" have happened across all bridges combined, a running tally Sieuwerts describes as the players' collective voice.

The game arrives days after The Tetris Company, which owns the rights to the original Tetris, publicly distanced itself from Build the Wall, saying it believes in "the power of connection and bringing people together".

Sieuwerts sees his own game as proof of that idea, saying: "That is exactly what this game does, and always did".

Build that Bridge is free to play at buildthatbridge.eu, with no ads, no data collection, and no account required. Players interested in supporting refugee resettlement are pointed toward UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.