Video game creator takes inspiration from Operation Longhorn

By Erick Mitchell on Thursday, October 3, 2024

Lampasas native Noah

Garcia is looking to

bring the U.S. Army

training drill “Operation

Longhorn” from the 1950s to

the virtual world.

Garcia is developing

a video game called

“Memoryleak,” a play on

the 1952 military exercise

that prepared for a potential

Soviet invasion.

“The video game is

more or less based off of

Operation Longhorn, not

exactly a re-telling of it,”

Garcia said. “I had debated

whether to re-live Operation

Longhorn and bring you

back to the ’50s, but this

game takes you back to the

2000s.”

Before developing video

games, Garcia said he was

an avid gamer in his youth.

He was introduced to video

games through LeapFrog’s

LeapPad – an educational

gaming device for children.

After finishing elementary

school, he received his first

gaming console, an XBOX

360. Garcia said some of his

favorites include creative

games like “Minecraft,”

or action games like the

“Call of Duty” franchise

and “Mortal Combat.” Also,

Garcia enjoys classics like

“Red Dead Redemption” and

“Grand Theft Auto V.”

Garcia graduated from

high school this spring,

however he started his path

toward developing video

games as a freshman.

“At the end of my

freshman year in high

school, I started creating

things in ‘Minecraft’ or

playing in ‘Gary’s Mod’ and

things like that,” he said. “I

felt very constrained that

I couldn’t unlock its full

potential. Before I started

developing video games, I

began to mod them.”

Modding is done to

change video games from

their original development.

Mods may include changes

to characters, new levels,

game alterations or

improvements to graphics

and sounds.

Garcia’s first

attempt at modding was

through “rom mods.”

“I basically took the

characters from the original

‘Super Mario Brothers’

on the Nintendo and had

replaced Mario with the

character Big Chungus –

it’s Buggs Bunny but super

fat, which is a joke,” Garcia

said.

As a junior at Lampasas

High School, Garcia learned

about Operation Longhorn

through a classmate’s

presentation. The large-

scale military operation

in Lampasas County that

took place in April 1952

involved more than 100,000

troops and featured a fake

backstory of a totalitarian

state called the “Aggressor”

that was seeking control of

the U.S. after the conclusion

of World War II.

In Garcia’s video game

“Memoryleak,” the events

of Operation Longhorn

in 1950s are real instead

of fiction. Texas is lost to

an aggressor that allows a

company called Clear Wood

to set up a large, futuristic

and super-militarized tower

in Lampasas to serve as the

main defense for the new

Texan nation.

Decades after the takeover

in 2002, the game’s main

character Sam seeks to

learn more about the dark

secrets of Clear Wood

that were uncovered by

his father and how he can

return Texas to normalcy

before the aggressors took

over.

Garcia started working

on the project about a year

ago. His first step for the

game was “authenticity

gathering” to bring

Lampasas into the world of

“Memoryleak.”

“I would take old pictures

and model,” he said. “For

example, a sign. I’d go into

Photoshop and try to make

it look the same, or go into

my 3-D model program and

try to make it look the same.

“A new method I have

discovered is photo

scanning, where you take

an existing building and

capture pictures of them,

and in these pictures there

is a type of data that can be

carried into a computer and

create a 3-D model of said

pictures,” Garcia said.

The former LHS student

said he has captured about

25% of the images for the

game. So far, most of his

image captures have been

in Kempner and around the

city limits of Lampasas.

Also, he is working to

capture some parts of

Austin, which will play a

part in the video game.

Along with creating

the environment, Garcia

has spent a lot of time

forming the narrative of

“Memoryleak.”

“Alot of development

has been asset creation, so

the billboards, character

creation – I have spent a lot

of time trying to develop

the characters of the video

game,” he said.

Additionally, Garcia is

working to incorporate

real-life elements from

Operation Longhorn into

the video game to enhance

authenticity.

“I ordered a copy

somebody was selling on

eBay of the Operation

Longhorn newspaper from

the ’50s, and I’m going to

scan that and implement it

in the game,” he said.

Along with the game’s

main story, Garcia is looking

to incorporate other game

modes such as a cowboys vs.

aliens mode with a simple

objective of defeating the

other group.

Garcia has had help

with the project from

two individuals who

assist in voice acting and

programming. He said he

works about 60 hours per

week on the video game

and has devoted over $5,000

in the game development.

Along with working on the

game, Garcia is attending

Austin Community College

with hopes of transferring to

The University of Texas.

He plans to release the

“MemoryLeak” game in the

summer of 2025 at $29.99 on

all major gaming platforms,

including Steam, XBOX,

PlayStation and Nintendo

Switch. The game is

advertised as an innovative

first-person shooter that

uniquely spans 2-D, 3-D and

virtual reality gameplay.

It will be released under

Garcia’s gaming company:

Liminal Echo Games.

Garcia said the most

valuable experience from

his “Memoryleak” project

has been learning about his

hometown and dipping his

toes into the video game

development industry.

“I am thankful to learn it

at such a young age and have

this unique experience at

such a young age,” he said.