The best-selling console currently on store shelves today is the Nintendo Switch, which is coming close to 130 million units sold. While the plethora of iconic games from Nintendo is one reason to buy the system, the biggest selling point is the hybrid design.

It can be played on a TV or in your hands and marks the combination of Nintendo's long history of home and handheld consoles. But it wouldn’t exist without the industry-changing release of the company’s first handheld console in 1989 — the Game Boy.

There’s a lot going on in El Paso, Elsewhere. It’s a psychedelic neo-noir shooter from Strange Scaffold, the studio behind viral hits like An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs and Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.

BAFTA-nominated studio head, game designer, and writer Xalavier Nelson has clearly taken Rockstar’s cop-turned-vigilante Max Payne series as a source of inspiration. But El Paso, Elsewhere is more than a spiritual successor — it’s a deeply personal experience that’s allowed Nelson to flex his creative muscles. In addition to leading development, he voices the main character and raps on the soundtrack.

“I've been in El Paso for about five or six years, which as a military brat is unprecedented in terms of time. I had a chance to leave, but I stayed because it was the first place that ever felt like home,” Nelson tells Inverse. “One reason for that is that it's a zone for the surreal that invites this strangely lonely and spiritual feeling with its very landscape.”

Inverse spoke with Nelson about El Paso, Elsewhere’s inspirations, ambitions, and the continuing lack of diversity that the industry struggles with.