Week 11: Research (Walden)

Walden, a game by Tracy Fullerton

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life ... and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
— Walden, Henry David Thoreau

Description

Walden, a game is a first person, exploration narrative, and open world game developed by Tracy Fullerton at the USC Game Innovation Lab. The game is a single player game made in Unity, and was released for PC and Mac in July, 2017, and for Playstation 4 in May, 2018. The game was inspired by author and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau's book Walden, which was about the author's experience during his stay at Walden Pond, Massachusetts, from 1845-47.

The Goals

The game drops the player into the summer of 1845 at Walden Pond, where Thoreau first built his cabin for the stay. Inspried by the concept of self-reliant living that Thoreau was trying to experiece, one of the player's main goals is to survive within the woods by taking care of the food, shelter, clothing, and fuel, otherwise they would faint. Moreover, the player will be able to explore thorugh the woods and discover snippets of stories from Thoreau's life. The last goal is for the player to enjoy the solitude that the game gives them and use that to find inspiration. The player is encouraged to walk around and become inspired by the beauty of nature, whether it is the sounds, the animals, and more. As the player find more inspirations the sounds and the colors in the game will become enhanced, whereas the colors will become more dull when the player's inspiration drops.