“You might spend all your time in the woods, you might focus on bean farming, you could become a famous author — sending
off articles to your editor, Horace Greeley — or you could become an activist, working on the Underground Railroad.”
At a time when the most popular video games include the active participation of the player
— slay a soldier to capture enemy territory — the Walden game seems passive by contrast.
“Maybe they’re not the same as the people who would sit down and read Thoreau’s book.”
Ms. Fullerton — whose group also created the popular 2005 flying game Cloud — consulted Ms. Anderson’s
organization, along with the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, to create the game.
“It might give you pause in your real life: Maybe instead of sitting on my cellphone, rapidly switching between screens, I should just go for a walk.”
The game — which Ms. Fullerton said is likely to cost $19.99 — takes six hours to play.
“You’re not only trying to survive, you’re seeking inspiration in the woods,” Ms. Fullerton said, “If
you spend all of your time grinding away on survival tasks, the environment will become less lush.
Instead of offering the thrills of stealing, violence
and copious cursing, the new video game, based on Thoreau’s 19th-century retreat in Massachusetts, will urge players to collect arrowheads, cast their fishing poles into a tranquil pond, buy penny candies and perhaps even jot notes in a journal — all while listening to music, nature sounds and excerpts from the author’s meditations.