Walden

The Life He Imagined

Henry David Thoreau is our national prophet of nature and simple living. Can a videogame capture his spirit?

Illustration by C. Adrian Walsh

It is certainly one of the weirder niches in videogames: adaptations of classic American literature. Last year, Charlie Hoey, a programmer in San Francisco, released the 4-level, 8-bit NES-style Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari (Exciting Library: The Story of Gatsby), a Mario-style version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Last year, the National Endowment for the Arts gave $40,000 to Tracy Fullerton, a professor at the University of Southern California, to help her develop Walden, a videogame version of Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 transcendentalist bible.

A rocket car mid-flight in Cabbibo’s Moon Ball

When a car throws a hook mid-air, driving becomes flight

Cabbibo’s Moon Ball grafts the Lashing magic from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight novels onto a Rocket League chassis.

The Lake Was Gone and the Satellite Kept Talking [Podcast]

Cezar Mocan's satellite finds a lake missing and generates testimony instead of doubt. Danny Snelson and I follow that instinct through games and publishing.

A low-poly farm plot where rows of pale humanoid crops grow from dark soil in CORPSE FARM

The crop is flesh in Berrysoft’s CORPSE FARM

A farming sim wears the cozy genre’s exact visual manners, only it's skin

Visitors sit on tree stumps watching a large screen in the dimly lit Undershed gallery, with grass and branches on the floor

At Watershed, six teenagers curated the games on show

SENTIENTS just closed at Undershed, with work by Marshmallow Laser Feast, David OReilly, Alice Bucknell, Alan Kwan and Demelza Kooij.

Read more

When a car throws a hook mid-air, driving becomes flight

The Lake Was Gone and the Satellite Kept Talking [Podcast]

The crop is flesh in Berrysoft’s CORPSE FARM

At Watershed, six teenagers curated the games on show