Gold Treasure Worth a Fortune Was Just Hidden in a Forest. The Hunt Starts Now
September 20, 2024 at 10:11PMSomewhere in the northeastern United States, video game designer Jason Rohrer has hidden treasure worth $25,000, cast from 10 troy ounces of 24k gold. The creator of game titles including Passage, The Castle Doctrine, and One Hour One Life, Project Skydrop is Rohrer’s first game set in the real world, and as of September 19, 2024, the hunt has just begun—the treasure awaits you.
I have to ask Rohrer the obvious. Was the point of Project Skydrop to create something that—instead of locking people indoors—gets them outside, where they can experience the soothing splendor of the wilderness? Is this, in other words, the inevitable turn in a career that’s, as Rohrer himself puts it, “definitely past its midpoint”? In response, Rohrer pulls up the latest play stats for One Hour One Life, a game where you spawn as a baby and work to make a lasting mark during your short time in the world. He calculates that players have lived 12 million lives in the game, totaling some 3 million hours of collective playtime. “What could 3 million hours of human activity have accomplished?” he asks.
So yeah. He feels bad about that. Perhaps Project Skydrop can be his salvation. “A penance,” Rohrer agrees, grinning. “A penance.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/20/gold-treasure-worth-a-fortune-was-just-hidden-in-a-forest-the-hunt-starts-now/
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