WALDEN, a game EDU

May 2021 - May 2022
Awards:
- Winner: Gold Award at the Serious Play Conference, 2022
- Finalist: James Paul Gee Awards, 2021

My Role

Experience Summary

✌️ I worked on the Walden, a game EDU team for one year as part of my Annenberg Fellowship at USC.

  • Educational Liaison
    • Worked directly with teachers implementing Walden, a game EDU in their classrooms
    • Grew a Facebook group for grassroots educator support from 0 to 100 members
    • Led translational communications between teachers (ie. users of the product) and the development team
    • Assisted with production tasks on Asana
  • Curriculum Developer
    • Worked with a team of literacy experts and instructional designers
    • Designed supporting curriculum for critical geography module “Where I Lived” and anti-slavery social studies module “Civil Disobedience”
    • Assisted with character writing
  • QA Assistant
    • Quality assurance testing
    • Bug reporting

​Tools Used

Asana
Google Suite
Adobe Premiere

Walden, a game  is an exploratory narrative and open world simulation of the life of American philosopher Henry David Thoreau during his experiment in self-reliant living at Walden Pond. The game begins in the summer of 1845 when Thoreau moved to the Pond and built his cabin there.

Players follow in his footsteps, surviving in the woods by finding food and fuel and maintaining their shelter and clothing. At the same time, players are surrounded by the beauty of the woods and the Pond, which hold a promise of a sublime life beyond these basic needs. The game follows the loose narrative of Thoreau’s first year in the woods, with each season holding its own challenges for survival and possibilities for inspiration. 

Walden, a game EDU is an expansion of the original work of art. We adapted the award-winning game into 15-30 minute interactive experiences for middle- and high- school students. Each learning experience, or module, is paired with accompanying curriculum materials, including discussion questions and journaling prompts. This project is a true example of playing and analyzing games as texts, the same way we do with books and movies. In this way, it is perfect for any literature classroom.

CLICK HERE

TO LEARN MORE aBOUT

WALDEN, A GAME EDU