The St. Croix River has inspired artists, authors, troubadours, photographers and poets through the years.
Now a video game designer is on the list.
Dave Beck, who teaches video game design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, has created what is believed to be the first video game featuring the St. Croix. The game, called “Tombeaux,” will debut Friday at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wis.
Beck, who lives in Menomonie, Wis., began working on the game in the summer of 2014 during an artist-in-residency program at the Pine Needles cabin in Marine on St. Croix. The location plays a prominent role in “Tombeaux,” which traces the history of the river from the 1800s and predicts the future.
“After spending some time on the river and at the cabin, and spending some time doing some research, I realized I needed to make it about this place — you know, a cabin up on the cliff — with you walking down to experience things on the river,” he said. “I was essentially living in the real-life version of the future level of my video game.”
The game, which takes 15 to 30 minutes to play, encourages players “to take their time as they investigate and wander” along the river, Beck said.
“My hope is they will forget they are playing a game, but instead feel like they are experiencing an interactive, historical movie of sorts,” he said.
Many historical figures appear in the game, including President Thomas Jefferson, lumber baron Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Ojibwe Chief Great Buffalo (Kechewaishe), Swedish immigrant homesteader Kristina Nilsson and lumberjack James Johnston.
“They’re either actual figures from history or a representation of a figure one would find in that era,” he said. “I call it a ‘history mash-up.’ I don’t want to imply that this is 100 percent a documentary, a nonfiction piece. It’s more like creative nonfiction.”
Oscar Knapp, the captain of the 1876 steamboat G.B. Knapp, makes a cameo appearance.
In the game, Knapp can be heard complaining about how lumber companies flooded the St. Croix to ease transport of logs: “My boat is usually a smart and lively little craft that can run like a scared owl over a dry sand bar, but this trip has struck us on bars a dozen times thus far.”
Beck took a trip on the Taylors Falls Queen, a paddleboat based in Taylors Falls, Minn., to research how to model the G.B. Knapp, which he said was “one of the most well-dressed, most well-known boats on the river.”
“Everything in the game I’ve modeled, which means I’ve created it from scratch, made a virtual 3-D object of it,” he said.
An Ojibwe wigwam that appears in the game, for example, is modeled after one at the Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post in Vineland, Minn., he said.
50 YEARS OF ‘WILD AND SCENIC’
Beck’s game is being released this week as part of a new exhibit at The Phipps to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway was one of the original rivers protected by the act.
Anastasia Shartin, visual arts director for The Phipps, said Beck’s attention to detail and love of history is evident in “Tombeaux.”
“The game is so well researched,” she said. “He has designed a game that will connect people into the river and, hopefully, be inspired to not only continue to enjoy the river, but to care for it as well.”
Beck, 39, grew up in Ohio and Michigan, graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn, in 2002 with degrees in art and history and later received a master’s in fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Tombeaux” means “graves” in French. Rivière Tombeaux, or river of the graves, was an original French name for the St. Croix, he said.
A constant theme of the game is that objects seen in earlier parts of the game “are still there in the river, but they are buried,” he said.
Beck said he was inspired by three video games — “Gone Home,” “Dear Esther” and “Myst.”
“My hope is that as people play the game, and they see what I envision it was like 200 years ago, that will help them understand a little bit more about our history and the environment around us.”
‘JUST OPEN IT UP TO EXPLORE’
During a demonstration of the game at The Phipps on Tuesday, Beck used an Xbox controller to maneuver through the opening scenes.
At the beginning of the game, players will “find themselves on the river, not necessarily knowing where to go yet,” he said. “I want them to just open it up to explore.”
Players are encouraged to pick up glowing objects throughout the game to learn more about history.
The game can be played on a computer using a keyboard or a game controller, said Beck, who serves as director of Stout’s School of Art and Design and associate dean of the College of Arts, Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences.
As players travel through history, they make return trips to the cabin, which is modeled after the Palmer-Epard Homestead Cabin in Beatrice, Neb., where Beck spent a month in 2015 as an artist-in-residence.
Beck took dozens of photographs of the replica homestead cabin — “it’s actually the one on Nebraska’s state quarter” — in order to create a computer-generated model of the exterior.
The interior features paintings by Eastman Johnson, co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, who lived and painted near Lake Superior in the 1850s.
The desk is modeled after one used by historian James Taylor Dunn, the former owner of Pine Needles. The books on the bookshelf belonged to Dunn, he said.
“You can get inside and walk around in it,” Beck said. “I tried to make it as authentic as possible.”
Beck said he thinks Dunn would approve.
“I would like to think that he would smile and be excited to see history living in a new light, in a new medium, delivered to a new group of people,” he said. “The fact that I stayed and lived in his own cabin for a month amongst his things … was obviously a major inspiration for this game.”
TO LEARN MORE
- “Tombeaux” can be downloaded for $4.99 after Friday; proceeds will go to the St. Croix Watershed Research Station. For more information, go to tombeauxgame.com.
- The game will be unveiled at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson on Friday; attendees will be able to play it and see printed research images and 3D objects. It’s part of the “Heart of the River” exhibit, which has an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and runs through Oct. 21. Admission is free. For more information, go to thephipps.org.
