Road Less Traveled

Published in 2021, The Road Less Traveled is a game that is part of the USCxGeidai Collaboration. You can play the game here:  https://eragon1731.itch.io/travel

Road Less Traveled is a historical, visual novel game based on the story of Tastu, the first woman to climb Mt. Fuji, and Mary Lacy, the first women to be given a pension from the British admiralty as a shipwright. Both stories will touch on the struggles women experience on their respective travels to prove their worth in society.

We, the game developers, have done our best to best represent the achievements and lives of the people depicted in our game. However, please note that there have been artistic liberties taken to dramatise or paraphrase events in order to create this game. That being said, the following are some of the resources we've used to create this game.

Female Pilgrims and Mt. Fuji: Changing Perspectives on the Exclusion of Women

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25066386

The Further Adventures of Mary Lacy

https://historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/research/marylacyweb-pdf/

Drawing inspiration from the interactive novel, Florence, we wanted to create narratives that encouraged the player to “work” for the story by completing mini games and/or simple puzzles to progress. Our experience goal for this project was to allow players to understand the unfair societal expectations that women had to overcome in the past.