NH video game designers create treasure hunt across New England with hefty reward

BOSTON — Calling all treasure hunters and Ben Gates cosplayers, the search is on for gold here in New England.

That’s because a pair of New Hampshire video game designers started a game, with a really nice incentive.

The game is called “Project Skydrop” where players compete to find treasure. No, you will not have to follow the Rose Line to France or steal the Declaration of Independence, but players will get daily clues to finding a 24-karat gold statue valued at 26 thousand dollars.

The incentive for players? Thousands of dollars.

The statue will have a code that the finder can redeem for half of the total entry fees. Each entry fee is 20 dollars.

“This treasure hunt is a prototype, just experimenting to see if people like it, if people like the format,” said co-creator Jason Rohrer.

Here’s how it works:

Every day, those who registered to play will get an email featuring an aerial photo of the statue on the forest floor.

Each day the clues start to reveal more and more about where the treasure is hidden.

“We’re trying to figure out if the treasure hunt itself a sort of self contained, self sustaining, financial thing, where these people are paying entry fees to join and that grows this bounty payment growing over time makes it more and more interesting, can that snowball and take off? That’s the question,” said Rohrer.

And by the way… here’s a free clue on this treasure hidden somewhere in New England:

Under watchful eyes of cameras perched in trees.

“Boston is very close to the edge of the circle, anyone in Boston is a short drive from the circle at this point,” said Rohrer.

So far — the search area has narrowed to include Western Mass., most of Connecticut, southern Vermont, and a tiny sliver of Southern New Hampshire.

If this takes off, the creators hope to expand across the country, even the globe

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