ANDOVER, Mass. — Two game developers hid a solid-gold trophy worth about $26,000 in the woods of New England a little over two weeks ago, then sent thousands on a treasure hunt to find it.
The YouTube trailer for the contest begins with this: "Perhaps there's a feeling deep down inside of you almost forgotten. A kind of longing, a hunger for mystery, for adventure and more importantly treasure."
Video game makers Jason Rohrer and Tom Bailey hid the treasure within a 500-mile radius. Their advice for the 9,000 they say were looking for it: Luck won't get you far in this hunt.
"A human only lives for 2 billion seconds on average. So, even if somebody looked at a square foot every second for the rest of their lives, they wouldn't cover it in 14 lifetimes," Rohrer said.
Rohrer's logic is true, but only if you used the right clues. Each day, the game creators would shrink the radius around the trophy, tightening the location around it, until somebody found it.
After more than two weeks of playing, Rohrer and Bailey said they had video footage of a mystery man who found the trophy. However, they had no idea who he was until NEWS CENTER Maine introduced them.
When Dan Leonard picked up the trophy after hours of searching, creators said he didn't accurately report his win to them. When they met for the first time Thursday, the developers were able to confirm it was really him and asked him all of their burning questions.
"Why did you have a paper map? That was the most confounding thing. You lean down with a paper map," Roher asked.
"I don't know," Leonard answered. "I'm kind of old school."
It took a lot more than a map to lead Leonard to the prize.
Leonard works as a meteorologist in Andover, Massachusetts. His job has taught him several tricks when identifying locations. Leonard pointed to the trees around his office buildings, as an example.
"This is the type of forest I was looking for: maples, oaks, ash," he explained.
Leonard was one of many who paid $20 for daily aerial clues provided by the game creators. He used those clues in combination with his knowledge of trees, temperatures, and cloud location. For Leonard, it was all about science.
"It was sunny where I was, and then I checked the webcam image, and it was cloudy. So, I just studied where the clouds were," Leonard said.
Once he narrowed it down to a forest in western Massachusetts, it was a log in one of the aerial clues that became his "X marks the spot."
"You see the treasure—what was that first feeling?" Bailey asked Leonard.
"I'm kind of in disbelief that this is happening. I see the camera so expertly hidden in that stump, and I think, 'Oh my god,'" Leonard said.
Despite his relief, Rohrer and Bailey said they aren't done challenging him yet.
"The game is still afoot, sir," Rohrer said.
"Oh, is it?!" Leonard responded with surprise. "Interesting."
All the money players paid for clues went into a prize fund that has accumulated to nearly $90,000. But whether that money will become Leonard's is not a sure thing.
During their meeting, Rohrer informed Leonard,
"You and your meteorologist buddies might get $87,000 taken out from under you," Roher informed Leonard during their meeting.
"That would be a disaster—oh my god," Leonard responded.
The next step to gain access to the prize money is hidden in a secret message on the trophy. To protect his chances, Rohrer and Bailey advised Leonard not to show the entire trophy to anyone, but he said he had already let dozens of people see it and take photos. Anyone with access to the full message, including Leonard, could try their hand at decoding it.
"Time is of the essence, as it was last time, and I don't think weather maps are going to help you this time," Rohrer said.
Looks like Leonard has more work cut out for him.
"I'm not worried about it," he said. "Let's say I don't get it: I still had a really good time and got a treasure out of it."
Tick tock!