Open Roads is a game about riffling through the past while your mom watches

In Steve Gaynor’s attic, there is a box that does not belong to him. He bought his Portland home from a family who put the house up for sale after the death of its elderly owner. Months later, Gaynor and his wife discovered a cardboard box full of letters and other artifacts from a stranger’s life. “There was this backstory about this person who had been part of this family that was all contained inside this one cardboard box,” Gaynor said.

It’s an anecdote almost too good to be believed: a co-founder of Fullbright, a studio known for pioneering “walking sim” games, living out his very own Gone Home-style adventure. Gaynor wondered not just about the box’s owner, but the possibilities of these found items: “How can we express that...

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