A scenic landscape from “The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter.”
Wisconsin is a burgeoning hotbed for video games devs, but the state rarely appears as an in-game location.
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For the past few months, I have been playing the Remedy video game Control. After I picked it up during a Steam seasonal sale last year, it had drifted along my backlog, untouched. But then, a number of my friends—including Tone Madison publisher Scott Gordon—began playing the game almost simultaneously. An odd occurrence for a game that’s now five years old. Perhaps they were motivated by news of an impending sequel. Or they may have been inspired to return to the world of Control by 2023’s Alan Wake 2, given that those titles are connected by a shared universe. Maybe it was the news of a forthcoming adaptation. In any case, seeing it pop up constantly was as good a reminder as any to finally give it a whirl.
I am nearly done with Control and am largely focused on wrapping up its various side quests. In traversing the game’s core setting—the blighted, shape-shifting headquarters of a US government agency that has meddled disastrously with paranormal forces—players will undoubtedly come across a huge United States map. On that particular map (which is in one of Control‘s many enormous, occasionally-shifting rooms), the state capitals are all clearly marked, Madison included. An odd, small thrill can typically be gleaned from seeing your home represented in media, whether that’s music, film, a beloved TV series, or video games. But seeing Madison on that map led me to wonder: are there any video games that are actually set in Wisconsin?
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The answer wasn’t as straightforward as I’d expected.
Right around the time I started searching in earnest, YouTuber Skylerbuns uploaded a video essay titled “I Visited Every U.S. State (In Video Games).” Over the course of a two-hour video essay, Skylerbuns painstakingly details a process of locating and playing a video game for each state. Wisconsin effectively turns up dry, with a few slight caveats. In the video, the pick is ultimately 2014’s The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter. A first-person investigative horror-mystery point-and-click walking simulator adventure. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter has been praised many times over for its atmosphere and aesthetics, with some singling out the environment.
But that’s where one of the caveats about that Wisconsin connection kicks in: not only is “Red Creek Valley, Wisconsin” a fictional location, the environmental details are recreations of places in the game developers’ home country, Poland. And while there is a healthy Polish contingency baked into Wisconsin, that doesn’t exactly count as Wisconsin. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter is also loosely inspired by Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge,” which is set in Owl Creek, Alabama. The game’s location is truly all over the map, and only really Wisconsin in name.
Oddly, the game still somehow manages to make it feel like you’re traversing Wisconsin (or perhaps Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) in autumn. At least in its opening section. There’s a rustic tranquility that should be familiar to anyone who’s taken a long fall walk by a reasonably-sized body of water along one of the many lakes or bays that populate Wisconsin. Granted, this sensation of being somewhere familiar gets subverted and thrown off when the game begins incorporating supernatural elements, but that’s by design. As the narrative and environment expand, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter feels decidedly less like the dairy state, and much more like a truly fictional setting. The game is worth playing, despite being a bit of a red herring in a search to “find” a digital Wisconsin.
In the “Every U.S. State” video essay, Skylerbuns acknowledges that not a lot of games take place in Wisconsin, and further inspection really underscores that truth. Most of Wisconsin’s video game representation over the past decade comes via driving simulators and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 (which features the Blackwolf Run Golf Course in Kohler). There is also a halfway reasonable case to be made that games featuring the Packers, Brewers, Bucks, and Badgers (and their respective stadiums) are at least partially set here as well, though that feels like a technicality.
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But there have been presentations of the state in recent video games. Devolver Bootleg‘s Hotline Milwaukeemini-game creates a notch in the tally for Wisconsin-set video games that are true oddballs. But for the most part, any video game set in Wisconsin is either extremely independent, primarily educational, or for classic and/or outdated systems that rarely get ported to modern consoles (Act Of War: High Treason and its Fort McCoy level is a notable exception).
One recent Wisconsin-set game that did recently get ported to a modern console comes by way of Space Raft guitarist/vocalist Jordan Davis. Originally created for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System in 2020, Davis’ Space Raft: The Video Gamewas made available on Nintendo Switch in mid-August. In early September, the game came to Steam. Space Raft features one of the most most spiritually and historically honest depictions of a Wisconsin city—in this case, Milwaukee—that has appeared in a video game to date. [Full disclosure: one of my bandmates and close friends appears as a non-playable character in the game.] Cactus Club, High Dive, and Rushmor Records all appear within the game, as do our friends over at Milwaukee Record. That level of specificity—and clear affection—buoy the game’s appeal.
Davis has kept busy as a games dev, and has not completely moved away from featuring Wisconsin in his work. The Storied Swordis Davis’ latest release for the NES, though its setting is intentionally fictitious. But earlier this year, Davis revealed in a Facebook post that he was focusing his efforts on making a simulator for the proudly eccentric Green Bay UFO Museum Gift Shop And Records. Davis describes the NES game as being “about a record-loving alien that gets hired by [the employee and owner tandem of] Tom [Smith] and Pierre [Jacque] to protect the shop from record-eating aliens while they break for lunch.” Not much else is currently known about the game, but it does come with the promise of extending the throughline of preserving a very specific time and region of Wisconsin’s punk-leaning culture. Whether the game gets fully completed and follows a similar trajectory to Space Raft remains to be seen.
Even with Davis doing commendable and invaluable work, most of it is specifically designed to emulate a bygone era of gaming. It’s a bit odd that Wisconsin in video-gaming seems to be so married to a past era when its capital city has become an unlikely hub for video game creatives who are constantly pushing the medium forward. It’s stranger still that Madison doesn’t really appear in the worlds of video games, especially when so many people in Madison are responsible for their creation and/or augmentation. For all of the connections, the city seems like it should have a bit more representation than College Football 2025‘s “Jump Around”-less recreation of Camp Randall.
Looking back at the slate of games I haven’t touched on, I notice a genuine sense of disparity among the extremely limited selections. Really, the only thing uniting Wisconsin-set (or partially-set) games like Monster House, Nancy Drew: Treasure In The Royal Tower, Silent Scope, Cabela’s Trophy Bucks, and several of the Rampage titles is that they all came out more than 16 years ago. Wisconsin deserves an update, outside of the endless sports franchise iterations of places like Camp Randall, Lambeau Field, American Family Field, and Fiserv Forum. The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, despite all the caveats that come with it, points to a potentially fertile ground for the state as a setting for horror-mystery fare.
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Maybe it’s just the season talking, but in putting this piece together, I could not stop turning over ideas forhorror-mystery games set in Wisconsin. Maybe someone out there carves out the necessary time and agreements to make a stealth-horror game in which a protagonist gets locked into The House On The Rock overnight. Maybe they have to navigate through its intricate map and web of possibly alive(?) paraphernalia to either make it to the possibly safe(?) Japanese garden or survive till morning. Maybe there’s a game out there waiting to be made about a protagonist who realizes their idyllic Northwoods cabin getaway has taken a left turn. Maybe they have to flip the script on yet another Wisconsin serial killer by identifying them, covertly tracking their movements, and doing whatever they need to do in order to escape. And maybe there’s a game in which a player’s Madison farm is being repeatedly ransacked by unknown forces and the player needs to work to uncover the supernatural(?) or super-logical cause.
There are a lot of ideas for games and a lot of ideas for ways those games could go, but one thing remains clear: Wisconsin needs better in-game representation. Jordan Davis shouldn’t be doing the bulk of the heavy lifting on his own. This October, it may be worth taking a step back—even as just a thought exercise—and contemplating what type of Wisconsin game you’d most like to see in the world. If you’re a dev that’s reading this, and you have the tools to get that done, consider making it a reality. If you do, let me know (I am always reachable at steven@tonemadison.com). I’d very much like to play whatever it is you create.
DODGE COUNTY, Wis. (WLS) — Law enforcement officials are saying a Chicago-area woman’s claims of being detained for two days were a hoax.
A Wisconsin sheriff is now suing Sundas “Sunny” Naqvi for defamation, claiming she lied to the public last month, when she said she was held in the Broadview U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility and transferred to Dodge County, Wisconsin.
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“Sundas Naqvi was not detained by ICE at anytime. She was not transported to Broadview detention facility. She was not transported across state lines to Dodge County, by law enforcement anyway. She was not in the custody of the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt said Friday.
Schmidt, in his lawsuit, outlined what he calls a hoax allegedly carried out by 28-year-old Naqvi.
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Naqvi’s supporters spoke out last month, after the Evanston native claimed she was detained at O’Hare airport by Customs and Border Protection for 30 hours.
Her family said she was then sent to the ICE detention facility in Broadview and later taken to a facility in Dodge County, where they said she was released Saturday, March 7.
According to the lawsuit, Sheriff Schmidt says Naqvi was actually staying at a hotel near O’Hare and allegedly sending text messages from her room.
“She checked into the Hampton Inn and Suites in Rosemont, Illinois for the entire duration of this alleged event, traveled from the Hampton Inn and Suites in Illinois to the Holiday Express in Beaver Dam, (Wisconsin), was done to complete this hoax. She scammed a victim out of thousands of dollars in pursuit of this hoax against the federal government and the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office,” Schmidt said.
During the sheriff’s news conference, he displayed what he says are messages from Naqvi at the time she claimed she was in custody.
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One message said, “going to look into this hotel” and “in the room now.”
There was also an image shown at the press conference, in which the sheriff says Naqvi was spotted at a store in Wisconsin during the time she says she was being held by Dodge County officials.
Sheriff Schmidt says this isn’t Naqvi’s first time lying to law enforcement. Court records confirm a 2019 case in which Naqvi filed a false police report with Skokie police, claiming she was sexually assaulted in a park. She pleaded guilty and did two years of probation, and the case was then dismissed
The sheriff is also suing Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morisson for defamation. Morisson held a press conference on behalf of Naqvi last month.
“Allegations of an illegal detention of a US citizen, allegations of a government cover up by federal authorities and the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office, coordinated messaging designed to generate outrage and media attention. Misuse of the system will not go unanswered. This is Dodge County, Wisconsin, not Cook County, and we will hold them accountable,” Schmidt said.
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The Dodge County sheriff said while the situation is disturbing and defamatory, no laws were broken in Wisconsin. So they cannot file criminal charges.
Neither Naqvi nor her family replied to requests for comment.
Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison said, “It is my understanding that a lawsuit has been filed. I have not seen it. And if a suit has in fact been filed, I cannot comment on pending litigation.”
The Dodge County sheriff said Naqvi was detained at O’Hare by Customs and Border Protection, but for a little over an hour, not 30 hours as she claimed.
Customs and Border Protection said she was flagged for additional inspection based on law enforcement checks.
Warmer temps and storm chances build into Sunday and Monday
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GET TO PLAY A PART TOO. THAT’S INCREDIBLE. I’M EXCITED. VERY, VERY COOL. STILL SOME RAIN A LITTLE BIT THIS MORNING AND I THINK IT MOVES OUT BY 7:00. WE HAD SOME IMPACTFUL RAIN OVERNIGHT. PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN, INCLUDING MILWAUKEE’S AIRPORT, PICKED UP MORE THAN HALF AN INCH. IT HAS BEEN A RAINY APRIL SO FAR. WE HAVE SEEN OVER FOUR INCHES OF RAIN ALREADY. WE’VE HARDLY STARTED THE MONTH OR A WEEK AND A HALF IN, BUT ON AVERAGE FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL, WE SEE UNDER FOUR INCHES OF RAIN. AND IT’S NOT JUST THE RAIN THAT WE’VE ALREADY SEEN. THERE IS MORE ON THE WAY. AS WE HEAD THROUGH THE SEVEN DAY FORECAST. THIS IS FORECAST PRECIPITATION THROUGH THE SEVEN DAY FORECAST. MOST OF THIS COMING SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. BUT NOTICE PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. MOST OF THE STATE PICKS UP MORE THAN TWO INCHES OF RAIN OVER THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS. WE’LL SEE ROUNDS OF STORM CHANCES AND EVEN THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE WEATHER. NEXT WEEK. IT IS FORECAST TO KEEP A REALLY CLOSE EYE ON RIGHT NOW 41 DEGREES. SOME SHOWERS LIKELY STILL AROUND THERE IN PEWAUKEE. FROM OUR CAMERA AT WAUKESHA COUNTY TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THERE’S ONE MORE AREA OF RAIN THAT’S GOING TO MOVE THROUGH SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN OVER THE NEXT HOUR AND A HALF OR SO. THEN WE’RE DRY, BUT YOU CAN SEE SOME CLEARING BACK BEHIND THOSE SHOWERS. WE’LL SEE A LITTLE MORE SUNSHINE EVEN AS WE HEAD TOWARDS 8:00 THIS MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL BE MUCH COOLER TODAY THOUGH, THAN THEY HAVE BEEN THE LAST FEW DAYS. WE’VE GOTTEN CLOSE TO 70 DEGREES THE LAST TWO DAYS. TOMORROW. TODAY WE TOP OUT CLOSE TO ABOUT 4850 FURTHER INLAND. SO LET’S GO DAY BY DAY AS WE HEAD INTO AND PAST THE WEEKEND CLEARING SKIES TODAY AND MUCH, MUCH COOLER THAN WE HAVE BEEN TOMORROW. WE SHOULD BE DRY JUST ABOUT ALL DAY LONG. THERE IS A REALLY SLIM CHANCE FOR A STRAY SHOWER DURING THE AFTERNOON. RAIN AND STORM CHANCES INCREASE DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS. WAY WARMER ON SUNDAY WITH ROUNDS OF SHOWERS AND STORMS IN THE FORECAST. BUT I DO THINK THERE WILL BE SOME DRY TIME ON SUNDAY. MONDAY THERE’S ANOTHER CHANCE FOR RAIN AND STORMS, BUT RIGHT NOW IT DOES LOOK LIKE THERE’S A LOT OF DRY TIME. ON MONDAY. WE SEE MORE STORMS ON TUESDAY, MORE STORM CHANCES ON WEDNESDAY, MORE ON THURSDAY. AND LOOK AT THOSE TEMPERATURES SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. AGAIN, I DON’T THINK ANY DAY IS NECESSARILY A COMPLETE WASHOUT. SO THERE SHOULD BE SOME TIME TO GET OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THOSE TEMPERATURES IN THE 60S AND 70S FUTURECAST HAS THAT LITTLE BIT OF RAIN RIGHT NOW. IT QUICKLY MOVES OUT. WE’LL SEE MORE SUNSHINE AS WE HEAD THROUGH THE AFTERNOON HOURS TODAY AND SUN THROUGH A LOT OF THE DAY TOMORROW. NOTICE BY 3:00, MAYBE A FEW SHOWERS AROUND. THIS MODEL IS KEEPING SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN DRY, BUT IT’S OVERNIGHT THAT WE SEE SOME STORM CHANCES INTO SUNDAY MORNING. AND THEN WE COULD SEE A FEW MORE STORMS AS WE HEAD INTO SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WE’RE STILL A LITTLE FAR OUT FOR EXACT TIMING ON SUNDAY STORM CHANCES, BUT I DO THINK WE’LL SEE SOME DRY TIME TO GET OUTSIDE AND ENJOY TEMPERATURES IN THE 70S. THEN IT’S AN ACTIVE STRETCH THROUGH MOST OF NEXT WEEK. NO DAY LOOKS LIKE A COMPLETE WASHOUT, BUT ESPECIALLY TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE ON THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE STORMS HERE IN SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. AND WITH MORE HEAVY RAIN ON THE WAY. AFTER A SOGGY LAST WEEK AND A HALF OR SO, WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR RIVER FLOODING CONCERNS AS WELL. 48 DEGREES FOR A HIGH TODAY, BUT WILL BE WARMER, INLAND. WARMER INLAND AGAIN TOMORROW. BUT EVERYONE SHOULD SEE HIGH TEMPERATURES IN THE 50S. THEN THAT ACTIVE STRETCH RETURNS TO SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN. DAILY STORM CHANCES. NO DAY IS A WASHOUT, BUT IF YOU HAVE OUTDOOR PLANS ON SUNDAY, KEEP AN EYE ON THE FORECAST. WE COULD SEE SOME IMPACTS. THAT 73, THOUGH LOOKING NICE AND QUITE A FEW 70S ON THE FORECAST. I KNOW. LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. IT’S JUST SO NICE TO HAVE THE WINDOWS OPEN YESTERDAY UNTIL THAT LAKE BREEZE KICKED IN AND IT DROPPED ABO
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Spring warm-up and storm chances in SE Wisconsin
Warmer temps and storm chances build into Sunday and Monday
Updated: 6:12 AM CDT Apr 10, 2026
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Friday starts with a few early showers and sprinkles before skies gradually clear. Temperatures will stay on the cool side near the lake in the upper 40s, but inland spots warm into the mid-50s. Friday night turns partly cloudy and cool, with lows dipping to around 35 degrees.Saturday looks mainly dry with a mix of clouds and some sunshine with highs reaching the low 50s lakeside and upper 50s inland before rain and storm chances begin to move in late. Those storm chances stick around through Sunday and Monday, with a noticeable warm-up pushing highs into the 70s both days. Rounds of rain and storm chances are on the way Sunday through Thursday next week. Stay tuned to the forecast this weekend and next week, a few days next week could bring the chance for severe weather to SE Wisconsin.
MILWAUKEE —
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Friday starts with a few early showers and sprinkles before skies gradually clear. Temperatures will stay on the cool side near the lake in the upper 40s, but inland spots warm into the mid-50s. Friday night turns partly cloudy and cool, with lows dipping to around 35 degrees.
Saturday looks mainly dry with a mix of clouds and some sunshine with highs reaching the low 50s lakeside and upper 50s inland before rain and storm chances begin to move in late. Those storm chances stick around through Sunday and Monday, with a noticeable warm-up pushing highs into the 70s both days.
Rounds of rain and storm chances are on the way Sunday through Thursday next week. Stay tuned to the forecast this weekend and next week, a few days next week could bring the chance for severe weather to SE Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed a bill into law Thursday that legalizes online sports betting, making it the 33rd state to allow the practice.
But gamblers in Wisconsin will have to wait months or maybe even longer before they can start to legally place bets. The law Evers signed, which passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, requires the state to negotiate new deals with American Indian tribes that would run the sports betting.
Evers said he would not accept a plan that treats any one tribe better than another.
“The real work begins today,” he said in a statement. “Each of the 11 Tribes must now work diligently-and together-to shape the future of sports betting in Wisconsin. … An approach that exacerbates long-standing inequalities among Tribal Nations is not good for Wisconsinites or Wisconsin. I will not entertain it as governor.”
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Gambling is legal in Wisconsin only on tribal lands under exclusive contracts between tribes and the state. Sports bets can currently be placed only at certain tribal casinos, and online sports betting is illegal.
Under the new Wisconsin law, online sports betting would be allowed only if the infrastructure to manage the bets, such as computer servers, is located on tribal lands in the state. That approach, known as the “hub-and-spoke” model, already is used in Florida.
Under the Wisconsin tribal compacts, a percentage of the money tribes earn through that gambling is returned to the state. In 2024, the tribes paid the state just over $66 million from revenue generated at casinos.
Evers said the new law represents a chance “to support mental health programs and to combat the opioid crisis, two issues that I know plague both Tribal Nations and communities across our state.”
Supporters of the measure include several Wisconsin tribes and the Milwaukee Brewers. They contend people currently are placing bets using offshore sportsbooks or prediction markets or crossing into other states where it’s legal, including neighboring Illinois.
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The Sports Betting Alliance, which represents FanDuel, DraftKings, bet365, BetMGM and Fanatics, opposed the law. They argued that it wouldn’t make financial sense for them to partner with Wisconsin tribes, because federal law requires 60% of gambling revenues must go back to the tribes. They would prefer a state constitutional amendment opening sports betting to all operators.
Evers, who is not running for a third term this year, has originally said he would sign it as long as it had the support of the state’s 11 federally recognized tribes. But he later raised concerns because not every tribe was on board. Evers said Thursday that all 11 tribes are now in active negotiations over how to implement the new law.
Across the U.S., state-regulated sportsbooks handled nearly $167 billion of bets last year, generating revenues of nearly $17 billion after winnings were paid out to customers, according to the American Gaming Association. That marked an almost 23% increase over the previous year.
