HN user
Co-founded Six to Start, Lead Designer and Co-Creator of Zombies, Run! Also made The Walk, We Tell Stories, Smokescreen, Perplex City, A History of the Future in 100 Objects. Originally trained as a neuroscientist and experimental psychologist.
Here’s an alternate take on the Star Wars hotel from the person making Strandfall!
https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/
tldr: I found it fascinating and quite impressive. Definitely flawed, but nowhere near as much as you would think from the four hour video, which is based on a visit from the start of its run.
Thank you! We will be documenting the larp a lot more in the coming weeks, including videos and a tech rundown, so sit tight :)
It’s real! It’s an Epson TM-P20II, designed for mobile use - it even comes with a belt clip.
Oh hey this is my project I’m making with Alex Macmillan! HNers will likely enjoy his more technical explanation: https://strandfall.com/2026/04/10/an-introduction-to-mfds/
OP here: I think so! I didn't cover it in the essay but Evreinov had an essay about "The Theatre of the Future" where he imagines something very similar to VR.
Here's a gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/arts/as-the-job-market-st...
This article is based on reporting from Trouw: https://www.trouw.nl/redactie/PokemonGo/
I was interviewed for the Trouw piece and briefly quoted. This isn't to detract from the DroneXL piece, which adds its own angle.
"Five years ago, a mysterious disaster unleashed lethal, invisible storms across the world. Today, you've joined a scientific expedition to Edinburgh that hopes to put humanity back on its feet. You have three hours to deploy prototype spatial computers across a park and investigate the storms – but not everyone will get what they want, and no-one will emerge unscathed."
Strandfall is an orienteering-style live action role playing game (larp) for 20-30 people, inspired by Stalker, Death Stranding, Eclipse, Station Eleven, and solarpunk, made in the Nordic larp tradition.
The full encyclical ("MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS") in English: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/docume...
It might, if we weren't planning to put prominent stickers on the tripods making clear they're part of a larp, and also getting permission from the park and council and consulting with local parkgoers.
My friend and I are building Strandfall, a highly physical outdoor larp (live action role playing game) that uses custom spatial computers: https://strandfall.com
Players are survivors of a global disaster that has unleashed mysterious, deadly storms. For three hours, they investigate the origin of the storms and make fateful decisions about their future as individuals and as a community.
We received Immersive Arts funding, which means we can run it in Edinburgh later this year. Here's an excerpt from our 2025 grant application about exactly what those are:
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Our “storm sensors” are novel spatial computers designed for outdoor usage over long distances. They will house ePaper displays, LoRa (long range) radios, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and GPS chips in a 3D-printed enclosure to provide a low-tech way to augment the reality of the park. These computers will be cheaper, more rugged, longer-lived, and more capable than smartphones, deployable to locations with zero cellular service and no battery charging options.
The sensors will be mounted on top of camera tripods for deployment. Runners will carry them through the park, then position and aim them in the correct direction, as co-ordinated by “operators” using walkie talkies. This will let players feel like they are really setting up important equipment, scanning historical sites for clues (like surveyors), and establishing laser communication links. Lacking colourful touchscreens, the sensors will be less distracting for runners, helping them focus on their surroundings. Essentially, they are a highly tactile and deeply realistic way of immersing players in a post-apocalyptic setting, since such devices – not smartphones – are the most likely to be used.
1000 layoffs represents around 25% of Epic's total workforce.
Open access paper here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Author here: Genuinely not sure how this appeared again today, but I’m glad to see it!
I have not affiliation with the team, but I really like what they do. They are currently crowdfunding €850,000 to build a permanent installation for the larp and are about a quarter of the way funded:
https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/ellarion-tales/odysseu...
Archive link: https://archive.is/y705A
OP here: I played it on Steam Deck for 20 hours, it was fine. No performance issues; a very small minority of art was hard to see because it was small, but using the Steam Deck's built-in magnifier tool (Steam + L1) was easy enough.
Nope.
I do think random people are invested in my take on this game, yes. If they weren't, it wouldn't have been upvoted. It's actually very difficult to get links on the front page of HN, the signal to noise is quite high.
I post around a third to a half of the articles I write on my blog to HN – the ones I think people here will like. Sometimes they hit and sometimes they don't. Three weeks ago I wrote about Odysseus, a very ambitious larp, that was popular here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43414992
And last year I wrote about my thoughts on The Sphere in Las Vegas:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40858165
As for things I disliked, I wrote about Tonight with the Impressionists, a VR exhibition in Paris:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40745133
I think you are saying that anyone posting a positive article about something you don't know about on HN is a shill, which seems quite strange. Sometimes people genuinely like things and want to share their thoughts on why.
My final note is that Blue Prince is not a relatively unknown indie game. It was included for free on PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass at launch – quite unusual. It was also previewed by quite a few publications and is almost certainly going to be shortlisted in a lot of game of the year lists.
And to be clear, I have not been paid to write this article. There are no incentives involved whatsoever.
OP here: I can see how that would be frustrating and I do touch on that in my piece. It’s not my job to convince you that you should like it, but I would say that the mystery and atmosphere and sense of discovery is what pulled me through the first hours where I wasn’t sure what was going on. If those things don’t chime with you, it can be a slog. What I’ve told other people is that it’s better not to view the game as a race but more a place to explore.
OP here: Is there anything that makes you say that other than the fact that it’s positive and I received a review key? I’ve written about plenty of games I didn’t enjoy that I got for free (e.g. for judging awards) including games that were very well-received, like Viewfinder and Pacific Drive.
I’d imagine it’s highly customised for both. They also have live GMs running the game, too.
OP here: perhaps I should have added an /s next to the video game bit. To be clear, being a game developer who has made games for kids, I do not actually think they are obviously bad.
EmptyEpsilon is used for a couple of interesting large scale or commercial immersive experiences, including the Odysseus larp and Bridge Command. I’ve written up both:
Bridge Command: https://mssv.net/2024/07/31/bridge-command/
Odysseus larp: https://mssv.net/2025/03/19/the-collective-ambition-behind-o...
There’s a discussion on HN about the latter, too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43414992
I’m the OP; I went to the Starcruiser later in its run and had a very different experience. Here’s my writeup: https://mssv.net/2023/08/07/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser/
OP here! Denmark has a very strong larp scene with a lot of young people involved due to the popularity of larp for children and at schools. I’m not sure if there’s anything on the scale of Odysseus planned but the skills certainly exist.
If you fractionate them, that’s 1700 jobs
Since this has been reposted by the same poster several times, I don't feel bad about reposting my review calling it a "glorious failure": https://mssv.net/2023/12/26/the-invincible/
tl,dr: It looks incredible, like no other game you'll see today, and it grapples with deeply interesting themes – but it's extremely annoying to play and suffers from a serious lack of editing. There's just too much friction to become truly immersed. Still, other games can only wish their failures were this daring.
(Last time I made this comment it was immediately downvoted to oblivion. Shortly thereafter, the post itself disappeared from the HN front page, perhaps due to some kind of brigade-detection?)
OP here, happy to answer any questions on it!