Rec Room (video game)

Rec Room is a virtual reality massively multiplayer online game with an integrated game creation system developed and published by Against Gravity. Rec Room is currently available on Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Meta Quest, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, Pico Neo 3, Pico 4, the App Store (iOS/iPadOS), and the Google Play Store.[1]

Rec Room
Developer(s)Rec Room Inc.
Publisher(s)Rec Room Inc.
Composer(s)Cameron Brown
EngineUnity
Genre(s)Game creation system, massively multiplayer online
Mode(s)Singleplayer, multiplayer

Gameplay

A hub room (called the “Rec Center”) is a recreational center (thus earning the game's title of Rec Room) with doors that lead to various games called Rec Room Originals and featured user-generated rooms. The game can optionally be played on a virtual reality headset, specifically using SteamVR, virtual reality headsets by Meta and ByteDance, and PlayStation VR (PSVR2 not supported). In virtual reality mode, the game uses full 3D motion via the motion capture system of a virtual reality headset and two hand-held motion controllers, which are required to pick up and handle objects in the game world, including balls, weapons, construction tools, and other objects. Players can explore the space around them within the confines of their physical floor-space while roaming further by using the controller buttons to teleport a short distance, with minimal to no virtual reality sickness. A “walking” mode enables players to move continuously rather than teleporting; however, this poses a higher risk of motion sickness.[2]

When creating rooms, users can use the "Maker Pen"; a tool resembling a glue gun, that can be used to draw shapes in 3D. This is mainly used to create user-generated rooms. Players can also code in Circuits, which is Rec Room's visual programming language, which is similar to the Blueprints visual programming system of Unreal Engine and VRChat's visual programming language Udon.

In Rec Room, users can pay for a monthly subscription called Rec Room Plus.[3] This monthly subscription grants the subscribers to this subscription several features; including the ability to sell their own user-generated content. Users can sell this content for in-game currency. This currency can be transferred to money in the real world. This lets in-game creators get paid with real-world money.

Game modes

Rec Room consists of separate built-in multiplayer games, which are known as Rec Room Originals. The games include first-person shooters (including ^Paintball),[4] a Battle Royale game (^RecRoyale),[5] cooperative action-adventure game(^3DCharades),[6] various role-playing quests (Including ^GoldenTrophy),[7] and various sports games (Including ^Dodgeball).[8] Rec Room also provides in-game tools for user-generated content,[9] which has led to the creation of many user-generated experiences.[10]

Music

Most of the music found in the game's Rec Room Originals is made by Rec Room Creative Director Cameron Brown,[11] who goes by the in-game username "Gribbly".[12]

Development

Seattle-based development studio Rec Room Inc. (formerly Against Gravity Corp) was co-founded in April 2016 by Nick Fajt, Cameron Brown, Dan Kroymann, Bilal Orhan, Josh Wehrly, and John Bevis.[13] Prior to that, CEO Nicholas Fajt worked as a program manager on the HoloLens team at Microsoft. Dan Kroymann worked on the same team after working on the Xbox team. Rec Room Inc.′s CCO Cameron Brown also worked at Microsoft as HoloLens Creative Director.

In 2016 and early 2017, the company raised $5 million in funding for the development of Rec Room and its player community. According to CEO Nick Fajt, the company will keep Rec Room free to download.[14]

In 2017, Rec Room's “Junior Mode” was COPPA-certified by Samet Privacy.[15]

In June 2019, Rec Room Inc. announced that the company raised an additional $24 million over two rounds of funding.[16] In December 2020, Rec Room Inc. announced additional $20 million in funding.[17]

In March 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced another funding round of $100 million with a valuation of $1.25 billion leading to its unicorn status.[18][19]

In December 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced that they raised $145 million during another funding round, bringing the studio's valuation up to $3.5 billion.

Reception

Dan Ackerman, writing for CNET, described Rec Room as VR's killer app.[20]

In January 2017, Ars Technica reported that trolling and harassment in Rec Room was a problem.[21]

In June 2017 MIT Technology Review contributor Rachel Metz described it as a great example of VR's potential for social interaction while criticizing its underdeveloped anti-abuse features.[22]

Filmmaker Joyce Wong described Rec Room as her choice of “most interesting piece of art in 2017”.[23]


References
  1. "Rec Room". rec.net. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  2. Groen, E.; Bos, J. (2008). "Simulator sickness depends on frequency of the simulator motion mismatch: An observation". Presence. 17 (6): 584–593. doi:10.1162/pres.17.6.584. S2CID 43585717.
  3. "RecRoomPlus". Rec Room. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  4. "^Paintball". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  5. "^RecRoyaleSquads". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  6. "^3DCharades". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  7. "^GoldenTrophy". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  8. "^Dodgeball". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  9. Sterling, Amy (March 25, 2018). "Visualizations Of The Future: Toward The Oasis". Forbes.com. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  10. Hayden, Scott (September 14, 2020). "'Rec Room' Exceeds 3M User-created Levels with 40M Monthly Visits, Creator Monetization in the Works". RoadToVR. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  11. "Music". Rec Room. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
  12. "RecCon keynote with Gribbly". rec.net. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  13. "Company Against Gravity". VBProfiles. Spoke intelligence. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  14. Hayden, Scott (February 2, 2017). "'Rec Room' Studio Raises $5M "to continue to build the future of Social VR"". RoadToVR. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  15. "OFFICIAL MEMBERSHIP PAGE: Rec Room (Junior Mode)". kidsafeseal.com. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  16. Matney, Lucas (June 12, 2019). "Against Gravity is building a VR World that won't stop growing". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  17. Matney, Lucas (December 17, 2020). "Social gaming platform Rec Room scores $20 million Series C". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  18. Matney, Lucas (March 24, 2021). "Rec Room raises at $1.25B valuation from Sequoia and Index as VCs push to find another Roblox". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  19. Lyons, Kim (March 25, 2021). "Rec Room rides uptick in users during the pandemic to become a VR unicorn". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  20. Ackerman, Dan (August 12, 2016). "VR finally has its killer app, and it's called Rec Room". CNET. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  21. Newitz, Annalee (January 24, 2017). "Welcome to the world of trolling in virtual reality". Ars Technica. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  22. Metz, Rachel (June 14, 2017). "Virtual Reality's Missing Element: Other People". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  23. Wong, Joyce (December 27, 2017). "The art of VR: In 2017, filmmaker Joyce Wong found compelling new ways to socialize online". CBC Arts. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
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