Comroddity, the Alternate Reality Game Show

Santiago Wonoski, Justin; Sundararajan, Sriram; Carrotta, John; Veccia, Aiden

Student Work

Comroddity, the Alternate Reality Game Show

Public Deposited

Our team designed, developed, and ran an alternate reality game revolving around “Comroddity,” a game show created by a mysterious, zany organization to instill WPI campus with their three core pillars: Buffoonery, Ingenuity, and Community. To promote accessibility and immersion, our team developed many layers of interaction allowing players to engage with the ARG as much or as little as desired: these included four game show episodes broadcast over a month, a Discord server for socializing, an Instagram page to promote our show across the WPI community, and a string of websites for absurd fictional organizations filled with hidden puzzles. As the first alternate reality game both developed and run in one MQP at WPI, and designed with the goal of providing an accessible, humorous, and low-stress experience unifying the campus community, Comroddity gave us key insights about running a large-scale ARG experience shaped by the opinions and wit of the student body. In addition, we had the unique opportunity to clarify the concept of ARGs with WPI’s Institutional Review Board, paving the way for future ARGs to be run at this scale.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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