AI, games & immersive technology
A life sim you live inside.
Vicarious is a life simulation you step inside: make a home, build a household and create things with your own hands. Developed by Shroozy in Coventry, it is also our working prototype for researching AI in games and immersive technology.
We’re exploring how creative AI, VR interaction and shared presence can change the way people make, play and spend time together. The prototype runs on Meta Quest, with a desktop version alongside it.
The idea we’re testing
In Vicarious, AI lives in familiar objects: a canvas you paint on and a console you play. We’re investigating whether these interactions can support creativity and a sense of being there, while keeping the player in control.
Working prototype. Player studies are the next step; these questions guide what we build and test.
Paint Skill develops a canvas you start by hand; the Remix console brings AI-created games into the home. Our focus is creative ownership: does the player still feel they made the work and chose the experience?
Unity and Meta Quest turn brushes, controllers and everyday objects into things you use with your hands. We’re exploring presence and usability: how should AI respond without interrupting the flow of VR?
An early multiplayer prototype connects Quest and desktop players. The research direction is shared presence across devices: can people create and spend time together when their ways of interacting differ?
From research idea to implementation
These two working integrations show how we’re putting the research into practice: Paint Skill develops a painting you start by hand, and the Remix console brings AI-created games onto the television in your home.
01 / Paint Skill
The player picks up a brush and begins the work in VR. Paint Skill then uses AI to develop the painting, aiming to preserve the subject, composition and brushwork while adding detail.
What we’re investigating: whether the result still feels like the player’s own work, and which details need to be preserved to keep that sense of authorship.
02 / Remix console
The console under the television is playable, not decorative. Pick up the in-world controller and its inputs work on the screen: browse Remix's library, launch a game and keep playing without leaving the life sim.
What we’re investigating: whether AI-created games from Remix feel like a meaningful part of everyday life inside the simulation.
Check out Remix.ggMeet the assistant
A little hologram companion who appears when you call him, shows what he is feeling with his eyebrows and eyes, and can turn his head into a camera. He is the face of the AI features in Vicarious.
In the build Tap to summon him again Shroozy
He floats beside you, blinks, glances around and raises an eyebrow when something catches his interest. Call him and he spins into being in a burst of sparkles; send him away and he folds back out of the world. The assistant is Shroozy's own mascot, brought into the game as the companion for the AI features.
The model above is the same character used in the game.
Next for Vicarious Plus
Ask him to check your email. Messages appear on a panel beside him, he reads or summarises one, and drafts a reply you can edit by hand or voice. Nothing is sent until you say so.
Ask what time it is where you really are and what the weather will do, so a long session in VR does not swallow your day.
Ask Shroozy questions and get help in conversation, by voice or text, with the answer spoken or shown on a card beside him.
And more on the way: calendar and reminders, a morning briefing, music, notes and files. Reading is automatic. Anything that sends or changes something outside the game asks you first.
Today Shroozy is the body for the AI features: how he appears, moves and looks. The abilities marked in design are not in the game yet.
A few familiar faces
A household starts with the people in it. Create your look with Genies avatars, choose traits and build family connections. These are a few of the characters from our prototype.
Under the surface
A simulation framework built on Unity. It keeps track of characters, relationships and the household, giving us a persistent world in which to explore AI and immersive interaction over time.
Step into one housemate and the others still have needs, moods and relationships. The Engine connects those systems to the things you can do with your own hands in VR.
Needs, moodlets and traits inform what a character chooses to do. Friendship and romance are tracked between individual pairs.
Households and building data are saved. Social options can change with a character’s mood, traits and relationships.
Painting progress, owned objects, work shifts and school schedules connect individual actions to the wider household. The same simulation supports VR and desktop views.
Multiplayer is a layer around the game, so single player stays as it is. A host decides what is shared, such as doors, lamps and objects, while each player controls themselves.
The Vicarious Engine is the simulation and AI framework underneath the game. VR leads the development, with a desktop prototype now alongside it; reuse in future Shroozy games remains a longer-term direction.
Straight from the build
A closer look at the growing neighbourhood, new creator and building tools. Headset captures and development views, labelled as they are.
New in the build
The prototype has grown beyond the home: a camera for the moments you want to keep, a way to go live, a shop where your sim can work, a reader for the books on your shelf and a first multiplayer prototype.
01 / Create and share
A smartwatch, a floating tablet, a tripod, a follow drone and a photo printer turn Vicarious into somewhere to make content. Take photos, record clips and print pictures to hang on your walls.
Photo and video capture work in the prototype.
02 / Go live
Raise the in-game tablet for a selfie, then go live and stream what you are doing straight to Twitch. Your friends can watch your household from outside the game while you play.
Streamed live from the prototype to Twitch.
03 / Work
Find work on the tablet, then take a shift at Quill's Corner Shop. Serve the till, restock the shelves and mop up spills by hand, or send your sim alone and let their skills and mood decide how it goes. Pay counts only for time actually worked.
Every job runs on one framework, so more careers can follow. Retail is the first one built.
04 / Read
Pull a book from the bookcase and read it in a two-page reader with chapters, bookmarks and adjustable text size. Public-domain novels come bundled, and you can import your own EPUBs. It works in VR and on desktop.
Why it matters
Vicarious is also a way to learn what emerging technology can add to everyday play, in a way people with different devices can share.
Painting, photography and reading sit inside a life sim, so creating something is part of living in the world rather than a separate app.
A headset player and a desktop player can share a space, so spending time together does not depend on everyone owning the same hardware.
The simulation, job and building systems are designed so that future Shroozy games can build on them rather than start again.
Developed by Shroozy, an emerging-technology studio in Coventry, UK, with player testing planned to learn where AI and VR help and where they get in the way.
The life sim underneath
AI is one layer of a wider VR life sim: a household, a home and a set of systems that keep moving even when the player is not looking directly at them.
Needs, moods, traits, relationships and everyday routines shape what each character wants to do next.
Choose traits and family connections. Get to know somebody through social choices shaped by their mood, your relationship and what you have learned about them.
Build across floors, add stairs, choose roof styles and decorate with wall finishes, furniture and the paintings you make.
Work and school schedules sit alongside household routines. Derville brings neighbouring homes, a school and a park into the wider prototype.
The next research step · Planned player studies
The integrations are working; their value to players still needs to be tested. We plan to combine hands-on tasks, player feedback and technical measurements to learn what helps, what interrupts play and what needs to change.
Compare a player’s canvas before and after AI refinement, then ask which subjects, colours and marks still feel like their own. Use that feedback to refine what Paint Skill preserves.
Measure generation time and observe where waiting, feedback or failures interrupt a painting task. Explore how to keep the player informed and in control while the result arrives.
Let players paint and use the Remix console within a household session. Ask whether they would return to these objects, and why, to understand their value beyond a first demonstration.
Compare the same shared activity with Quest and desktop players. Observe communication, controls and barriers to participation, including differences in VR familiarity and comfort.
Research with a purpose
The aim is to learn where AI and immersive technology add something worth keeping. A result that shows an approach needs to change is useful too.
Player choice and trust. Planned studies will examine whether players understand when AI is involved, what happens to their canvas and how much control they want over the result.
Access and inclusion. We plan to involve people with different levels of gaming and VR experience, and examine comfort, readable feedback and the barriers between headset and desktop play.
Practical, sustainable development. We plan to track generation requests, waiting times and running costs, and explore avoiding unnecessary retries. The Unity simulation framework is designed for reuse in future Shroozy games; these studies will help inform that direction.
Vicarious · Meta Quest
PlayVicarious.com is the main Vicarious launch page. For build access, longer footage or research enquiries, email [email protected].
