Generative AI in VR · In development
A life sim you live inside.
Paint something by hand and watch AI finish it in your style. Play games generated from a prompt on the television in your living room. Vicarious is a life simulation for Meta Quest built to test what generative AI changes about making and playing inside VR. Everything in the reel is running in the prototype today.
Emerging technology in play
Two working integrations put creative AI into objects you handle: 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 sends that canvas to an image editing model through Pruna, asking it to keep the subject, composition and brushwork while adding detail.
The research question is whether the result still feels like the player's own work.
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.
AI-created games from Remix become another thing your character can play at home.
Check out Remix.ggA 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, so what happens in one moment can affect the next.
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.
What comes next
Vicarious is a working VR prototype. The next research step is to test these interactions with players: where AI supports their agency and presence, and where it needs a different approach.
Compare the painting before and after AI refinement. Does the player still recognise their composition, colours and brushwork?
Test the time and feedback between making a mark in the headset and seeing the finished painting. Where does the wait interrupt presence?
Explore whether an AI-refined painting and AI-created games feel like meaningful parts of a persistent home, rather than one-off demonstrations.
Vicarious · Meta Quest
Build access, longer footage and a walkthrough of the systems are available on request.
