# Rec Room (video game)

Rec Room is a 2016 virtual reality massively multiplayer online game with an integrated game creation system. It is currently available on Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PS VR, Meta Quest 2, Oculus Quest, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, Oculus Rift, Pico 4, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.

## Gameplay

Rec Room centers around users voluntarily accessing various in-game experiences (referred to as "rooms") created by Rec Room Inc. (referred to as "Rec Room Originals"), as well as custom rooms created by players. These rooms can be accessed using in-game menus, teleports found in other rooms, as well as through invitations sent by other users.

### Virtual Reality

Rec Room can optionally be played on a virtual reality headset, specifically using SteamVR, virtual reality headsets on Meta Quest, Pico 4, 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 handheld 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, although this poses a higher risk of motion sickness.

### Social Interaction

Throughout rooms, players can encounter and interact with other players in real time through voice and text chat, being represented by their avatar. Players can choose to friend, invite, mute, block, or report other players, as well as "cheer" them for various reasons (equivalent to a "like" on most social media platforms), or form a party with other players to travel between rooms together. As players engage with Rec Room, they gradually earn experience, and eventually obtain an additional level on their account, with an indicator displayed by their username showing how many levels they've earned so far, and by extension, an indication of the age of their account.

### User Generated Content

When creating rooms, players can use the in-game "Maker Pen", a tool resembling a hot glue gun, that can be used to draw shapes in 3D. Players can also code in Circuits V1 and Circuits V2, Rec Room's visual programming language. Rec Room announced a partnership with Unity for Rec Room Studio, which allows certain users to use Unity to create more advanced rooms.

### Items and Currency

Rec Room's in-game currency, Tokens, can be earned throughout gameplay, purchased using real money, or earned by subscribing to Rec Room Plus (stylized as Rec Room+), which grants several benefits, including the ability to make custom shirts, sell user-generated content (also known as inventions) for tokens. Tokens that are earned in this way can be exchanged for real money.

## Development

Seattle-based development studio Rec Room Inc. (formerly Against Gravity Corp) was co-founded in April 2016 by Nicholas Fajt, Cameron Brown , Dan Kroymann, Bilal Orhan, Josh Wehrly, SallyBellyJessica, and John Bevis. Prior to the company's founding, CEO Fajt worked as a program manager on the HoloLens team at Microsoft. Kroymann worked on the same team after working on the Xbox team. CCO Brown worked as the creative director of HoloLens.
In 2016 and early 2017, the company raised $5 million in funding for the development of Rec Room and its community. According to Fajt, the company will keep the game free to download.
In June 2019, Rec Room Inc. announced that the company raised an additional $24 million over two rounds of funding. In December 2020, Rec Room Inc. announced an additional $20 million in funding.
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. In December 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced that they raised $145 million during another funding round, bringing the studio's value up to $3.5 billion.

### Music

Most of the music heard in Rec Room Originals were composed by creative director Cameron Brown, whose in-game username is "gribbly".

## Reception

Dan Ackerman, writing for CNET, described Rec Room as VR's "killer app". In January 2017, Ars Technica reported that trolling and harassment were major issues for Rec Room. 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. Filmmaker Joyce Wong described Rec Room as her choice of "most interesting piece of art in 2017".