The Waiting Room (game)

***The Waiting Room***is a small Reflect Studios side-project set in the *Welcome to the Game* universe, chronologically bridging *Welcome to the Game* and *Welcome to the Game II*. It's downloadable content for *Welcome to the Game*.

The game is part of a contest - the first YouTuber to beat it wins. The winner was RiskRim.

## Story and Gameplay

The player awakes in a grimy underground dungeon. Unlike *Welcome to the Game*, the player has full traditional first-person control over their character to explore the dungeon with, which is comprised of three central locations: the cell, the storage room, and the hallway wrapping around said two rooms. The rooms are connected by an air-duct, and the hallway can be viewed by three holes in the walls. The player must break out of the cell and use the computer found in the storage room to access the Deep Web, as well as a collection of note documents that serve as the tutorial. The Deep Web content is all recycled from the first *WTTG*. The notes explain that they're a kidnapped victim of The Waiting Room, and can escape through a password-protected gatekeeper that was slipped into the computer by the player's predecessor, Adam.The password to the gatekeeper can be found in the player’s (real) computer

They have to explore the Deep Web to not only find the 6 hashes, but decrypt them to piece together the password. The hash-finding is identical to the key-finding from the original, i.e pixel-hunting each and every site until the cursor lights up, then clicking. In the meanwhile, the player must also be wary of the Executioner, and maintain the illusion that they're still unconscious and docile in their cell by retreating back into their bed and playing possum whenever he checks on them. If they fail at convincing him, Game Over. Be ready to button-mash Mouse 1 when he enters the player's cell, as to keep the player's eyes shut so he doesn't get suspicious and attack. They must moderate how much noise they're generating as to not alert the Executioner when he's patrolling and keep an eye on the holes in the walls and background sound cues that gives them a better feel for the environment so they're not caught off guard. As a rough estimate, the Executioner patrols the hallway about every 2 minutes and a half - 3 minutes, and each patrol usually lasts nearly a solid minute, but his behavior is ultimately randomized.

One of the most important tips in the game is to crouch-walk and crouch-crawl through the vents whenever the player thinks the Executioner is near, as going fast either on the floor or in the vent is almost guaranteed to alert him. A good handful of sites play music after loaded in, so make sure to memorize these sites and mute them immediately. The mute isn't permanent.

Upon finding all 6 hashes, decrypting them down into the password, and using the password to unlock the doors with the terminal, the player is free to roam The Waiting Room and escape out one of the two exits. The ending cutscene is a black screen, accompanied with the player in a one-sided phone call. He is revealed to be an associate of Amelea, and is frantically warning her of the punishment he narrowly survived for digging too deep. Someone breaks into his house and guns him down mid-call, likely an associate of the Executioner or The Prey.

## Development

*The Waiting Room* was singlehandedly developed by Adam Flatau over the span of October 2017 as a prelude to the upcoming *Welcome to the Game II*, and the star of a community contest. He notified a large handful of YouTubers and publicly released the game on Gamejolt for free on the 26th. The next day, *TWR* was released on Steam as free DLC for *Welcome to the Game*. On the 28th, Vaverix was the first to beat the game without any exploits, though the YouTuber-only contest continued afterwards to be won by RiskRim a day before Halloween.

## Trivia

* The website *Rosie's Destruction* is a reference to a snuff film by the name of *Daisy's Destruction.*