While drinking absinthe at the themed bar connected to the sublimely transcendent piece of immersive theater that is Sleep No More in New York last month, my theater-going pal and I (who you can find on Twitter at @eruditechick) experienced a certified double take when we revealed to each other how we separately came to the conclusion that the six-story warehouse could easily be repurposed for a different kind of immersive show. A more interactive one. One based on a video game. One specifically based on a video game that best argues in favor of video games being art if ever there was one: Bioshock.

The masks the audience members were required to wear at all times; the encouragement to explore every room, open every drawer, and be as bold as we want to be; the ’30s decor and music — the setup shrieked Bioshock. So our wheels started turning. And they haven’t stopped.

It became our mission to determine the best way to take this warehouse and turn it into a live, audience-reactant theater piece based on the Bioshock games. Interactive Murder Mystery meets Sleep No More meets Laser Tag meets Capture the Flag. We decided that in our fantasy, money was no option and stretching the boundaries of existing technology was OK, considering how exponentially those things evolve nowadays.

The result of our week-long conversation is what follows — a walk-through of sorts — of what this experience would be like, co-written by the two of us. And I’m only half kidding when I say we are about five minutes from launching a Kickstarter to get this baby off the ground.

But first — the plot.

This would be a prequel to the first installment of Bioshock, with a brand-new story, ideally conceived with the cooperation of 2K/Irrational. But because we don’t have them at our beck and call, we had to try and come up with something to start.

The basic story would take place during New Year’s Eve in 1958 and have a strong focus around the fall of Rapture and the initial revolution that turned the city into the landscape we know best. Scientist William Rosenberg, having seen the writing on the wall for some time and aware of the potential side effects of ADAM, tries to get residents to forgo plasmid use and escape the doomed city. As he leaves clues for Rapture residents to discover how sinister both recently deceased mogul Frank Fontaine and Rapture visionary Andrew Ryan’s intentions really are, he is being countered by Ryan telling us that those who stay will be rewarded, that those who do not abandon Rapture will be its true masters, and that Rosenberg is trying to gather all the ADAM for himself and plans on selling it to the surface. This means the players have to decide who they think is lying.

As a prequel, it will allow us to see actors play Sander Cohen before he’s a lunatic and Tenanbaum realizing what she has done by creating the Little Sisters. There will also be side mysteries you can solve, including the plot of the initial Bioshock. Follow Atlas around and see if you can figure out his true identity. Follow the clues about the New Year’s Eve riots to discover who started them and why. Learn about Fontaine, Tenenbaum, Sofia Lamb, and more. If you find out who Jack is and what his purpose will be, you have the option of helping or hurting him. Find out what secret project Yi Suchong is working on. The possibilities are endless.

Now to the nitty-gritty.

The evening begins at a masquerade party at the Kashmir restaurant. Audience members arrive, receive their masks (never to be taken off once the game “officially” begins), and two drink tickets (20-30 minutes before start time). At one point, the MC starts leading the countdown, and just as we hit Happy New Year, the room goes black to sounds of explosions and wholesale destruction. The 1958 New Year’s Eve Riots have begun.

During the ensuing chaos, the MC tells you where to go based on your mask — you have inadvertently picked your type of splicer! While your type of splicer doesn’t affect gameplay, it adds a bit of fun for fans of the game series. The MC also takes this opportunity to tell you the rules/clues to gameplay, disguised as evacuation tips (Please make sure to check everywhere for your belongings, leave no stone unturned, follow your instincts, find who you can trust, help your fellow residents, and remember to always listen to instructions given over the loudspeakers).

Audience members are dumped into various “start” places. The Civil War has officially begun (and the game has officially started — put those masks on!), but whose side are you on? A television turns on and there is a black-and-white recording of William Rosenberg.

“If you’re watching…” Rosenberg tells us, sounding weary and furtive, “If you’re still watching… I know it may seem too late, but it isn’t. I know so many of us are sick, have been poisoned by Ryan’s mad dream and Fontaine’s machinations, but there is a way out. I don’t know what happened tonight, but I can’t stand for it getting any worse. I will show you the way out, if you only listen and follow me. Please. Just a little bit longer.” He encourages us to follow the clues to see for ourselves, trusting that we will escape with him when the time is right.

Immediately afterward, Andrew Ryan comes up on the loudspeaker. He informs us that William Rosenberg is lying, that he is behind the attacks on the restaurant, wanting to destroy the Rapture we know and love, and keep all the ADAM for himself to sell. Ryan encourages us to investigate, trusting that when the time is right, we will defend Rapture.

This is when the game truly begins. We are let loose into Rapture, on our own, to find clues, solve mysteries, and discover where we stand.

Wherever we go, there are character interactions. Much like Sleep No More, you can choose to follow one actor in particular and witness his or her entire storyline, follow many different actors, getting a snippet of everything, or simply start investigating on your own. It is designed to be impossible for one person to solve every mystery — you simply do your best and go where your instincts take you.

So what do you find other than actors? Audio Diaries, just like in the game, with clues that can guide you toward solving certain mysteries, physical puzzles a la hacking, visual clues, and more. Whenever you reach certain checkpoints in these mysteries, or solve them, you will discover a QR code. Scan the QR code to collect your points.

QR code?! Yes, that’s right; in our heads everyone has a smartphone (or possibly a smart device given to you along with your mask at the beginning) and before the game begins, you download the Live Bioshock app (only downloadable with a password) that will act as your HUD. To use the app is to “disable wireless communications” so there is no chance people engaged in the game can be distracted. Ideally, a device developed with just a Bioshock HUD that isn’t one’s own phone would be great, but we don’t know what’s what when it comes to technology, so a phone it is!

There are two sets of points. “Red” (Ryan) and “White” (Rosenberg). If, while solving a mystery, a choice you make along the way is more in favor of Ryan, the QR code you end up with will be for red points. If you side more with Rosenberg, your choices will most likely lead you to a QR code for white points.

Many rooms will have blank spaces on walls, floors, or boards as well as chalk, to bring in the element of leaving messages for your fellow audience members, mimicking the writing on the wall in the Bioshock games. You can either help them solve mysteries so they too have points, or lead them in the wrong direction, weakening them. The ability to do this was wildly popular in Demon’s Souls and would be awesome here, too.

A few mysteries that only have individual rewards can be solved only once, but most can be solved multiple times by different people to stock up points.

Throughout this time, we also hear a drama playing out over the loudspeaker, as Rosenberg reveals himself as openly defiant to Rapture as it stands now and starts communicating with you publicly, the same way Ryan is. The men counter each other with messages as time goes on, whereas the young Irishman known as Atlas shows his presence through smaller communiques that are room specific, played on small radios and jukeboxes and written down. The interactions over loudspeaker are also the universal way you as an audience member know that time has passed.

Halfway through (about an hour/hour and a half in) there is an announcement over the loudspeaker from Rosenberg that he has discovered the key to destroying Rapture’s ADAM supply, which will effectively free the population from Ryan’s control. Rosenberg had long ago discovered the dangers of ADAM and been dismissed out of hand by Ryan and calls upon the people to stop using it, while Atlas, as audience members discover from clues throughout the space, thinks they should use it to usurp Ryan as the de facto ruler of Rapture. “Ryan is feeding Adam to the citizens like it’s ammunition-” Rosenberg tells us — which is exactly what it is. “We have to stop this before it poisons the entire city. Meet me on the sixth floor.”

Note: Atlas’ insistence that the ADAM can be used to help overtake Ryan is one of the clues that it was he that incited the riots.

Ryan, never to be outdone, informs players “In searching through Rosenberg’s office for his true motivations in trying to destroy our magnificent Rapture, I’ve discovered something important about the ADAM supply. Trusty followers, I need you to meet me on the sixth floor, we must collect it in order to be strong enough to protect ourselves from our dissenters and the world above the waves.”

So everyone heads to the sixth floor, a level that was previously unreachable (determined by ushers in black masks and ropes blocking the stairwells). The ushers will silently guide the players toward the stairwells, as will the actors who will round up any audience members currently with them.

Once in the room, Rosenberg speaks to us, then Ryan appears, cuing Rosenberg to run off, and gets his turn. They both present their arguments. They both encourage us to join them and prove their loyalty by wearing it proudly. Those on Rosenberg’s side keep their white masks. Those on Ryan’s have their masks marked with red.

So what did the men discover? Rosenberg found out that Tenenbaum has developed a way to save the Little Sisters, thus destroying the ADAM within them. Ryan has learned it may be possible to drain ADAM from the Little Sisters and then inject ourselves with it for our own use.

So now we have a finite goal:we are needed to either destroy or take any ADAM we can find, the biggest resources being the Little Sisters, who are being kept in Tenenbaum’s safe haven in Olympus Heights (in a bit of retcon, those who follow Tenenbaum’s story in the first half will see her and the Little Sisters physically move there). Both sides are outfitted with gear meant to either save the Little Sisters and destroy the ADAM or drain the Little Sisters and keep the ADAM for ourselves. The gear is in fact a laser tag system that involves a “gun” being plugged into your phone HUD and a vest.

Suddenly, there are two sides pitted against each other. Instead of pure exploration and mystery, audience members must now watch their backs and have a clear goal.

Depending on how the audience did in the first half, they may have many points or few points, which can now be redeemed via QR code at various “vending machines” now activated throughout the space. These are how you get ammo, and if you choose to keep ADAM for yourself, how you get plasmids. In this real-world setting, the only difference between plasmids and ammo are amount of damage and sound effects.

As you are stocking up and heading for Tenenbaum, she appears on the loudspeaker to say that many Little Sisters have been taken from her safe haven and must be brought back before they are drained. She says there are spots on each floor that lead directly to Olympus Heights (pipes like in the game) and to simply bring the girls there.

The Little Sisters are now spread throughout the six stories. The goal for the remainder of the experience is to take out the opposing side whenever possible and most importantly, protect or drain the Little Sisters.

As a white mask, your goal is to bring the Little Sister to a safe zone. “Take her hand” with your gun (score one hit — she will let you) and you will have possession as you lead her to safety until a red mask takes you out. A Little Sister will always go willingly with a white mask. Hopefully other white masks will find you and help out, scoring everyone a reward.

As a red mask, your goal is to claim the Little Sister for yourself. “Drain” her with your gun (score three hits in a row). If a white mask has found her first, you must kill the white mask in order to open up the Little Sister for yourself.

Upon completion of either act, the Little Sister gives you, and whoever participated in helping or draining her, cards with codes on them. These codes, when scanned, give the red masks an automatic ADAM upgrade and give the white masks an ungodly amount of points to upgrade however you see fit, but whereas red masks can use their ADAM to get new, more powerful plasmids, white masks can only upgrade the ones they had before the riots, as they are making an active effort to heed Rosenberg’s warning. This is meant to mimic the dynamic in the game that being evil has a more immediate reward and may even be easier, but will you choose to go that route, knowing you’d have to kill Little Sisters to succeed?

When you are ready for an upgrade, a blue sensor lights up, meaning you can now go to a vending machine, scan the code, and select your upgrade. If at any time, you get shot enough times that you “die” and have no lives left, your sensors will turn bright white and then “burst.” You must find a Vita Chamber to scan a code to come back to life. To avoid this, simply spend more points to start on health at the vending machines.

Levels: Each level will have two vita chambers and six vending machines, acting as dispensers for EVE, health, ammo, and more. Audience members use their QR code readers to upgrade. You can store health, EVE, and ammo upgrades into your HUD to use on the spot when you are engaged in combat and running low.

How many Little Sisters are saved vs. drained determines the finale and whether it’s good or bad.

There are four outcomes: Overwhelmingly positive, overwhelmingly negative, positive just barely winning, and negative just barely winning. How the group dynamic evolves will affect the outcome of the game. When the game is nearing its close, the audience members are directed toward the two-story ballroom for the finale.

At the close, we see Rosenberg as Rosenberg either dies or escapes, with or without residents escaping as well, depending on which ending the group has collectively earned.

Before this happens, he tells Yi Suchong, one of the scientists you could choose to follow throughout the evening, that should something go wrong they should use his “experiment” to protect the Little Sisters and that there is someone “here tonight” that shows great potential for being “the one.” much more so than those “test subjects from the Persephone Penal Colony.” At that time, one person’s (the one who collected the most points overall throughout the evening) sensor starts flashing green. Suchong tells this person, “You. You will be my subject Delta,” and gives this person a note that reads “Do not open until the end.”

Back to the finale.

If overwhelmingly more Little Sisters were saved than drained, Rosenberg escapes with a giant group of Rapture citizens (other actors). If narrowly more, only he escapes, in an effort to bring back help. Escaping, Rosenberg tells Atlas to come with and help, but Atlas refuses, saying he must stick around to help save everyone else and protect his family.

If overwhelmingly more Little Sisters were drained than saved, Rosenberg dies without saving anyone. If just barely more were drained than saved, Rosenberg gets a few citizens out before his death. His death is sudden. As he tries to escape, a shot comes out of nowhere. If you had been savvy enough to be following Sullivan, Ryan’s Head of Security, only to you would the death not be out of nowhere, as you would have seen him receive the order, seen him prepare, perhaps even followed him to the ballroom. Had you not seen any of Sullivan’s storyline throughout the evening, who shoots Rosenberg will remain a mystery. As Rosenberg is dying, he requests that Atlas carry out his mission and free the citizens of Rapture.

Unfortunately, whatever fate is met by Rosenberg, Rapture’s fate has been sealed, and after Rosenberg leaves the game Atlas tells the audience that they have to bide their time, conserve their strength, and take Ryan out of power. He tells us he has a plan Ryan will never see coming (the events of Bioshock) and that he’ll be in contact. He then disappears into the shadows. Ryan makes a radio address thanking the audience for choosing Rapture.

With that, the experience is over and audience members are led back to the bar in the beginning, back to New Year’s Eve, before the uprising. A chance to go back and enjoy life before the Civil War begins.

Here is when the person who “won” the game opens the note. The note is either a refund of the ticket, a voucher for a free copy of the next game in the Bioshock franchise, or something even better. The hope is that the prize would be interesting enough that this would become an experience people want to repeat as they learn the strategies the first time around. The person with the most points from the opposite camp should ideally also win a prize.

But fear not — those who do not wish to engage in combat would simply not. Audience members may elect to fade into the background by not taking a vest. These audience members can watch without engaging, and continue to focus only on solving mysteries and watching actors if they wish.

Clearly, this becoming a reality would require lots of time, money, and people who actually know how to make something like this happen. But it is possible. For a great critical analysis of this same topic, be sure to check out Eruditechick’s essay on All Things Fangirl. But if something even close to an experience like this was made available, I would make it my business to attend. Would you? What would you change? Something like this truly begs the question: who’s game?

Oh, and 2K/Irrational, if this tickles your fancy, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Sleep No More closes later this month and we highly recommend catching it before then — tickets can be found here and a great article from the NYT on the show, published this week, can be found here.

Tags: bioshock, Sleep No More, Theater, video games, What If...