HBO and REWIND bring you Silicon Valley: Inside the Hacker Hostel, a fully interactive, virtual recreation of the home where Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jian-Yang live and work. Filled with games, Silicon Valley jokes and first-hand interactions with the guys, the experience offers hours of entertainment and makes you a part of the show’s hilarious universe.
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Take a Look Inside the VR Experience
Go inside the iconic homebase: Play a game of "Always Blue," help Richard out of a coding crisis or take a virtual hit off a virtual bong. The possibilities are endless.
Watch Thomas Middleditch and Kumail Nanjiani experience their characters’ home base in VR.
"...it couldn’t be more spot on.”
Be One of “The Guys”
Firsthand interactions with Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jian-Yang make you a part of the story.
At the start of the experience, you’ll get a video call from Dinesh, welcoming you as the newest member of the household. His confident spiel is interrupted by his main tormentor (and maybe best friend), Gilfoyle.
Notorious for his meltdowns, Richard calls for help when some code is corrupted during a tech conference. Through video and voice calls he sends you on a mission around the house to find the missing piece of code, and save the day.
Answer an old cell phone in the TV room and receive a call from the always original Jian-Yang… pretending to be any number of people with an insult at the ready.
“...pure genius…”
While there are 756 interactions in total, a handy checklist highlights 17 tasks to complete. The list serves as a helpful reference through the experience and also poses the challenge — successfully accomplish all tasks and get a special bonus. (Hint: check the VR headset within the VR experience.)
How It All Works
HBO partnered with the UK-based agency Rewind to develop the experience in Unreal Engine 4.
HDR 360 captures of each room on set were taken to replicate the interior lighting.
3DS Max was used to faithfully recreate the Hacker Hostel environment from top-down blueprints of the actual set. We used photo references to replicate materials for all things like wall art, books and general aesthetic “clutter” around the house in Substance Designer and Substance Painter.
HBO worked in conjunction with Rewind, along with the Silicon Valley production team and writers to create the environmental, video and audio components, and generally ensure the experience is a natural extension of the show — capturing it’s humorous spirit and magnifying it large in VR.
