Adrian Hon

@adrianhon

Made Zombies, Run! and Perplex City, wrote You've Been Played and A History of the Future in 100 Objects. Associate Artist at the Traverse Theatre. Writing a book about immersive art. Blog: mssv.net Larp: strandfall.com Video:

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Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 11d

Wish I were in Shanghai for [[rect*]]repair's HTML Day, where people write HTML by hand in the park! "No internet on site, and no AI allowed ... Yes, you can probably vibecode a webpage in a few seconds, but HTML Day is about the few hours we spend writing together." rect.repair/html-2026/

A screenshot of old school Microsoft Frontpage HTML editor with handwritten HTML inside

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 11d

But there were a ton of really smart and encouraging and funny comments too – recommending books, scholars, games, etc. Loved this one!

@ea-g4056 1 month ago
rip nikolai you would have loved roblox hospital roleplay servers
2
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1 month ago
@adrianhon
it's true

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 11d

14k views is about the limit of what my most popular blog posts get. You can judge for yourself whether a pageview or a video view is "better", though I'll note that the average view duration is 7:34. I knew this was hitting when people started arguing about "late stage capitalism" in the comments.

@tvviewer4500 1 month ago
:
I love when people say the words late stage capitalism as they live in a time where the poorest people have more than they could ever imagine
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@Xocists 1 month ago
Don't know if your problem is a lack of imagination or a lack of understanding of poverty but, personally, I find it really easy to imagine the poorest having more than they do now.
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@tvviewer4500 1 month ago
:
@Xocists the reason they are poor is because they cannot imagine making a better life. Capitalism allows the government to give these idiots free money and food and health care.
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Show more replies V
@theblackrose3130 1 month ago
:
5, the term is not meant to be necessarily pejorative. It's used as a description of the current material conditions of capitalism which are quite distinct from its earlier industrial form.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 13d

But wait – there's more! Here's a truly bonkers bit where someone recalls the principles of perspective, has a vision of the world as a 2D plane (like in an FPS) with crosshairs, sees an invisible trajectory, and nails his foe with a crossbow bolt.

And at that moment something supernatural occurred: the killer aiming a gun at me, the room all around him, the sketches, the furniture, the paintings on the walls, the canvases, the empty frames, the easels, the paint stains on the floor, the dead guard in the foreground, the other dead guard in the background, the dying Bacchiacca (I could no longer hear his moans, nor any other sound) ... all of it appeared to me like a perfectly composed painting. But that is not all: I saw the lines being drawn through space, forming a geometric grid, and I recognised Alberti's diagram, his pyramid of spokes converging on a single point. It was the laws of perspective taking shape before me, as clearly as if I had traced them myself with a ruler; I touched the surface of things, because it was no longer the real world that I could see in all its depth. Or rather, it was the real world, but I saw it as if through the camera obscura devised by Master Brunelleschi - may his name be honoured until the end of time! - and in the space of a second the world appeared to me as a flat surface, adroitly squared, in all the dazzling clarity of the theory that was revealed to us by those supreme geniuses:
Brunelleschi, Alberti, Masaccio ... may you all be crowned in glory, you eternal Tuscan heroes! And so, as the killer was about to fire at me, because the fuse, as I told you, had almost completely burnt down (this, too, I could perceive with perfect lucidity, I saw - yes, I saw! - the vanishing point drawn on his forehead as if by Alberti himself and (recalling those words of the great master that gave me heart: 'It is in vain that you bend your bow, if you do not yet know where to aim your arrow!' - and I knew; in that instant, I knew exactly!) I pulled the trigger, and the bolt shot from my crossbow, following the perfect trajectory that my mind had calculated and that an invisible hand had traced through the air, embedding itself exactly midway between his eyes. He fell backwards, his …

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 13d

I knew Laurent Binet's hilarious Perspective(s), an epistolary Renaissance murder mystery packed with real-life artists, paid homage to Assassin's Creed, but nothing could compare to reading the actual thing.

Unfortunately, as life has taught me - and as it has taught you too, Master Piero - nothing ever goes as planned. This adventure did not prove an exception to that rule. As I descended from the ramparts, I heard some guards climbing the stairs. Since I had no business being up there, I would have had no excuse to justify my presence if they had seen me. So I hurried back to the roof. But you know the palace better than I, so you know that there are no hiding places up there. I ran to the wall; a leap from that height could be fatal, even to me. But God rewards the brave: at the foot of the wall was a cart loaded with hay, left there by some groom. It all happened in a flash: the decision, then the execution. I climbed onto the parapet, arms outspread like Christ on the cross, I closed my eyes and I dived. During my fall I heard the cry of an eagle. My landing was as soft as on a feather bed, and in a second I was up on my feet again, completely unscathed.
Now I just had to grab the painting, hide it in the hay, then
single-handedly drag the cart away.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 17d

I’d totally play a dozen more of these kinds of escape rooms, I think the projector-assisted deduction gameplay allows for a much broader kind of storytelling and looser kinds of puzzles. Definitely would be keen on seeing longer run-times too - this was 60 min.

The players posing next to the “dead body”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 17d

I loved how the projector kept track of important info for us, like this reminder on how to figure out a lock or pictures of the main characters. Just makes things move along at a nice clip!

Projector showing instructions on how to find the digits for a safe lock

Projector showing “explore your surroundings to find a way into Roy’s safe”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 17d

Other cool elements include dialling phone numbers (it’s giving Ratline!) and short story cutscenes (Golden Idol!) I won’t go into the story but as you’ve probably guessed, there’s a fun noir-ish detective thing going on…

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 17d

So as you solve puzzles, you’re prompted to fill in answers as you go that also confirm the story events. Sections are marked in real time, and yes, you can brute force it if you want! Plus the UI is really slick and comes with a smart tutorial. (That’s @eviltrout.com of deduction game fame!)

Projector showing “the clues in the filing cabinet led to two new discoveries. BLACKWELL/RUBY/OLIVER became Roy’s…”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 17d

Had a blast at @lockwoodimmersive.com’s new Shades of Grey escape room, which uses Obra Dinn/Golden Idol-style deduction mechanics for puzzles and storytelling! Based in Toronto, a must-play for anyone into Obra-likes! www.lockwoodimmersive.com/shades-of-grey

A man studying a desk in front of a projector showing text saying “Roy’s contacts at the office including FIRST NAME, LAST NAME, his friend ROLE”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 21d

Oh that sounds bad

Six major hurricanes in the last decade and flooding even on sunny days have given Florida the highest home insurance premiums in the nation — an average of $8,292 last year, online marketplace Insurify estimates. Already four times what New York State homeowners pay, Florida premiums are projected to continue rising this year. The Miami area’s property taxes, meanwhile, have jumped 62% since 2019, more than twice the national average, according to real estate data firm Attom.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· 21d

Looking forward to all those Very Smart People changing their minds on Miami/Florida politics being a model of affordability with this news. Now that’s what I call an abundance of expense!

Graph showing the US’ most expensive places, with Miami gradually increasing from 2015 to 2024 to overtake NY and LA and almost reach SF

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jul 6

New dystopian larp just dropped (from a thread on Amazon Mechanical Turk stopping accepting new customers)

root-parent 2 hours ago | prev | next l-l
I can see a high value startup, that will provide Human Intelligence with real Humans, locked in the room, with no network, books, LLMs and monitored 24x7 with cameras.
reply
HoldOnAMinute 1 hour ago | parent | next [-]
Please enjoy each task equally reply
mcmcmc 48 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]
24/7 isolation with no

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jul 2

SSPX: Out of Bounds

Photoshopped Nokia N-Gage game cover for SSX: Out of Bounds, with a "P" inserted so it reads SSPX

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 29

This is a really bad take, the worst kind of strawman. None of the academics I've read judge festivals based on how liable they are to begin a revolution. Most acknowledge that they, too, were press-release valves, inverted worlds. But that doesn't mean older festivals are the same as modern ones!

Modern festivals are sometimes dismissed as “licensed transgression” by academics: pressure-release valves allowing revellers a manageable – and managed – temporary taste of true freedom before playtime is over and they return to being compliant drones. But measuring everything by whether it is immediately liable to begin a revolution is daft and boring. At Gala, I was reminded that festival crowds are sometimes, if not often, more interested in getting up to tipsy japes in the sun than they are in locking in to the acts they have paid to see. Because being there is the entire point of attending a festival; seeing all the bands, DJs or former Top Gear presenters is not. For all the nihilism and division in this country, we display a striking compulsion to gather – not just peacefully but exuberantly – in fields, parks and town squares with strangers. How else do you explain the fact that so many festivals sell out before the lineups are even announced?

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 29

On the Calculation of Libby Wait Times

Screenshot of wait times to borrow Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume. Volumes 3 and 4 are suspended (i.e. I can unsuspend and get the books quickly), volume 2 is two weeks.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 28

I was wearing my Zombies, Run! cap *and* my Perplex City t-shirt for good luck

Me standing behind a tripod-mounted device wearing a blue Perplex City t-shirt and black Zombies, Run cap

Me sitting in a camping chair talking to two other people under a canopy

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 28

We also tested larp gameplay including our psychometric assessments and tested out how long it took to set up our canopy and other tech and gear!

Alex with a big cart and lots of camping gear on a lawn

Five people under the canopy with a table filled with tech

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 28

Fantastic first field test of our solarpunk orienteering larp, Strandfall! @x13n.com’s “spatial computers” were tracked by long range radio through the entire park, and the scavenger hunt and radio link gameplay worked nicely. Very cool to do this jumping over streams and going through fields!

Alex next to a pink spatial computer on a tripod

An epaper screen saying PINPOINT with a signal graph, location, battery status

An epaper screen saying ”device sleeping” with icons connecting HQ to different devices

Someone holding an epaper device with a 3D scan underway

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 23

Researching my next video essay and discovered my post on the 2009 DARPA Network Challenge was referenced by an official DARPA project report as a: "very thoughtful and widely cited blog on the nature of the DNC and expected strategies for winning" www.hsdl.org/c/view?docid...

2.1 Observations on the Network Challenge Diffusion
The diffusion of the Challenge through mass media sources and social media channels provides
a good comparison of the relative roles between traditional and social media methods for
network mobilization. Some of the key diffusion events and dates for the DARPA Network
Challenge follow:
29 Oct – Dr Dugan announces the DARPA Network Challenge at UCLA; DARPA issues press
release to targeted media and bloggers
DARPA NETWORK CHALLENGE – PROJECT REPORT – FEBRUARY 16, 2010 3
29 Oct – Huffington Post posts the DNC announcement (many of the initial citations for early
blogs are linked back to the Huffington Post article)
31 Oct – MSSV posts very thoughtful and widely cited blog on the nature of the DNC and
expected strategies for winning (http://mssv.net/2009/10/31/how‐to‐win‐the‐darpa‐
network‐challenge/)
1 Nov – Slashdot posts DNC announcement
(http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/11/02/0056236/Find‐DARPAs‐Balloons‐Win‐
40K?art_pos=5)
2 Nov – Wiki tracking DNC teams is launched (http://redballoon.wikispaces.com/Groups)
4 Nov – Video of Dr. Regina E. Dugan’s speech is available on YouTube
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N85ryOFVeQg)
13 Nov – DNC team SpotBigRed posts first video seeking team members
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vz8ZI‐8aXA&feature=response_watch)
1 Dec – Steady trickle of traffic to the DNC website, an average of 1000 new visitors daily
24 Nov – Registration for the DNC opens. DARPA_News tweets that registration is open
New York Times story runs
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01darpa.html?_r=1)

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 15

Baffled by Beeban Kidron on LLMs. Apparently ChatGPT is good enough to draft her policy docs, research her book, fix her grammar, do maths, identify patterns, and diagnose issues – but "generalist LLMs" aren't worth the risk, especially for kids? www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...

She has used ChatGPT to draft policy documents, research the book, and fix “some grammatical things” that as a 16-year-old school leaver she wasn’t sure about. Though she swears she didn’t use AI to actually write it, she did feed ChatGPT a draft and ask what it thought, receiving the kind of sycophantic response for which chatbots are infamous. “Where it is amazing is the strength of its ability to do maths and identify patterns, to do diagnostics, to check what’s not there,” she acknowledges. But she remains unconvinced that generalist so-called large language models – rather than specialist ones for specific research purposes – are worth the risks, particularly to child users.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 11

Lovely bit of coverage of Jubensha Con, this time in EDGE magazine by Alex Spencer! Alex played Spy of the Year and All Falls Down: Sorroborough, and touches on just how much of a physical and social experience jubensha can be.

hat is jubensha? After a day at
• Jubensha Con, "the world's first convention dedicated to English-
language jubensha", where I played two of them... I am genuinely unsure of the answer.
Here's what I do know. Jubensha is a kind of in-person game that has been enormous in China for over a decade now. There it has spawned dedicated escape-room-style venues, TV-show formats and, according to Chronic Insanity, one of the organisers of this event,
"a billion-yuan [about £100m] industry".
'Jubensha' itself translates from Chinese as something like 'murder-mystery script.
The games are a sort of weird offshoot of tabletop RPGs, hybridised with those old murder-mystery dinner-party games and the social deduction of Among Us or The Traitors on TV. At least, I think so. Because, despite all the lying skills I've honed for these games, I was telling the truth about being uncertain.
I first became aware of jubensha from a
2024 People Make Games video. As it turns out, pretty much every creator at this event - notably excepting Suspense Studio, which was featured in that video - first found about it the same way. And, because none of the English jubensha designers I meet seem to speak any Chinese,
they're effectively
reverse-engineering a genre from this one video, plus maybe a couple of Suspense's anglophone creations.
And now here I am, trying to reverse-engineer an understanding from two of those people's games, picked from ten on offer at Jubensha Con. These are Incog Games' Spy Of The Year, and All Falls Down: Sorroborough from the aforementioned Chronic Insanity.
What do they have in common? Well, neither features a single murder.
Spy Of The Year is a comedy game set at an espionage awards do, in which we play pastiches of James Bond, George Smiley, etc.
Sorroborough, meanwhile, has overtones of
Yellowjackets: we're a group of old university friends on a reunion trip when our plane crashes, leaving us all miraculously unharmed.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 9

idk, I think there's a simple explanation here: it's UK's main *free* attraction for families with children. It has dinosaurs!! Having said that, I popped in last month and was shocked by the state of some of the galleries, e.g. Earth's Treasury. Archive: archive.is/AtSrx

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How the Natural History Museum became Britain’s most popular attraction
More than 7.1mn people passed through its gates in 2025, though sceptics say the new gardens are making an outsized contribution

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 6

I’m in London for Voidspace this weekend, say hi if you’re around!

A person standing in front of a Voidspace banner holding two thumbs up

A man in a lab coat in front of a projector saying Center for end of species care

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 5

Typical British reaction: "Why teenagers spend their lives glued to screens and on non value-adding activities idk. [Buy] them footballs and chess sets and send them outside." Yes, so they can play football on the non-existent pitches that now cost money to play on and they can't get to.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 5

It is FUN to imagine you are a spy going out on a secret real world mission, getting messages from a handler. The money helps, but the main thing is that it's free, unlike practically every comparable form of real world immersive experience/pervasive game.

Just over a year ago, Ukrainian police arrested two groups of suspected Russian agents who were covertly photographing air defence systems on the outskirts of Kharkiv.
At first, this looked like standard espionage, directed by Moscow's FSB spy agency to advance its conflict in eastern Ukraine. But the perpetrators were not Russian infiltrators or trained agents but local teenagers.
The children, all aged 15 or 16, had been unwittingly recruited by the FSB to collect intelligence under the guise of a "quest" game - a citywide scavenger hunt in which participants compete to finish a list of challenges.

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 5

It's too simple to say this is Discord's fault or video games' fault, or even "addictive algorithms". It's not like it's that easy to go out and take photos or spray graffiti vs staying indoors playing World of Tanks!

However, the Met has acknowledged that it is arresting teenagers for sabotage and reconnaissance activities. “Children and young people are vulnerable to . . . hostile activity,” Vicki Evans, the UK’s senior national co-ordinator for counterterrorism policing, admitted last year. “It is a huge concern for us.”
Murphy, the former Metropolitan Police commander, recalls that about 18 months ago the force started to notice youngsters “conducting hostile reconnaissance for a variety of different reasons on behalf of a foreign state”, citing both Russia and Iran. “We were increasingly seeing younger people engaging in what looked almost like a parallel universe.”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 5

Distributed terrorism as pervasive game/ARG isn't new, but it looks like it's here to stay. This sort of thing was a staple of near-future sci-fi back when "collective intelligence" was cool – think Global Frequency – but it was usually for good. Oh well! www.ft.com/content/58da...

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 4

They were also partner of last year's fringe, where they ran a workshop for artists: “It was particularly bizarre to be in a room with performers who were being sold a ‘tool to make their lives easier,’ which was then shown writing a play!” www.edinburghinquirer.co.uk/p/artists-pr...

Undeterred, she attended the performers’ workshop unofficially, standing at the back rather than taking a seat. What she witnessed, she says, was troubling: “It was particularly bizarre to be in a room with performers who were being sold a ‘tool to make their lives easier,’ which was then shown writing a play!”

Thornton describes the session as a tightly controlled presentation. Despite initial claims that questions would be welcomed, attempts to raise concerns were met with deflection. “When someone asked if Claude could be used as a citation tool, the presenter said, ‘No, because it’s not connected to the internet.’ When they followed up, asking, ‘How is this useful then?’ they just ignored the question and carried on.”

Adrian Hon@adrianhon· Jun 4

Somehow the chief exec of the Edinburgh Fringe vibe-coding their new app prototype does not fill me with confidence. But the main problem is the recommendation algorithm system they want to introduce, "similar to Spotify or Amazon". www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...