My Input
whatisbrg? is a game where I joined in a 6-person team to create an alternate-reality game that fosters meaningful connection with fellow game developers. The game spanned over the entire week of the 2026 Game Developers Conference, where players explored a narrative of an evil MLM focused on productivity (ORG) and a counter-group working against said MLM (HOG). The BRG was a "game" designed on getting players to solve the ORG's impossible application form for taking down the ORG from within, finding secret documentation about the company's history and mysterious ciphers.
I was primarily the developer for the whatisbrg puzzle website, the core page for players to try out three-letter acronyms (TLAs) from the main cipher. I worked on setting up a secure webpage and server to store all puzzle answers, hints, and easter eggs; at the same time, I had to really make sure the page was secure enough to go against fellow developers, resulting in internal testing for setting up firewalls, rate throttles, and device-specific restrictions. It was a lot of fun developing the page and facilitating the traffic throughout the conference as I got to see so many people try it out and see their thought process in the form of six-letter answers!
Additionally, I helped in a good chunk of the puzzle design, TLAs, and organization for making sure the physical booth and game overall went smoothly. The game turned out to be really fun and engaging for not only us, the team, but also for players who stuck around! We were shared stories for how people connected with the ARG and how they went about interacting with the website; one person even asked me if their bot would have been able to take down the security I had for the page if they decided to deploy it.
Do check out our GDC talk at the vault to know more about what the ARG was, our design process, and our post-mortem reflection!