Rec Room (video game)

Rec Room supported optional virtual reality (VR) gameplay across compatible devices, including headsets from Meta, Pico 4 and Steam VR platforms. In virtual reality mode, players interacted with the environment using motion controllers, enabling object manipulation and spatial movement. A non-VR mode was also available, allowing access to the game without a headset.^[2]

Players were able to explore the space around them within the confines of their physical floor space while roaming further by using the controller buttons to teleport a short distance, with minimal to no virtual reality sickness. A "walking" mode enabled players to move continuously rather than teleporting, although this posed a higher risk of motion sickness.^[2]

Throughout rooms, players could encounter and interact with other players in real time through voice and text chat, being represented by their avatar. Players can choose to friend, invite, mute, block, or report other players, as well as "cheer" them for various reasons (equivalent to a "like" on most social media platforms), or form a party with other players to travel between rooms together. As players engage with Rec Room, they gradually earn experience and eventually obtain an additional level on their account, with an indicator displayed by their username showing their level, which gave an idea of the age of their account.^[3]

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

When creating rooms, players could use the in-game "Maker Pen", a tool resembling a hot glue gun that could draw shapes in 3D. Players could also code in Circuits V1 and Circuits V2, Rec Room's visual programming language was based on C#. The game announced a partnership with Unity for Rec Room Studio, which allowed users with a Rec Room Plus subscription (later changed to all users^[4]) to use Unity to create more advanced rooms.^[5]

Circuits V1

When Rec Room was first released, there was no clear creation system. All games were made by the developer team and released as Rec Room Originals. Their first attempt at a creation system was the sandbox machine, a machine which was a stationary object with a simple UI in order to spawn objects such as props and a rudimentary "Maker Pen" system to build.^[6] This early version of the Maker Pen featured very few tools and functions compared to today.^[7]

When the actual "Maker Pen" was introduced into the game, a system of coding was also introduced. This system was developed mainly from 2018 to 2021, and worked with a system of wires. In the code, events ran constantly. An integer value was assigned to each event which could be changed by wiring, and when an event occurred, an integer would send to the next chip.

As a chip would detect a change in integer value at the input, it would be able to send output to the next chip. Players were assigned player IDs, which served as the primary form of integer input in order to keep track of players.

Circuits V2

In 2021, Rec Room introduced a more complex version of the circuit system, dubbed Circuits V2. This used a very different style of circuits than Circuits V1. The plain black chips of Circuits V1 were replaced by gray rectangular chips with ports on either side. Each port represented a different kind of input or output.

The most common port colors in the creation system included an orange arrow-shaped port, representing an event or input event. A blue rectangular port represented a floating-point and a green port an integer value. A purple rectangular port would represent a string, or text input.

When an event would be triggered, the input ports which have code connected to that event would have their data updated, either locally or globally. The code would then be accessible as an output connectable to another input.

Amongst the most major differences between the two types of circuits is actual functionality. Circuits V1 was a more simple coding system, while Circuits V2 had more capabilities and capacities. Circuits V2 is currently being worked upon and has no known plans to be deprecated.

Rec Room Studio

Amongst Rec Room's most major creation systems is Rec Room Studio. This was a partnership between Rec Room and game engine Unity in order to bring professional-level tools into Rec Room creation. Rec Room Circuits V2 circuits have been created to accommodate Rec Room Studio.

Rec Room Studio's access has been gradually rolled out since 2023, with it at first only being accessible to handpicked creators before gradually being rolled out to everybody who met the following criteria as of April 2025:

• Level 20 or Above
• No Negative Moderation Actions in the Past 90 Days

Rec Room Studio works so that an in-game "room" could be opened up as a scene within Unity. It would then be editable with unity tools, with prefabs and other components being importable. The game could then be uploaded to Rec Room and published provided it passes AI moderation.

Rooms 2.0

Rooms 2.0 was meant to be the default creation mode in Rec Room as the game expanded its tools. Despite it having formerly having been Rooms 1.0, a simpler version of the building system, Rooms 2.0 has many more useful features which are often used in creation. Amongst the most important features of Rooms 2.0 is hierarchical building. This structures building in a hierarchy, so that one component, called a "container", could be placed into another.

Rec Room later stopped pushing Rooms 2.0, as there was a barrage of community complaints, and made Rooms 1.0 the default mode again. They also moved several notable features of Rooms 2.0 to Rooms 1.0, such as unlimited ink, room offers, inventory items, and Rooms 2.0 circuit components.

Both Rec Room Studio and Circuits V2 are supported in Rooms 2.0, but Circuits V1 and other features which were parts of Rooms 1.0, such as certain props, are not available.

Creative programs

Rec Room also has a large variety of creative programs which are supported in-game and on its discord server in order to boost levels of creativity. This included creative classes. A player could apply to teach a class, and if accepted, they are allowed to create a classroom and allow students to enlist.

Maker pen classes could teach many subjects, but the most common are Rooms 2.0, building, circuiteering, and Rec Room Studio. Amongst the incentives for teaching a class include in-game gowns, in purple for 10 hours, orange for 20, and green for 30. Taking a class could lead to the receiving of an in-game graduation gown.

Workshops are also led in Rec Room. To become a workshop host, application is necessary. Workshops are creative events where creators could join and free-create in themes led by the host. Workshop hosts could gain maker pens from leading a workshop.

Creative events led by staff also occur. The two most prominent are the Rec Room Gallery and the Maker Pen Class Q&A. The Rec Room Gallery is hosted every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern Standard Time, and features submitted inventions, or creations, by creators. The Maker Pen Class Q&A is much akin to a workshop and occurs on Fridays and Sundays, although to create in it prior experience is necessary.

On March 30, 2026, Rec Room announced on their blog and across their social media that the game has shut down all operations of the game servers on June 1, 2026 (12 p.m. PT), along with Rec.net and Rec Room Studio.^[8][9] Rec Room cited its inability to reach profitability as the reason for the shutdown.^[10][11] At the time of the announcement, Rec Room had reached over 150 million players.^[12]

Immediately after the announcement, new account creation, friend requests, and new Rec Room+ subscriptions were disabled. Token purchases and gift card redemptions were set to end on May 1, 2026, followed by the end of creator token earnings on May 18, 2026. A final creator payout was scheduled for June 1, 2026, the same day the game, Rec.net, and Rec Room Studio's online services were to go offline.^[13] However, players are still able to access cached rooms on their local computer following the shutdown, although Rec Room will "operate in a limited offline mode"; they can download their in-game photos and an avatar memento that the company described as a "final report card." Creators are able to download room and invention data via the Steam PC build in formats intended to allow recreation of rooms elsewhere, such as in Unity.^[13]

On January 12, 2018, Rec.net was publicly released for Rec Room as a way to see and download photos you take in game, and also manage your account.^[14] In current year, Rec.net still serves its original purpose with additional features like managing rooms, purchasing Rec Room+, Tokens, etc. However, as a result of Rec Room’s shutdown, the Rec.net website will go offline on June 1, 2026.

Rec Room's in-game currency, Tokens, was earned throughout rooms created by Rec Room (Paintball, Laser Tag, Etc), purchased using real money, or earned by subscribing to Rec Room Plus (stylized as Rec Room+), which granted several benefits, including the ability to make custom shirts, sell user-generated content (also known as inventions), a 10% discount on all things purchasable with tokens (excluding items in rooms), access to the Season Pass Plus, the ability to use Maker AI in dorm rooms, and a special name tag with the ability to add emojis. It also gave access to a bot called Roomie, an AI companion similar to ChatGPT or Claude, which doubles rewards earned in RROs (Rec Room Originals) and is powered by energy purchased with Tokens. Tokens earned by selling items could be exchanged for real money.^[15][16]

Seattle-based development studio Rec Room Inc. (formerly Against Gravity Corp.) was co-founded in April 2016 by Nicholas Fajt, Cameron Brown, Dan Kroymann, Bilal Orhan, Josh Wehrly, and John Bevis.^[17] Prior to the company's founding, CEO Fajt worked as a program manager on the HoloLens team at Microsoft. Kroymann worked on the same team after working on the Xbox team. CCO Brown worked as the creative director of HoloLens.

In 2016 and early 2017, the company raised $5 million in funding for the development of Rec Room and its community. According to Fajt, the company will keep the game free to download.^[18]

In June 2019, Rec Room Inc. announced that the company raised an additional $24 million over two rounds of funding.^[19] In December 2020, Rec Room Inc. announced an additional $20 million in funding.^[20]

In March 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced another funding round of $100 million with a valuation of $1.25 billion leading to its unicorn status.^[21][22] In December 2021, Rec Room Inc. announced that they raised $145 million during another funding round, bringing the studio's value up to $3.5 billion.

In March 2025, Rec Room underwent a significant layoff of 16% of its staff^[23], citing a "more challenging fundraising environment" and a slowdown in gaming market growth. This did not prevent a more severe layoff in August 2025^[24], where 50% of the remaining staff were laid off. In March 2026, the company announced that it would shut down the game on June 1st.^[25]

Music

Most of the music heard in Rec Room Originals was composed by creative director Cameron Brown,^[26] whose in-game username was "gribbly",^[27] using Reason.^{[citation needed]}

Dan Ackerman, writing for CNET, described Rec Room as VR's "killer app".^[28] In January 2017, Ars Technica reported that trolling and harassment were major issues for Rec Room.^[29] In June 2017, MIT Technology Review contributor Rachel Metz described it as a great example of VR's potential for social interaction while criticizing its underdeveloped anti-abuse features.^[30] Filmmaker Joyce Wong described Rec Room as her choice of "most interesting piece of art in 2017".^[31]