A Jam Prototype That Sparked a Spy Adventure
Just over 10 years ago, back in the summer of 2015, room-scale VR was still experimental. Very few people outside of hardware labs had tried walking, crawling, or ducking their way through a virtual world. Most VR experiences used teleportation or seated controls.
We were at the London VR Jam, where the jam theme was “Room Scale”. We asked a simple question: what if the player’s whole body was the controller? And how can we make this room feel much bigger than it actually is? The result was The Hatton Garden Heist, a rough-and-ready prototype built over a frantic weekend. It wasn’t polished, but it was physical in a way that VR hadn’t really attempted yet. Players had to crawl, duck, lean around corners and physically sneak through a virtual vault. Our Environmental Redirection technique was born.
The audience reaction made it clear we’d tapped into something. One early tester described it as “finally feeling like a spy, not just watching one.” Another player laughed as they emerged sweaty and dusty from crawling on the floor, saying “I didn’t expect VR to be this much exercise!”
That weekend gave us the spark.
From Prototype to Festival Debut
Later that year, we showcased a more developed version at the GameCity Festival in Nottingham. We really wanted to do a festival game where we didn’t have to worry about it being commercial or being played at home. Gone was the jewel thief concept – instead, players became international spies tasked with infiltrating an enemy base.
The shift unlocked new design possibilities: keycards to swipe, lasers to dodge, vents to crawl through, doors to hack open. We used our environmental redirection technique that makes a modest physical space feel like a sprawling facility. By bending corridors, and toggling on and off what the player sees, we could make a 4m × 3m room feel like an entire spy compound.
Press attended the event and took notice. Road to VR called it “a VR experience that uses every inch of your room” and highlighted how rare it was at the time to see VR lean so heavily on physical space. Footage went viral and we were invited to show it at GDC to demo what VR can be, where we were then told to just release it as it was! This small prototype jam demo.
Launching the First Room-Scale VR Title
Unseen Diplomacy was launched when PC VR was finally released to the public. We released it as the small experience it was – about four minutes per run, designed to show off what VR could do when players used their whole body and all their space.
It was demanding, physical, and joyful. One reviewer described it as “a spy fantasy that makes you feel like James Bond and Johnny English at the same time.”
Even with its short runtime, the experience stuck with people. Many told us it was the first time they’d broken a sweat in VR or the first VR game they showed to friends when they wanted to “prove what VR could do.” It was the promised “Holodeck” experience that everyone had been waiting for.
Recognition and Awards
The impact of Unseen Diplomacy went beyond its playtime. In 2017 it was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Innovation. For a micro-studio like ours, that recognition was huge.
Press outlets praised its boldness. UploadVR called it “a pioneering glimpse at the future of room-scale VR.” PC Gamer described it as “one of the few VR games where watching someone else play is just as entertaining as playing yourself.”
We also received feedback from players who set up their living rooms, garages, or even rented halls just to make space big enough to run it. One player wrote to us: “This is the first time I felt like VR justified rearranging my whole house.” That passion showed how far people were willing to go to experience something fresh and physical.
Lessons Learned
But we also know where the limits were as a jam game. Not everyone had the space to play comfortably. The requirement for a large open area excluded many would-be spies. And while the short, arcade-like format was great for demos and festivals, we knew we could do more given funding. Eventually people wanted it on wireless headsets too.
We also had to think carefully about safety and accessibility. Asking players to crawl on the floor is exhilarating, but also tiring – and not everyone can all the time. That balance between physicality and inclusivity became one of the core design challenges we knew we’d have to tackle in any follow-up. Has to be able to fit in many more living rooms after all!
The Legacy
Unseen Diplomacy became known as one of the earliest examples of environmental redirection in VR design. It showed that VR locomotion didn’t always need a joystick – your body could be the input. It was short, but it was a statement: VR isn’t just about looking around, it’s about inhabiting the fantasy.
As one player summed it up: “Unseen Diplomacy doesn’t just make you feel like a spy. It makes you sweat like one.”
That spirit – playful, physical, immersive – is what we carried forward. The requests from fans for something bigger, more accessible, more platforms, and more ambitious directly fed into what would become Unseen Diplomacy 2.
Funding the Impossible
Turning Unseen Diplomacy from a game jam prototype into a fully funded sequel has been a long and often challenging journey – nearly a decade in the making.
Back in 2015, the idea of a fully physical, room-scale VR spy game was exciting to players, but not always to funders. Some simply didn’t believe VR had a future. Others, unfortunately, didn’t trust that a women-led studio could deliver a major project. Traditional funding routes repeatedly shut us out.
Instead, we slowly pieced the project together ourselves. We applied for and received small local Cornish grants, and took on work-for-hire contracts to self-fund development between pitches. Every prototype, every showcase, every grant application moved the idea forward just a little bit more.
- 2015: Game jam prototype created, was asking around for funding but VR was still too early.
- 2017: We began pitching seriously.
- 2018: Built a tech prototype with early grant support.
- 2021: Received UK Games Fund support to build a gameplay prototype.
- 2023: Awarded the UK Games Fund Content Fund — a huge moment that unlocked full project funding from a platform holder.
- January 2024: Unseen Diplomacy 2 was fully funded.
- September 2025: Early Access launch.
This wasn’t an overnight success story. It took 10 years of persistence, community support, and the belief that Unseen Diplomacy deserved to exist — even when others didn’t.
The Now
Looking back nearly a decade later, the original Unseen Diplomacy stands as both a snapshot of early VR experimentation and the foundation of an IP that continues to evolve. It showed us – and the world – that when you let players move with their whole body, you unlock an entirely new form of play.
With Unseen Diplomacy 2, we’re building on that legacy: keeping the physicality, but expanding the campaign, broadening accessibility so you can more easily play it at home, and giving players a new spy adventure that’s every bit as daring as the original spark from that jam in 2015. We’re so incredibly grateful for the funding and support we eventually received to be able to develop the concept into a fully featured game. We hope our original fans and new players alike grow to love it as much as the original and more. Even if you’re just curious, Wishlist on the store today!