Hindsight 2020
Hindsight 2020 was an ARG created during one of my game design classes at UCSC. In it, a company known as Hindsight is claiming to have the ability to send people back in time to correct their past mistakes. However, someone named Spirit seems to be rallying people against them, due to corrupt business practices, death, and the true purpose of Amanda, the company's social media AI. By solving puzzles and hacking social media accounts, players found out the truth about Hindsight, and how to take them down.
Screenshots
These screenshots show the most important characters in the ARG, and where people went to be able to participate in the ARG. Players would typically start by DMing Spirit, who would then start leaving hints and puzzles to find the truth. You could also start by DMing Amanda, who would give players a quiz to determine their eligibility to participate in Hindsight, with answers getting stranger as it went on.
What I Did
My main role on this team was a writer, and a puzzle designer. I helped draft the full story and the basic progression of the ARG, helped determine which puzzles appeared where, and what information they would reveal, and also dialogue that Spirit and Amanda would give players in the DM's. I also designed a puzzle that was hidden in Amanda's Instagram (the one hidden in the Vegan Queso recipe)