Inside the Hacker Hostel is a captivating real-time VR experience inspired by the Emmy®-winning comedy series, Silicon Valley. The ambition was to produce a faithful recreation of the show’s iconic homebase and an interactive experience that would appeal to both die-hard fans and those who’d never watched Silicon Valley. Modelled, textured, and lit from photo references, blueprints, and 360º room captures, the experience provides the most highly detailed and realistic VR recreation of a TV set ever made. In addition to more than 750 moveable objects, there are many iconic show elements you can fully interact with, from the Not Hot Dog app to the ‘Always Blue’ ball. The Hacker Hostel gives users firsthand one-on-one encounters with show characters—find a secret message from Jared and help Richard out of a coding crisis. The experience is a hilarious virtual playground, bringing users into the heart of the show.

Implementation

Authenticity and attention to detail was key. All elements were bespoke, created from the ground up to ensure consistency with the show’s aesthetic.

Placement

The free experience launched with the premiere of Season 5 on HTC’s Vive via the Viveport platform.

Scale

The experience is only available in America, with further territories being considered. The experience has toured to international events.

Methods and process

Unreal’s built-in systems, married with the studio’s own in-house VR template - specifically designed for convincing physics-based interactions - ensured a faithful replica was created.

Highly detailed blueprint designs were used to model all of the floors, walls, and ceilings in 3DS Max and Maya, ensuring a perfect replica. From the set, thousands of photo references were captured, including 360º captures of each room, so every last detail was exactly matched.

Timeline

Production ran 12 weeks, with an on-set capture session a month before production.

The experience is available to download for free on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It currently has 4.6/5 and 4.5/5 ratings on each platform, respectively.

Inside the Hacker Hostel transformed the storylines and jokes of HBO’s Silicon Valley into a fully immersive experience for fans. Pulling directly from four seasons-worth of characters and hijinks, the VR experience is a virtual extension of the show universe. A to-scale replica of the show’s homebase, filled with deepcut references and Easter eggs, it engages fans in a fully interactive capacity with Silicon Valley.

With Inside the Hacker Hostel, HBO used an emerging storytelling medium to extend Silicon Valley into an immersive experience. The show was particularly well-suited to this type of extension, as its fans are already avid tech users. The room-scale VR mechanic transported users into the show’s world, making them active participants in the story and engaging them more deeply in the Silicon Valley universe.

The ambition was to produce a faithful recreation of the show’s iconic homebase and an interactive experience that would appeal to both die-hard fans and those who’d never watched Silicon Valley. The Hacker Hostel gives users firsthand one-on-one encounters with show characters and sends them around the house to interact with a space that’s packed with activities and references to the show, resulting in a hilarious virtual playground and bringing users into the heart of Silicon Valley.