Overlay Games

An Overlay is an innovative, interactive story that unfolds as participants travel from place to place solving puzzles and deciphering codes. Like video games that are expanded out into the real world, Overlays combine the adventure of a treasure hunt, the puzzle solving of an escape room, and the narrative flow of an immersive theater performance.

Each Overlay is a game contained within a short story. As you read it, you’ll uncover clues that point you to locations in the real world. When you get to the right spot, you’ll see landmarks, public art, and historical markers that will help you solve puzzles hidden in the text. Most Overlays take place over a few city blocks, and the story progresses as you move from one location to another.

Overlay Games has two playable flagship narratives in Los Angeles, with more in development.

The Foxglove Papers

Emma Foxglove is a former intelligence analyst who was betrayed by the agency she'd devoted her life to. Fed up with life on the run, she wrote a series of papers that tell her story. Hidden within them are codes that will lead pursuers around landmarks, and eventually to her current location.

A beta version of The Foxglove Papers is currently playable in downtown Los Angeles as an entirely offline experience. To be among the first to playtest this narrative, contact us.

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Cult

Cult is a question that calls itself an answer. Its progenitors have recently released the Document, the recursion that withdraws the soul from her bounded instability. Hidden within it are clues that will lead you around Downtown Culver City, and possibly, to madness.

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In Development

Overlay is currently developing a number of other permanent narratives playable in cities across the United States. These include REDACTED, a conspiracy-theorist-led hunt for bizarre clues embedded in public art, and Escape Protocol, a quest to learn about a shadowy company and the nefarious technologies it pursues.

The same qualities that make Overlays so compelling to players also make them invaluable to organizations looking for creative ways to engage an audience. In addition to our permanent narratives, we create custom Overlays for marketing activations, team building events, tour groups, and private parties.

We’re happy to work with you to design a one-of-a-kind experience that’s perfectly tailored to the needs of your brand or group. Pricing varies based on the size and scope of what you’re looking for – contact us for more information.

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In the past decade, an amazing industry has grown up around immersive experiences. While many of these are brilliantly crafted, none provides the mix of spatial storytelling, creative problem solving, and personalized experience that Overlay offers.

Unlike other formats which immerse their audience in an experience but leave them with few consequential choices to make, Overlays turn the audience into the protagonist, allowing them to move through both the narrative and physical space as they see fit. We accomplish this while placing the primary focus on creating compelling narratives – when making an Overlay, the story always comes first.

Interested in learning more or having us build you a custom game? Drop us a line.