Escape Rooms have become pretty popular, with several small businesses dedicated towards them, and of course several virtual reality (VR) escape room experiences have appeared. Dutch Bank ABN AMRO have been working with developers to create an augmented reality (AR) twist on the escape room idea.
The AR escape room, called The Lockdown posits a near-future cyberpunk world where the player is recruited to help track down cybercrime.
The future of The Lockdown is one in which all money has become digital, and is secured in a system called ‘Lantern Wallet’. But this system is not as secure as some would like to believe, so you are called on to help track down a hacker who is causing massive damage to financial systems.
The player forms part of a team that works through a complex series of AR puzzles in order to track down the hacker and save the economy. The puzzles are themed around topics such as Blockchain or information security, with different difficulty levels depending on the path the player chooses.
The Lockdown escape room app forms part of a recruitment campaign from ABN AMRO, who are on the lookout for people with the necessary talents in information technology and cybersecurity: “The demand for digital talent has increased enormously in recent years. We have invested in order to be relevant to this target group as a bank. A distinctive approach is required for this”, says Maarten Bokhoven, Head of Employer Branding at ABN AMRO. “Innovation is extremely important to us. IT specialists face fundamental challenges and have a major social impact. These are all elements that also appear in The Lockdown.”
ABM AMRO worked with creative digital agency Code D’Azur to create the app. Jeroen Thissen, Creative Director at the agency explains: “At the bank, as an IT professional, you are engaged in challenging digital innovations. However this is not yet necessarily how IT professionals perceive it. Therefore we had to come up with something that would make us stand out to them. We know these professionals love challenges and are interested in technological innovation. We combined this in the app. ABN AMRO placed their trust in us to develop the escape room of the future. And we are extremely happy they did.”
The Lockdown is available on iOS and Android, and further information can be found on the official website. Further coverage on new and upcoming AR apps will be here on VRFocus.