The Under Presents is a multiplayer virtual reality game and performance space[1] which can also be viewed as an independent video game. It is developed and published by Tender Claws, and was released on November 19, 2019, for Steam VR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest.
The Under Presents is composed of four distinct parts: the introduction tutorial (free), the multi-player main stage, the Timeboat narrative experience, and The Tempest live actor performance. Players appear as dark forms with oval masks made of gold. No voice chat is available, with the exception of the professional actors who appear in The Tempest or at random times in the main stage. The magic system, used to manifest objects and restore scenes in the play area, involves holding the mask in one hand while performing a series of clicks and waves over it with the other hand.[2]
This component of the game is available for free and lasts approximately 20 minutes. The player is given a backstage tour and puzzles to solve by a non-player character known as the MC, who is in the form of a strange ghostly figure with a huge, misshapen gold mask.[3]
This game introduces the Scrunch Teleport, which is a unique form of VR locomotion where the player reaches out and pulls the center of the world towards themselves, and then releases it whereupon the rest of the world snaps into place so that there is always some part of the field of view that is fixed.[4]
This is a prerecorded immersive theatre play that takes place between the crew and passengers on board The Aikman as it gets stranded in the ice and runs out of food. The player has to wind time forwards and back to chase down all the characters and storylines in a sort of improvised nonlinear narrative.[5]
A dozen different short acts by the theatrical troupe PieHole[6] take place on the stage in a permanent loop each introduced by the MC. Players in the game can interact with one another (using hand gestures and movement, no voices), show off and teach one another the different spells, or venture out into the desert to explore remote areas of the map. Some of these locations require players to actively collaborate in order to unlock them and they reach places where it is possible to acquire different masks.