WORKPOD: Escape the Simulation

WORKPOD: Escape the Simulation

In 2099, most office work takes place inside neural simulations, known as Workpods. The executives at the company Workpod™, plan to release an anniversary edition of their original simulation set in the last century within eight months. Unfortunately, the rushed development left many bugs undetected.

Meet Ada: her job is to ensure that simulations behave as expected, everything is polished and ready for release. While testing the bug-filled environment, the simulation crashes, leaving Ada stuck inside. Now her only way out is to explore the environment and understand the logic of the failing simulation.

Will she be able to find an escape?

WORKPOD: Escape the Simulation was created by Zhao Na Guo, Shana Staempfli, Marcel Maciejczyk, Jerome Trachsel, and Fabius Grünhagen as semester project for the Game Programming Lab, a university course at ETH Zurich in 2026.