How a Mobile Game Turned into a Fully Immersive World in my Mind with no VR/AR

Dark Castle Corridor

I love puzzles - not the jigsaw kind, but puzzles - in general. My first RenFair, I was introduced to a puzzle ring.  I thought, What an amazing piece of jewelry. This is the best piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen. That’s how much I love puzzles. In my free time, I played logic puzzles, often found myself creating life puzzles just to solve them (at my own detriment), people puzzles, psychology puzzles. I was certainly occupied.

Several years ago, I found myself in need of a new challenge, so I searched the App Store for another puzzle or strategy game. I landed on one based on a popular HBO show. I wasn’t sure I’d stick with it - it seemed kind of mindless at first, but it gave me a little dopamine hit. You’d build a village around your castle and complete daily tasks. While getting established, you were protected by a shield so the bigger castles couldn’t attack you. But that shield eventually expired - and if you weren’t spending real money, getting protection became tricky.

I remember spending what felt like forever building my village and castle. And that’s probably when the immersive part began. When tending to your village, you were “inside” the keep. Any chat you saw came from other players in the kingdom. I imagined my little keep as a safe haven. I never spoke in chat. It was intimidating - mostly trolls. I liked my cocoon.

To complete certain tasks, you had to send troops to farm resources. That’s when the view switched to a map of the world, where you could see other castles and troops - some farming, some attacking. I’d search for the nearest resources and send my little men, hoping larger players wouldn’t notice them.

Eventually, my initial shield expired, and I didn’t have enough coins to buy another. I had to find a way to protect myself. I used a teleport and found a remote spot on the map, hoping distance would keep me safe. I farmed close by - stayed quiet. I was a stealth player - a lone wolf…so I thought.

The alerts went off. Mayday. Red screen. I’m hit.

They found me. Wiped out my last thousand troops, plundered everything, left my keep smoking. I managed to grab a short-term shield, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they came again.

Sure enough, they did. This time, I got a message.

Walking down a dark castle corridor, I hear the words of a  faceless name - a name I recognized as my jeep’s destroyer. He told me that if I didn’t join their alliance, I’d keep getting hit.

No one bullies me into submission.

So - I studied the map. I looked for alliances that held decent territory - definitely avoiding my arsonist’s team. I reached out to what I thought was a leader. Once again, walking down a long dark hall. I pled my case. He told me to expect a message from the liege.

I received word that I was summoned to the liege. I walked that corridor, again to a faceless name.

The liege offered me sanctuary under one condition: when called upon, I’d need to help the team. I agreed.

Things stayed quiet for a while. The only visible change was a new chat, visible only to team members. It was mostly silent. I kept to my simple life - farming, training troops - hoping I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone.

Until one day, I got an urgent message.

Back down the corridor I went. The message: the alliance was splitting in two. I had to choose sides. I didn’t know either leader personally - but I knew who gave me sanctuary. I stayed loyal to him.

We were told to join Discord.

Discord felt disjointing. A lot of stimulation, many rooms, lots of talking. It felt like I’d walked into the brew house or the mess hall. It was loud and overwhelming. I felt tension. I knew in order to keep my protection I had to be here, but the neurodivergence in me was over stimulated immediately. I took to work on my settings to quiet the server as much as possible and not feel the insanity from every incoming message.

We were sorted into mini-teams, each led by someone assigned to guide us. I hoped I could still stay under the radar while showing gratitude through effort. But that didn’t last.

One day, I found myself on a voice chat (VC) with the liege, his wife, and other council members - the inner circle. I was nervous. Maybe they thought I was a spy? I can’t remember how it started, just that everything changed after that call.

I offered to help however I could. The liege took me under his wing and taught me how to fight. My account was small, my troops limited, but I became loyal. I fought, took risks, and became a real player.

After we lost a key member, I was asked to rebuild our Discord server. I created the Fort Knox of servers - loaded with automation, custom channels, and systems.

I made it feel like a building, not a loud, open room.

• Want to talk to council? Take the elevator to the high council room.

• Training rooms? Only visible if you opted in.

• Mess hall for banter.

• War planning rooms.

• A “middle finger” room for venting.

• Private chambers for leaders.

To some, it might’ve still felt overwhelming. But to me, it felt like home.

I eventually became the liege’s second half. Sometimes, The Hand. We strategized, fought side by side, and even co-managed a bigger account. I practiced SOP (Stronghold Occupation Points) over and over until I could nail the timing. I got good. I couldn’t win in hand to hand combat, but I could take SOPs. We rivaled the kingdom’s strongest. We celebrated our victories over VC - it felt like family.

Then, as things do, it changed.

Some of our best players left for bigger teams. We were forced to merge. Things were still fun for a bit, but eventually the game turned toxic. For everyone.

I left. I went through withdrawal. I missed the people, but more than anything, I missed the world. I could see the training images on the walls of training rooms. I could see the announcement board as though I were standing in front of it and not on a screen. I liked my castle. So what could I do about it?

Not long after, I received a message from a friend from a different world. We were in the throws of the pandemic - everything in shut down - that included our beloved DEFCON - a hacker convention that my friends and I went to every year. But this year, DEFCON was moving online - on Discord.

A group I’m part of (by the grace of its members) needed a new party server. My friend had seen videos of my server builds and asked if I’d make the official one.

Immediate yes.

I designed the server like a high-rise club:

• Everyone got the same base invite.

• Pre-party, you entered a holding room with a countdown.

• Special codes unlocked access and tagged you for specific rooms—just like party badges.

• Language rooms filtered translations.

• Registration used emoji locks and auto-tags.

• A telephone booth served as the help desk.

• The “pool room” was our lounge, with blue lights and beach chaos.

The group’s roots revolves around telephones. Hence the phone booth, but we had plenty of other rooms representing various aspects of our family in each part of the club.

On party day, the wall lifted. You could choose your rooms by using the switchboard to open rooms or close them - move through the club freely without overwhelm. We had VIP zones, music bots in each room, games, virtual swimming - it was incredible.

Each room had a vibe. It felt real.

I realized something. Not just from that server - but even in the automations I build. I could see and feel the automations as though I was journeying through this tunnel system rather than seeing flat conditions on a screen.

It made me wonder - in one of those strange esoteric moments - what if this is what we are? Just code playing out through light in the eye. Living in an immersive world we think is real. Can we reverse engineer it? Can we look into the light and see everything as one?

I don’t know.

But in the meantime, I’ll keep building worlds -

In stories.

In automations.

In games.

In life.