Will You Follow Me? is an alternate reality game. Help solve the mystery of students going missing at UC Santa Cruz under dubious circumstances. Uncover a wicked plot to find your lost friends as you search for clues and follow in the footsteps of the missing. Follow a mysterious map to secret locations. Uncover hidden messages, photos, and videos by finding QR codes. Decode notes to unlock mysterious boxes. Listen to a police interrogation, hear a scientist die under mysterious circumstances, read texts left on missing students’ phones, hack into a locked computer folder, watch frightening found footage videos, find scattered missing person posters, and watch a hilarious news broadcast.

This game uses a combination of physical interactive elements as well as digital ones to create a one-of-a-kind experience a kin to a scavenger hunt. The game was run on Halloween Night in 2022, which created a bone-chilling atmosphere.

The website hosting the QR codes can be viewed here! Note: it has been modified so all content can be seen without QR codes.

A later iteration turned the game into an escape-room-esque experience featuring new puzzles involving a series of bizarre cassette tapes left behind by a guilt-ridden scientist. It also included a final puzzle of mixing “chemicals” to create an evil-slug-destroying concoction that was the difference between life and death. This version of Will You Follow Me? was exhibited during UCSC DANM Open Studios in the spring of 2023.