Working with The Marketing Arm and Team DDB, Groove Jones created Disasterville to inspire and educate the next generation by putting students in the middle of real-world National Guard disaster missions. The mixed-reality experience helps close the awareness gap around the Guard’s community role in disaster response while reinforcing its message of service and purpose with High School students as part of the ARNG’s “Uncommon Is Calling” campaign.

The Challenge 

The Army National Guard wanted an interactive experience that could engage students and schools by placing them directly into the action of disaster response. The goal was to create a recruitment and educational tool that demonstrates the Guard’s real-world impact while showcasing teamwork, leadership, and service.

The experience needed to be modular, scalable, able to travel to multiple venues across the country while maintaining a high level of realism and immersion. It also had to integrate physical elements and practical set pieces, Meta Quest 3 headsets, and a custom multiplayer control system to manage multiple simultaneous players – transforming high school gyms into full-scale simulated disaster zones all set up in three hours.

The Experience Begins in a VR Training Room Environment

Groove Jones designed and developed Disasterville, a suite of three unique multiplayer missions that transport five players into realistic disaster response environments, including:

• Flood Zone 
• Wildfire Containment 
• Earthquake Rescue 

Each experience begins with a training simulation that teaches participants how to use virtual tools and navigate the environment before entering the main mission. 

A drone called “Eagle Eye” provides voice over step by step instructions on how to put on safety gear and use equipment specific to the student’s mission in VR. This helps prepare the student before they step into the real action.

After training, the room transitions into the environment of the disaster for the students to start a five-minute mission as Alpha Team, which challenges them to work as a unit and complete objectives, rescue civilians, and mitigate damage using their training and cooperative gameplay mechanics. 

Walkthrough of Disasterville Experiences

Mission: Wildfire Danger
Location: Disaster Canyon

In the wildfire disaster experience, participants start off in a training room, where they receive verbal guidance from a drone. Participants follow instructions to gear up and put on the proper firefighting uniform. Then, they are provided a hose to fight small, contained fires. Once the smaller fires are extinguished, a large fire appears and to successfully put it out, the team must work together. To further get users comfortable in VR by moving around, they dodge incoming embers. Now, players are ready for the real deal!

A 30 second newscast sets the scene for what is next to come: a wildfire is threatening Disaster Canyon and the National Guard has been called in to assist the local firefighters. 

Participants then find themselves at a farmhouse, a fire already in progress. They each grab a (virtual) hose attached to the adjacent firetruck, and start fighting small fires. The simulation allows for fires to spread and get bigger if left unattended, so players are in a constant battle to control the situation. After a few minutes, the drone alerts players to a nearby structure, a horse barn. There is a horse inside that needs to be rescued. Players can pick up a fire axe, and break the lock on the door to free the horse from the spreading fire.

After another minute passes, a (virtual) tree fall into the playspace, cutting off the water supply to the team. Players must then grab a chainsaw to cut the tree and restore water pressure. Another minute later, the fire is out of control and a water drop needs to be called in. Players use their wrist laser marking tool to mark the hillside target for the drop. When properly marked, a chinook helicopter does a flyover, dips its bambi bucket into a nearby pond, and proceeds to drop its payload on the target, putting out the growing fire and resulting in a successful mission!

The teams’ performance is graded using a 3 star system, with key elements like saving the horse and properly targeting the water drop deciding their score.

Mission: Flash Flood Emergency
Location: Disaster County

The flash flood emergency starts like the others: players receive instructions from a drone to suit up! After gearing up, the training room deconstructs and players are instructed to walk over to their Zodiac boat. Once in the boat, players grab the flashlights from their chest, and target rubber duckies standing in for civilians. After marking the ducks for 2 seconds, they are considered “saved” and players can then find the remaining ducks. Training continues with a rowing exercise, where players grab their virtual paddles and paddle.

After the rowing exercise, players get a 30 second newscast setting the tone for their mission: Disasterville has been flooded by unprecedented rainfall, the storm still lingering above, and many of the townspeople are trapped and in need of rescue. 

The team navigates their boat through a rural downtown area, using their flashlights to mark civilians for rescue. The team rows to change the boats course, moving closer to civilians and avoiding debris floating in the flooded town. 

After a few minutes of navigating downtown, the boat moves into a residential area where the houses are being washed away. Marking more civilians for rescue, the team encounters local wildlife in a surly alligator that lunges for the team. 

The drone then informs the team there is a critically injured civilian trapped on a roof that needs immediate attention. As they approach the house, the team sees a father and daughter trapped on a roof with their family pet rabbit, Mr Cottontail. The father is unconscious and the girl is crying for help. Another ARNG Zodiac boat arrives at the house to help signal the surveying blackhawk helicopter that there is an immediate need for evacuation. The NPC soldier gets the dad into a basket that is hoisted away, and the team gets word to save the rabbit. Just then the house starts to crumble and everyone needs to get off the house before it collapses. The soldier and daughter make it to one boat while the players return to theirs just in time before the house collapses into the flood water.

Mission: Freight Train Derailment Due to Earthquake
Location: Disaster Junction

At the start of the earthquake scenario, the team starts off by adorning themselves with a regulation CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear) hazmat suit. Training continues with players learning to use their headlamps to mark rubber duckies. Next, the team cracks and tosses chemlights to mark the ducks, getting credit for each success. Training concludes with an introduction to the Jaws of Life and how to use them when saving victims from crashed cars. The team picks up the Jaws of Life, and uses them to pry open a cabinet door, revealing a “crash test dummy” inside. Players pull the dummy out of the cabinet and training concludes.

The following newscast sets the tone for their mission: an earthquake has hit Disasterville, causing a bridge to collapse and a train carrying hazardous chemicals has derailed and is hanging above an overturned bus amongst a large car pile-up style accident. A true “worst case scenario” situation.

The team receives instruction from the drone to assess the scene and use chemlights to mark victims in cars. The next step is to use the Jaws of Life to pry open car doors and rescue the trapped victims. After extracting the victims from the cars, they need to be taken to the adjacent medical tent for triage. Once the 3 car victims are rescued, an aftershock hits the scene, and the precariously hanging train car slides further to the edge, putting pressure on the team to save the remaining victims before the imminent collapse. 

Players move into the overturned bus, moving debris aside to gain access. The team needs to then save the 3 remaining bus passengers before time runs out. The physical, fabricated bus has two entrances, both requiring the team to crawl into the wreckage to save the victims. Upon the last rescue or time running out, the final aftershock comes and the bridge above collapses into the wreckage below. Players are scored on their ability to rescue all 6 victims, and escape the bus before the bridge collapses.  

Above is an example of the score card the players receive, with feedback on each of the elements of a mission and how they did.

Blending Physical and Virtual Worlds

The installation features a custom-built set that brings each disaster scenario to life. The modular set was designed for easy transportation and quick assembly, allowing the experience to tour nationwide. Groove Jones worked with Mecca Design to fabricate the physical elements which include:

• A flooded house porch and Zodiac rescue boat 
• A crashed bus and first-aid tent for the earthquake mission
• A firetruck and barn structure for the wildfire scene 

Each prop was crafted to match the digital environment seen inside the headset, creating a powerful connection between the physical and virtual worlds. Some props, like the real life Zodiac boat has a digital counterpart, and the two are set to be within millimeters of variance. 

Here you can see the digital team, within the VR scene, showing the team members climbing into the boat, which is physically there in the real world.

Once onboard, the team rows away using virtual paddles. The mix of physical and digital props blends together seamlessly, creating an immersive experience that has never been done before in an activation like this.

AR (Augmented Reality) Element to the Experience

Students waiting in line can engage with a mobile AR experience by scanning a QR code to view 3D models of the Disasterville environment at full scale. This AR component provides an entertaining pre-show experience that keeps participants engaged even before gameplay begins.

By scanning a QR Code located on the props and marketing materials placed around campus, students could step into the disaster scenes using their phone.

The AR experience displayed a 3D view of each of the disasterville scenarios, frozen in time.

Hardware and Technical Setup

The Disasterville activation runs on Meta Quest 3 headsets, optimized for multi-user synchronization. Groove Jones provided PC systems for backend control, tablets for show management, and large monitors that display gameplay for the audience. The entire setup was designed for mobility, with custom-fitted road cases and modular hardware that can be transported easily to any location.

The experience runs on Groove Jones’ proprietary GrooveTech VR platform, which powers the app and synchronizes players’ sessions in real time. A custom “Run of Show” tablet app allows brand ambassadors to launch, monitor, and reset sessions for new teams, ensuring smooth and continuous operation during live events.

Results

More than a mixed reality experience, Disasterville is a mission-based simulation that allows students to feel the responsibility, teamwork, and courage required in real-world emergency response. It bridges storytelling and technology to demonstrate the Guard’s role in protecting communities.