Indie studio Sunset Visitor, known for its first game 1000xResist, is announcing its second title: Prove You’re Human, a narrative adventure coming to Steam. The game’s central premise inverts a familiar concept—AI verification of human identity—by making the player convince an AI that they are not human.
Game Premise and Narrative Structure
In Prove You’re Human, players control Santana, who has been hired by a tech company on the verge of achieving AGI. Santana’s task is to convince the company’s AI, named Mesa, that she is not actually human. This premise transforms a typical identity-verification workflow into a plot-driven challenge where the player must produce signals that satisfy Mesa’s criteria for determining humanity.
The game is set in a Severance-like universe where Santana’s consciousness is split. One half exists in the digital realm where the player interacts with Mesa. The other half exists in the physical world, where it creates CAPTCHAs of the environment. These two selves are visually distinct: the digital world is rendered in 3D graphics, while updates from the physical world appear as live-action video. This split structure directly influences how players interact with two different representations of reality.
Development Approach and Research
According to creative director Remy Siu, Sunset Visitor’s goal is to reflect the world around them. When examining the cultural landscape in 2024, the studio identified AI as a theme they wanted to explore through art. Siu notes that the team drew from “a long tradition of science fiction writing and thinking about artificial intelligence.”
No AI tools were used in the development of Prove You’re Human. Research was conducted through a combination of watching YouTube videos of people using AI tools and referencing classic science fiction literature about artificial intelligence. Because AI technology evolved rapidly during development, the narrative team updated the game’s story and depiction of AI to reflect real-world developments. Siu cautioned that “There is a trap to get too specific,” suggesting the team balanced specificity with flexibility in their design approach.
Verification as Interactive Design
The game’s premise sits at the intersection of game design and AI interface concepts. By pairing environment-generated CAPTCHAs with an AI subject attempting to classify human identity, the game explores how verification systems could function as interactive experiences. The split between 3D digital space and live-action video indicates a production pipeline that blends virtual rendering with real-world media capture.
The studio’s decision to avoid AI tools during development—while researching AI as a cultural subject—reflects one approach to incorporating AI-era concerns into interactive design. Rather than using AI for asset generation, the narrative team translated AI-related questions into playable scenarios.
What’s Next
With Steam confirmed as the launch platform and no release date yet announced, details about how the game implements its two-world structure and specific player mechanics remain forthcoming. The source material does not provide gameplay footage or detailed mechanics beyond the split consciousness concept and environment-based CAPTCHAs, so future announcements will clarify how the game’s fictional verification model translates to actual gameplay.
Source: The Verge