Presented as part of First Look, an ongoing series of digital projects co-presented by Rhizome and the New Museum, Mezzanine is a psychotronic multimedia office adventure set on the eve of the new millennium. In the game, developed and published by Inpatient Interactive, users play as the company’s HR administrator working on mundane clerical tasks late into the night. While dropping off reports, making coffee, and wandering about the office, players uncover a deep conspiracy behind who is funding Zentropy and other San Francisco / Silicon Valley startups. Mezzanine can be seen as an exploratory critique of the Californian Ideology and false promises of a networked future as the player relives the early roots of the networked panopticon we find ourselves enmeshed with today.

Inpatient Interactive is an independent game development studio founded by Mitch Anzuoni and Peter Christian that builds alternative multimedia experiences to inspire players to find inner peace and new perspectives.