PAX West 2026: New Immersive Light Gun Experience, “No I’m Not A Human IRL”

While exploring all the sights and experiences PAX West had to offer this year, I came across a familiar booth by Ukiyo Studios, who works on promotion with a wide variety of games from across many genres, and though I’ve worked with them and visited the booth in previous years, there was something a little special there this year that involved some light gun technology in a pretty unique way.

Last year, they helped promote a strange, quirky, post-apocalyptic survival horror game called No, I’m Not A Human, which involves inspecting strange visitors who come to the door of your apartment, and you’re trying to identify whether they’re a human who needs help or a creature that’s imitating a human and waiting to attack you.

Normally, you’d just play the game with your mouse and keyboard at home, but this year at the show, the studio created a real life representation of the game world at their booth, called No, I’m Not A Human IRL. The setup featured a full-sized door with a real peephole, creepy decor resembling the house from the game, and a Sinden light gun sitting next to the door to shoot the creatures with after you discover their true nature.

The way the game works is, at first, you’ll complete your “checks,” which allow you to view a part of the visitor through a peephole in the door, and in this case, it was an actual peephole you’d have to look through. After checking if a part on the visitor doesn’t quite match human biology, you open the door to either shoot or let in the visitor inside. Behind the door was a full-size screen that’s the size of the whole door, which displays the visitor in life-sized scale, and this is where you’ll use the light gun if you’ve identified them as not human.

While the light gun here essentially just serves as an extra layer of immersion, since you aren’t actually aiming with it (just registering a mouse click at the right time,) it still adds a lot to the interactive experience, and the recoil gives a little extra impact to your decision to shoot the visitor at the door. This was a real one-of-a-kind experience that showcased using light gun hardware in a creative way, as a sort of interactive prop controller, and I’m glad I got to experience this at the show.

This version was created as a unique, bite-sized experience that merely encapsulates one small aspect of the full game, and it was specifically developed to be shorter and more arcade-like overall. Unfortunately, you couldn’t really play the game this way at home since there’s story and exploration elements you need to play with a mouse and keyboard in between the door visits. Regardless, the game is still fun in its own right and you can check it out over on Steam if you’re interested by its unique concept and art design.

As for the booth itself, I was informed that the “IRL” setup of the game that I experienced at the booth will now be moved to Ukiyo’s new “Game Bar” location in Tokyo, Japan and will stay there indefinitely for anyone who visits their bar to experience. If you live near Tokyo or end up there at some point, you can check out the Ukiyo Game Bar for a place to socialize and play indie games of all sorts, and it’s also a fully functional bar where you can grab some drinks while you play the games.

Stay tuned for some more updates from PAX West and check out No, I’m Not A Human if the concept seems interesting to your non-light gun gaming tastes!