WorkAdventure is an open source virtual office platform where remote teams navigate a customizable 2D pixel-art map and have proximity-triggered video conversations, recreating the spontaneous social texture of a physical office without scheduled video calls.
The Problem
Video calls replicate scheduled meetings but not the social texture of a physical office: the casual hallway conversation, the open-door signal, the spontaneous collaboration that happens when people are physically co-present. Remote teams on Zoom and Google Meet schedule every interaction, creating a meeting culture that feels formal and exhausting while eliminating organic discovery of what colleagues are working on.
How WorkAdventure Solves It
WorkAdventure puts each team member as an avatar on a shared 2D map representing the office. As avatars walk near each other, a video call automatically opens. Walking away closes it. Meeting rooms are zones where all nearby avatars can video conference. Custom maps are designed in the Tiled Map Editor and deployed to a self-hosted WorkAdventure server. AGPL-3.0 licensed.
Key Features
- Proximity-based video and audio: walking near another avatar automatically starts a conversation
- Customizable 2D maps created in the Tiled Map Editor for any layout (office, campus, event hall)
- Conference rooms: defined zones where multiple avatars video call simultaneously
- Live streaming and screen sharing integration for company-wide events and all-hands meetings
- Jitsi Meet and BigBlueButton integration for the video conference layer
- AGPL-3.0 licensed; self-host via Docker
Who It's For
WorkAdventure is best for remote-first teams and companies that run virtual events, all-hands meetings, or online conferences who want spatial audio and spontaneous interaction rather than another scheduled video call.
Compared to Gather
Unlike Gather, WorkAdventure is fully open source and self-hostable under AGPL-3.0. Gather is a polished commercial product with better map design tools and enterprise support; WorkAdventure gives full data ownership and the ability to run the entire virtual office on your own servers without subscription costs.
