Discarded face masks, a Greggs wrapper, and spent nitrous oxide canisters litter the pavement beneath your heavy-booted feet. Outside Sainsbury’s, a seagull eats a dead pigeon. A branch of Maplins—long since shuttered, the unit still unrented—cuts a gloomy figure on the corner. You could be on any of London’s homogeneous high streets. Except you’re not. You’re inside a 25-year-old video game engine, and you’re on a mission. Welcome to the mildly unsettling world of Duke Smoochem.
The project began in June 2021 as a throwaway gag. Dan Douglas, a 38-year-old from London who works in broadcasting, found himself amused by the tabloid newspaper coverage of former British health secretary Matt Hancock’s lockdown-breaking, marriage-straining snog with his taxpayer-funded adviser. In particular, he was fascinated by the meticulously detailed re-creations of the office in which the illicit embrace took place.
