One of the last offsites to formally announce their presence at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 was the Resident Evil x Discord Fan Experience in support of the upcoming Zach Cregger film coming out on September 18 from Sony. The Experience was revealed and reservations made available on a Monday, a mere two days before Preview Night; the event ran from Thursday to Saturday at Quartyard (1301 Market Street), home to 2025’s South Park offsite.

I participated in Thursday’s only public session, from 9:30pm-10:30pm (evening hours! Yes!). My overall takeaway is that it was a promising concept that would have benefited greatly from a revised prize distribution to provide a more balanced experience for all attendees and avoid a wide gap between the haves and have-nots.

As attendees waited to enter, staffers walked up and down the line, giving instructions on how to access the website and the camera scanner that would be used. Upon having IDs checked and reservation QR codes scanned — everyone gets a free drink! — attendees were turned loose in a space that had been transformed into Raccoon City, the central setting of the Resident Evil franchise.

Visually, the physical environment, setup, and overall decor hit the spot, with the red mood lighting enhancing the aesthetic (I can imagine the setting did not hit as well in the daytime sessions, though). What would have made it even better is if zombies had been walking around. Additionally, when I think of recreating Raccoon City, I’m not sure I had a DJ spinning tunes in mind. But that’s fine.

Heading into the session, it was a little unclear what attendees would be doing; the ticketing site’s description read, “Complete missions, unlock codes, and earn limited-edition promotional merch and prizes along the way.” Were there going to be escape room elements? Would there be problem-solving involved? Were you going to work in teams? I was expecting an immersive, eerie atmosphere and a deliberate, tactical pace, reflective of the game mechanics the video game series is well known for, and possibly team-based. What I got was a wholly individual competition and a fast-paced activity that left little room for thinking. And again, with a DJ!

While not what I expected, the activity itself was straightforward enough: find and scan up to 30 QR codes scattered throughout the space. The 30 codes were split equally into 10 Ammo, 10 Transmission, and 10 Health color-coded squares, with various prizes available for scanning enough of them. For example, at my session, 3 Ammo codes unlocked a film poster, 10 Health codes unlocked a Lunch Cooler, and all 30 codes unlocked movie tickets. Redemption requirements were modified at least once during the weekend, perhaps to better reflect the rarity/demand of each prize: While scanning all 10 transmission codes unlocked a Zombie Wumpus plushie (the Wumpus being Discord’s mascot) on Thursday night, the Zombie Wumpus had replaced the movie tickets as the “all 30 codes” prize by Saturday night.

Though likely impractical due to the nature of the game, where speed and time were key, I found myself wishing the session had started with a formal introduction or dialogue from an actor that could have provided further instructions and helped with the immersion into the offsite, instead of attendees being shot out of a cannon after checking in.

This was especially true for the first public session, as word of mouth from other general attendees wasn’t yet available to give a clearer sense of what to expect.

Once you were let in, it was a mad scramble to find the QR codes, leading to scenes like the one above, with crowds (proverbially) elbowing each other, all trying to scan the same code at once. The helter-skelter, frenetic nature isn’t exactly compatible with what I think of when playing Resident Evil, but alas.

The crowding around was exacerbated by a website that was frustrating and inconsistent to use: the camera consistently struggled to lock onto QR codes, even when well-lit; scans took several seconds to register; and, on multiple occasions, scans of new QR codes would flag as duplicates.

Additionally, there were at least two elements of the space that diverted people away without any obvious tangible benefit to the main objective: an “elevator” to enter for 1-2 minutes (with no QR codes inside) where actors briefly did a scene before exiting into a room that had a second, normal entrance (so you could have accessed the room without going through the elevator), and then a side theatre that played exclusive preview footage from the film.

The only thinking and problem-solving came from the fact that you would need to be selective about which codes you scanned to ensure you unlocked prizes in the right order: once you had enough prizes to redeem (3, if I recall correctly), you would be forced to redeem prizes at the Merchant Shop before being able to resume scanning codes.

The prizes were fun — Zombie Wumpus! Lunch Cooler! — but too scarce… kind of like resources in the games, I guess.

While there were limits on how many prizes you could redeem at once, there were no limits on how many prizes you could redeem overall. This meant the first handful of people in a session had an enormous advantage and head start in scanning the codes to stack prizes and walk away with multiple premium (and scarce) items, leaving those entering behind them with little to play for.

While I appreciate that those who got in line earliest should probably be rewarded in some way, prize distribution could and should have been restricted or rebalanced to raise everyone’s prize “floor” at the expense of lowering the prize “ceiling” for a handful of people.

For example, here is how I might have modified the prize parameters using the event’s actual giveaways:

• Let’s assume 200 attendees per session. Allocate 400-600 total prizes at each session.
• Designate 100 Tier 1 prizes, with a max of 1 per person, so 50% of attendees win a Tier 1 prize: 40 Shirts, 30 Wumpuses, 20 Lunch Coolers, and 10 Zombie Wumpuses, with the scarcer prizes requiring more scans to redeem. This introduces a risk-reward element: Are you satisfied with redeeming for a shirt once you’ve met the requirements, or will you risk losing the shirt and press on to try for a rarer item?
• Designate 300-500 Tier 2 prizes, with a max of 1 per person (if they have redeemed a Tier 1 prize) or 2-3 per person (if they have not redeemed a Tier 1 prize), so 100% of attendees can win multiple prizes. With 300 Tier 2 prizes, you could have: 25 Cocktails, 50 Flashlights, 75 Posters, 75 Pairs of Movie Tickets, and 75 Discord Nitro gift cards.
• Anyone who redeems a prize gets a clear tote bag, in addition to the free drink earned upon check-in.

Given how prizes were actually distributed, the motivation to participate in the activity as designed was basically eliminated once the prizes ran out. In an alternate scenario like the one above, those who get in earliest still have the inside track on winning a Tier 1 prize, but the prize caps ensure that everyone who participates walks away with two prizes, a tote bag, and a drink.

Well, that’s probably enough on the prize discourse. Other overall takeaways and thoughts:

• Free drink for everyone! Always good! No notes!
• Offsites taking place after the Exhibit Hall closes are always welcome, but so are longer hours; there were only 11 sessions spread across three days (1 Thursday, 5 Friday, 5 Saturday), with the first session on Friday and Saturday not starting until 4:30pm.
• The physical decor and props were absolutely on point, especially at night. The DJ was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. Actors, even if they were just zombies wandering around, would have enhanced the setting even further.
• The main activity of finding and scanning QR codes was easy to understand, but was hampered by an underperforming website and camera scanner.
• To channel Goldilocks: the one-hour session length was not too short or too long, but juuuust right for scanning codes, appreciating the settings, and having a drink.

Finally, I would also be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that, as far as I can tell, this was Discord’s first sponsorship or formal presence of any kind at San Diego Comic-Con, which also included a VIP Q&A session earlier on Thursday with Cregger and the film’s lead, Austin Abrams. With the rise in Discord usage for cultivating both SDCC- and fandom-specific communities year-round, it would almost make too much sense to one day look back on the Resident Evil offsite as signaling the start of Discord becoming a bigger player in the SDCC scene, whether through sponsoring events, hosting meet-ups, or having panels.