Put together in less than a week, “Liberate Hong Kong” allows gamers to don a VR headset and dodge tear gas and rubber bullets during a nighttime clash in the district of Mongkok, a regular scene of battles between police and protesters in the real world.

“This game will give you an experience you can’t get from reading news or watching live on TV about the protests,” Jane Lam, one of the developers and a spokesperson for the team, told AFP.

Hong Kong has been upended by five months of huge, often violent, protests seeking greater democratic rights and police accountability.

Increasingly violent clashes have broken out between hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and bricks at police who are responding with increasing amounts of tear gas and rubber bullets.

But the movement has also prompted an outpouring of creativity, from so-called protest “Lennon Walls” springing up across the city to anonymously-composed protest songs that have racked up millions of views.

Now demonstrators have taken their movement into the virtual world.