Spooky AR game tested at old Griffith Park Zoo

The remains of the old Griffith Park Zoo in Los Angeles have been transformed into a spooky augmented reality (AR) game for a series of pop-up events this month.

'Ghosts in the Machine: The Old Zoo' combines AR, mobile gaming and storytelling to provide an eerie journey to 'The Otherside', a place between our universe and the afterlife.

While exploring the haunted site, users meet Phoebe, an amateur medium who has crossed over to The Otherside.

"Phoebe can’t remember how or why she ended up in another realm, she needs your help to make sense of it all. On your journey you’ll encounter and interact with spirts and uncover the history of the old zoo," the 'Ghosts in the Machine' website says.

The project was developed by immersive creator and choreographer Koryn Wicks. It is in the testing phase, with a series of pop-ups held this month.

"I wanted to do sort of a haunted location," Wicks told the Los Angeles Times.

"I’m a big nerd for horror stuff. I really like it. I really like the idea of ghosts. I read this book called Ghostland and it looked at ghost stories throughout American history and the way they’re practiced and who gets cast as a ghost versus who gets haunted.

"So the first scripts I was writing were more meta, they were about ghosts in general. Then I gradually narrowed into an actual story with characters. That’s the dancer in me. I tend to think a little more abstractly."

During the experience, players encounter the deserted animal enclosures and degenerating cages of the old zoo, which opened in 1912 and closed in 1966 with the opening of the Los Angeles Zoo.

Wicks told the Los Angeles Times that the character of Phoebe tells stories of mistreated animals and the Griffith Park fire of 1933.

While the 'Ghosts in the Machine' pop-up events have concluded, Wicks told the publication that that she remains open to further developing the experience.