Worldbuildr Inc., the developer of professional, end-to-end show control solutions, has announced a partnership with The Apiary Studios that combines themed entertainment development with metaverse-style technologies.
The two design studios are joining forces to rethink the development of themed entertainment by developing ‘functional digital twins’ of attraction concepts pre-construction. The newly developed design technology is slated to have the potential to elevate guest experiences, whilst potentially saving thousands of employee hours and millions of dollars for developers.
Developing more effectively
A former Disney Imagineer, Worldbuildr founder Michael Libby has vast industry experience including his previous role as creative director at Thinkwell. Libby has created Worldbuildr’s “digital-to-physical” software as a virtual production tool for experience development, allowing designers and engineers to visualise attractions in newly hyper-realistic ways. Worldbuildr describes it as having “one foot planted firmly in the real world and the other in the developing Metaverse”.
Libby says: “So much theme park design happens in siloed efforts. Engineers envision functionality and movement. Environmental designers apply theming. Lighting, sound, and special effects are all timed and integrated. But until the thing is built, no one knows if it’s actually going to work as intended. And at first, it usually doesn’t.”
According to Libby, it is tradition for teams to return to their dedicated silos to design solutions for any problems that may arise during testing. At this point, the problems are expensive to fix and could have been avoided by using purpose-built technologies.
Real-time show controllers
The Apiary Studios is a team of multi-disciplinary artists, bringing with them decades of experience in architectural visualisation and the themed entertainment sector. Director Matt Lukens comments: “If you want to develop a new park or attraction, we build a digital twin and create the virtual fly-through. This allows stakeholders to visualise what the park will look like. But Worldbuildr takes our work to another level.”
Worldbuildr is well-equipped for the collection and aggregation of this data, using spatial computing to share metadata with stakeholders to identify problems.
“We can instantly recognise issues like guest flow choke points, HVAC clashes, and reach envelope intrusions. Challenges are identified and overcome in the pre-production phase instead of in post.”
Worldbuildr says that previsualization efforts don’t have to become a sunk cost for themed entertainment venues, with the digital twins able to act as real-time show controllers to help optimise throughput and eliminate bottlenecks.
Moving forward
According to Libby, this unique process can be utilised to prove a range of pre-market concepts across the industry: “Using crowd simulation, ticket pricing, and throughput variables, developers can confidently assess their revenue and profit before a single brick is laid. This will be a game-changer for everything from concert venues to sports arenas to immersive retail experiences.”
By breaking down design silos and collating data from real-time simulations, Worldbuildr and The Apiary say they plan to help themed entertainment companies cut down on expenditure while accelerating paths to market.
The WorldBuildr Software Suite was highlighted in last year’s blooloop Innovation Awards, a first-of-its-kind virtual production tool suitable for a range of LBE environments.
