Gamification continues its transformation of experiential entertainment, turning once-passive attractions into interactive adventures where visitors participate in challenges and engage with stories.
Seeking to extend stays and encourage return visits, attraction operators are delving into a diverse toolkit of interactive technology. A 2021 study found that gamification elements such as leaderboards, badges, and challenges can increase theme park attendance by up to 10%. The study also found increases in dwell times, F&B revenue, and visitor satisfaction.
It’s no secret that gamified entertainment increases engagement. But it also provides opportunities for revenue through in-game purchases and merchandising while generating invaluable word-of-mouth marketing through social media. It can also lead to more cost-effective operations, optimizing throughput and improving sustainability. This is thanks to the easily updatable media-based content and efficient visual technology.
Exemplifying this transformation is Chaos Karts, the UK’s first live-action video game experience that combines real-life racing with augmented reality. Created by The Ents Inc., the Manchester, UK-based attraction highlights the trend towards interactive projection mapping to bring stories to life in virtually any space, integrating with peripheral sensory and AR tech to enrich and deepen guest engagement.
Digitally augmented experiences can also help to dissolve the barrier between audiences on and off the main site by means of PTZ remote cameras and glass-to-glass production systems such as the broadcast-quality IT/IP platform KAIROS.
Gamified entertainment: making video games a reality
At its core, Chaos Karts is a real-life video game. Players race-battle on changing, digitally augmented courses and backdrops simulated by 23x Panasonic MZ20K Series LCD laser projectors (the predecessor to the recent 20,000 lm MZ20K Series). Selected from a wide lineup of Panasonic DLP and LCD laser projectors to suit the client’s specific requirements and budget, the MZ20K Series provides outstanding cost performance and reliability for long-term deployment.
The karts, meanwhile, include features that create realistic sensations to deepen immersion. In-kart power-ups and weapons, for example, allow players to “battle” right up to the finishing line.
Chaos Karts emerged from a co-creative partnership between The Ents Inc. and Panasonic Connect. This saw the Panasonic team contributing to the attraction’s design from the ideation phase to opening day and beyond. We were thrilled to help pioneer a new frontier in location-based entertainment, noting the value of collaboration from the blue-sky phase of the project.
Through our collaboration, we can push the boundaries of speed, technology, and innovation. This project seamlessly blends our cutting-edge technology with exhilarating performance, paving the way for an electrifying experience on and off the track.
Introducing Chaos Karts
To get further insight into the expanding role of gamified entertainment in attraction design, I spoke to The Ents Inc. CEO Tom Lionetti-Maguire and his colleague Jon Crawley, head of product, about their practical experience working with interactive technology. Just how difficult was it to bridge the digital and analogue worlds?
“We have always created great physical attractions,” Lionetti-Maguire says. “But for a long time, we have been passionate about the interaction between the video-game world and the world of leisure attractions.
“The genesis of our thinking was to create fully digital 360-degree worlds in which customers could play in real-time and on an enormous scale, unseen anywhere in the world.
“We decided on creating a ‘video game arena,’ one in which the delineation of physical and digital becomes particularly important. The outer ‘sphere’ had to be digital, of course, to create these beautiful and infinite panoramic worlds. This is where we worked closely with Panasonic Connect as our digital projection specialists.
“In all the various games we create, however, the ‘how’ of representing the physical world in between will become more and more interesting. We are already researching various new games of all types with IP partners from around the world. The possibilities are endless. This is the future of entertainment, and the possibilities for pushing the boundaries of what is achievable are truly remarkable.”
The challenges of developing gamified entertainment
When developing Chaos Karts, the team was keen to avoid limitations and keep the experience social with broad generational appeal. Lionetti-Maguire explains:
“We were very conscious of creating worlds without the use of VR. VR is very limiting and inherently anti-social in the real world. So, that was a challenge we personally found extremely exciting. As soon as you put a big headset on, it disconnects you from your friends and family. Given that you are supposed to play as a team, that is something that was non-negotiable for us.”
Projected courses and backdrops don’t just enhance immersion. They also encourage repeat visits by enabling the addition of new circuits and more difficult challenges.
“As we progress through multiple concepts and with improvements in augmented reality, it will be interesting to see where this goes. Working with a tech partner as early as possible is particularly interesting. Often, they will be surprised by how companies use their products, sometimes in ways that they may never have imagined.”
A team effort
This dedication to exploring innovative avenues (while prioritizing the social aspect of entertainment) has played a pivotal role in shaping Chaos Karts. One important aspect of the attraction’s success stems from a co-creative partnership with Panasonic Connect. Lionetti-Maguire underscores the value of having a dedicated tech partner throughout the project’s development:
“Our experience of working with Panasonic Connect so far is the perfect example,” he says.
“An equipment supplier will often do the bare minimum, dropping off an installing kit and walking away without any further care for the project. This is short-sighted. A great technology partner, like Panasonic Connect, will invest time and care into their partner’s project, knowing that in the long run, this will be a highly mutually beneficial endeavor.
“In the true spirit of partnership and collaboration, it is also in these instances that we can solve problems. The overall product will be made better by both sets of teams bringing their various expertise to aggrandize the end product.
“In the live experience space, for example, technology has to be reliable over long periods of time and over many iterations. Also, when facing the public, technology has to be at its most robust. These exciting challenges will always create new areas of interest and perhaps even new products for both sides of the partnership.”
Revitalizing traditional attractions
The success of the Chaos Karts concept invites the question: Is it possible to revitalize other traditional attractions (particularly in the FEC space) in a similar way?
“We think that technology has a huge part to play in the future of leisure, attractions, theater, and other forms of entertainment,” Jon Crawley says. “However, we do not think that it is a case of disrupting or dislodging other forms of entertainment. Hopefully, technology like ours can help create entirely new attractions and new ways of playing and interacting.”
Does the leadership at The Ents Inc. see any potential in forming closer partnerships with indie game developers, filmmakers, and others in the media space to fund and develop attractions jointly from the blue-sky phase?
“We already have great relationships with partners across the worlds of film, television, publishing, and video games,” says Lionetti-Maguire. “Integrating with IPs will provide an endless source of material for new games and concepts. These can be overlayed on existing concepts. Or, in some cases, we can create new joint ventures in which we work in collaboration with the rights owners to make something entirely new.
“Where this will lead us is unbelievably exciting. We are already developing concepts the likes of which the world has never seen. It is almost a case of technology having to catch up with these creative ambitions.”
The value of partnerships
Gamified entertainment gives audiences more reason to come back: that is, by offering novelty and exclusivity. In light of this, is it a realistic aim to bring game developers and attraction designers together to conceive, build and market games and attractions in parallel? Or is adapting an established IP into an entertainment attraction the only surefire path to success?
The Ents Inc. has an ambitious vision for Chaos Karts with global expansion plans in the works.
“I don’t think it is necessarily essential to secure an established IP,” says Lionetti-Maguire. “An established IP will always bring a set audience with them. And, of course, this can always help in gathering early adopters. However, it is perhaps most helpful when the IP lends itself well to gamification or a particular kind of attraction.”
“If you are creating something a little different or attempting to push the envelope of what is possible, it may actually help to not integrate with a well-known IP, to begin with, to allow audiences to form their own understanding of what this attraction could be.”
The future of gamified entertainment
How does The Ents Inc. envision the evolution of gamified attractions, and do any gaps remain in today’s experiences that technology does not yet address?
“I do believe we can close the gap between the worlds that people experience in video games and what can be experienced in real life. That Ready Player One-type of playable world is not a million miles away.
“What I hope is that it can be done in a way that is genuinely sharable and convivial and can be a continuation of the strong human desire for shared experiences and storytelling.”
As the Chaos Karts story proves, the integration of interactive technology has the potential to redefine the future of location-based entertainment, particularly when it comes to revitalizing existing attractions. With innovative partnerships such as this, attraction operators can set their own direction in the next wave of interactive entertainment.
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