Last month the eagerly awaited Primordial, an interactive dark coaster at Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah, opened to the public.
Triotech, an award-winning creator of media-based attractions, created Primordial in collaboration with Lagoon Amusement Park and ART Engineering, an amusement ride manufacturer that develops roller coasters, dark rides, carousels, water rides and more. The innovative attraction is a three-level roller coaster combined with an interactive dark ride. It includes eight media-based scenes and several different possible endings, keeping visitors coming back for more.
The in-house studio, engineering, and R&D teams at Triotech worked on the ride, which is more than 71,000 square feet (6,600 m2) in size. The project scope included design, narrative, show, theming, audio, and special effects. The firm also created of an original blaster concept that can endure the drops and twists of the roller coaster.
We speak to Triotech’s Ernest Yale, CEO and founder, and Nol Van Genuchten, head of creative, about the vision behind Primordial, and how their team brought it to life.
Recent Triotech projects
It’s been a busy year for Triotech. In the spring, it celebrated the opening of the PUBG: Battlegrounds World Agent walkthrough experience at Lotte World, South Korea. This is a unique 18-minute attraction with three different zones, based on one of the top IPs in Asia.
“We were able to open that in May, despite the challenges of working on it through COVID,” says Yale. “It’s 750 square metres and is experienced in groups of 16 people. It’s really immersive; an actor is giving you instructions, and then when you get into the attraction there is beautiful theming and it’s interactive, so you get pulled into the story.”
The firm also opened the Carnival Chaos Hyper Ride at Niagara Falls in the summer, another project developed during the pandemic. This 6000-square-foot, action-packed dark ride is suitable for all age groups. It features seven fully interactive scenes as well as programable digital theming.
“It has a small footprint but packs in seven interactive scenes, with dynamic motion seats. Those interactive scenes could be changed in the future, for instance, they could have seasonal content. We’re very proud of that attraction and hopefully, there’s going to be more of these Hyper Rides around the world.”
Earlier, Triotech presented a new interactive dark ride at Le PAL, a leading theme park and zoo in France. Champi’Folies, from Triotech and BoldMove Nation, features the cutting-edge Smash & Reload attraction with TooMush theming. It offers immersive storytelling and action as visitors enjoy a themed journey with characters from TooMush.
Introducing Primordial
The new Primordial interactive dark coaster at Lagoon was seven years in the making. It opened to much fanfare in September. Explaining what makes the ride unique, Yale says:
“Primordial mixes the best elements of a dark ride and a roller coaster. It also has three different ways of ending, including a surprise drop.
“We created a similar ride at Canada’s Wonderland with a surprise drop. However, the problem is that a drop can slow down the operation and limit the throughput. This new coaster offers almost double the throughput because when the first vehicle does the surprise drop, the second vehicle goes into another track. Here, there’s a slide, and your vehicle either goes down this facing forward or backwards.”
“Those are the three different physical endings. Then there are two ways of doing the ending in terms of the storyline and the content. So, there are actually six ways of experiencing this ride.”
The dark coaster project at Canada’s Wonderland was Wonder Mountain’s Guardian, which opened in 2014. It was this project that put the Triotech team in Lagoon’s sights:
“We were brought into that project, which was an indoor-outdoor roller coaster with a drop, and they asked us to do the interactivity and the content. It was an ambitious project, for which we won an Impact Award, from the prestigious IAAPA Brass Ring Awards.
“Lagoon is a family-owned park near Salt Lake City. It’s a very local park where the same people come every summer; it’s a community. They saw the ride at Canada’s Wonderland and came to us and asked if we could do a next-generation version. We worked with them on that story featuring their own characters, to create a very unique ride.”
A ride for everyone
The park had a strong vision and goal for the new attraction, says Van Genuchten:
“This is a local original park with a strong community, so there’s a lot of repeat visitorship. The park wanted something that had a broad appeal in terms of reaching the whole family, be it the younger kids, the teenagers or the parents. They wanted something that the family unit could experience together – that was key.
“That’s where the idea came from to combine the coaster, which has a certain amount of thrill to it and appeals to the teenagers, with the dark ride component, which has the storytelling and the immersive element to appeal to the family group, and then layering the gameplay on top, which brings that competitiveness and repeatability. We knew that if we combined all of those together and played off the strongest parts of each, then we could make something stronger than the sum of its parts.”
The configuration of the vehicle was also important, adds Yale:
“It’s four people sitting side-by-side together, so that could be a family unit or a group of friends. They are all sitting together; they can look at each other and there’s that interaction within the family.”
The story behind Primordial
Once those ground rules and key requirements were established, the team’s task was to craft a story that would resonate with everybody.
Primordial is set in the kingdom of regal lynx Queen Azdra, whom guests meet in the queue line. Queen Azdra explains the history of her kingdom, and how the Kingdom has always lived in harmony. This is thanks to two mythical creatures that give them day and night. The Dragon Dragnor breathes fire into the sky to give the people the day and the mystical Owl Astradir opens his wings to give the kingdom the starry night.
“This harmony of day and night is being upset because these two mythical creatures have been captured and the peaceful kingdom has been invaded by evil forces,” says Van Genuchten. “Queen Azdra calls upon visitors in the queue line to help her people liberate these two creatures and restore harmony to the kingdom.”
After the queue line and pre-show have provided the exposition, the guests head outside. Here, they get a glimpse of the coaster’s track.
“They see people being dispatched, and they see the coaster going around the mountain, so there’s a level of thrill and excitement that’s being built up. Then they arrive at the loading dock and are introduced to the targeting devices before starting the journey.”
The guest experience
The first part of the journey is a coaster with banks and curves, which goes around and then inside the mountain.
“That’s where the next chapter of the adventure starts, where you are fully immersed in a themed environment,” says Van Genuchten. “All the media screens are themed, and all of the sections in between the screens are fully themed. We built a sequence of gameplay moments or dark ride moments where we’re interacting with media. This is followed by another coaster section before you descend to another floor of the mountain. Here, once again, you have the opportunity to enjoy some dark ride and gameplay moments.”
Eventually, this leads to the grand finales of Primordial:
“You enter an impressive immersive 360-degree screen, where we combine our media with camera animation and the rotation of the vehicle towards a thrilling last boss fight. You either get to liberate Dragnor or Astradir, restoring harmony to the kingdom.
“Those are the two finales in terms of media content. They climax with either the drop or the slide forward or the slide backwards. So, that comes as a surprise and then you have accomplished your mission and saved the kingdom.”
Working as a team
For this project, Triotech’s in-house studio, engineering, and R&D teams worked closely with the client to bring Lagoon’s vision to life.
“Having everything in-house and leveraging that to bring the client close to the project allows us to develop a vision for the project and execute it in step with the client,” explains. Van Genuchten.
“We have a creative group that is regularly meeting with the client, in order to make sure that we’re developing something in lockstep with them. While we’re doing that, we have the support of our engineering team, our software team, our R&D team, and our media studio, all of these people are helping us bring answers and solutions to the communal goal we have, together with the client, which is creating a great experience for their guests.”
“Being able to do that with a team that’s in-house and is fully invested in this process is beneficial. We also have our project management group which sees the project from the very first meetings all the way to the delivery, working with our factory, our assembly plant and our installation team, having that all be one family. That fosters the know-how and the ownership of the project amongst all of us. It ultimately makes for a much stronger result.
“We all have the same agenda. We as a company are working to deliver the best possible ride for the client and the best possible experience for their guests.”
A new blaster concept for Primordial
Triotech also developed an original blaster concept for the new attraction, as they needed a solution that could endure all the turns, drops and twists of a roller coaster.
“This was important to get right because it’s a surprise drop,” says Yale. “You’re interacting, you’re shooting, and then boom, the ride drops, and you can’t have a blaster flying up and hitting you in the face.
“We had to design a locking mechanism that was fully secure but that would still have the proper range of movement. It’s a unique concept that’s installed on the lap bar, and now it’s available to be used on future projects. There’s been a lot of demand, particularly after the opening of this, in bringing the whole interactive aspect to coasters.”
When it comes to this new hybrid concept, Yale believes this is a trend that will only grow:
“Coasters are super popular and amusement parks are always competing for the highest coaster, the faster coaster. Dark rides with a story are also popular. But this is a way to have the best of both worlds.
“It also enables smaller parks to have a more exciting coaster. By marrying both aspects, you have a unique attraction which has more longevity. It becomes interactive, it could have seasonal content, it has more depth, and there’s more replayability because you can do the ride in different ways. And there’s the competitive aspect too. If I beat my buddy, he’s going to want to do the ride again. That’s something which is unique to interactive dark rides, which now is available for dark coasters too.
“I think there’s going to be more and more of these kinds of rides in the future; we certainly see the demand.”
Meeting the client’s needs
Since Primordial opened, park guests have been enjoying the ride:
“The response has been great, and the customer is super happy,” says Yale. “We have a great relationship with them. Now that it is open, the park is very happy, the reviews are good and there’s great hype, now they’re into their Halloween season, which this ride is part of. And then I’m sure they’ll have a great full season next summer.
“It’s a level of excitement which is higher than a typical dark ride, with the surprise elements. It’s a roller coaster of emotions!”
Van Genuchten adds: “We’ve been hearing on some of the fan blogs and videos from people that typically will not ride a coaster. This whole broad project was really to focus on how we could give those people a ride that they would be interested in; how can we get them to enjoy this experience and come out of it just as excited as if they’ve been on a big coaster, and just invested in the story as they would have been on a regular dark ride?
“Now, to see young kids being excited and to see teenagers filming about their scores, and people being invested in the story and the fantasy behind it all, that’s really rewarding. I think the team did a fantastic job in focusing on that aspect of it and I think that makes it a unique attraction. We’ve created something that reaches everybody in this park.
“For this particular operator, who’s running a regional park, who has repeat visitorship, who has families coming back at least once every summer, having something that the whole family can come together around and come out of it with a smile on their face, that’s a winner.”
What’s next for Triotech?
In May, Triotech announced that it has been chosen by Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) to develop several Transformers-themed attractions for its new entertainment destinations, including the flagship venue in the Al Hamra district of Riyadh city, as well as at two other destinations in Saudi Arabia.
Guests at the Transformers attractions will be immersed in the world of the iconic brand thanks to state-of-the-art rides and theming, as well as branded retail and themed food and beverage. SEVEN has appointed Triotech to develop Transformers-themed interactive dark rides. The company will be responsible for the rides’ design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation.
While details are still under wraps, Yale says:
“It’s going to be fully interactive and feature a unique vehicle -our team is super excited to be working on it.”
Looking ahead, he adds:
“Things are very exciting. Post-COVID, we are growing rapidly, we are hiring more people. We’re investing in developing new attractions for family entertainment centres and new technology for amusement parks.
“For Primordial, we’ve mixed a roller coaster with a dark ride, but there’s more to come. We’re always thinking about how we can interact with the guests, be it through blasters interactive hand gestures, or other new technology. There are multiple ways of interacting with guests and involving them in the experience is going to be essential in the future.”
Visitors can meet Triotech’s team at IAAPA Expo in Orlando at Booth #1058 & 1357. Click here to book a meeting.
