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Museums, theme parks and many other location-based entertainment (LBE) operators are working to create the most innovative and immersive guest experiences possible. In 2023, experiences and attractions need to offer more than an ‘Instagrammable’ moment. Visitors want to be immersed in a world. They want to become the star of their own story, and they also want to play an active role.

Theme parks are inherently immersive destinations, housing detailed themed attractions and lands. But parks from the likes of Disney and Universal are increasingly enhancing their offerings and adding an extra layer to them, whether they’re gamifying the experience or utilising experiential technologies. Other LBE venues are using tools such as sound, artificial intelligence (AI) and projection mapping to enhance their attractions. Even hotels and museums are cashing in on the immersive entertainment trend.

Per the Cambridge Dictionary, ‘immersive’ is defined as “seeming to surround the audience, player, etc. so that they feel completely involved in something”. Here, we explore all of the above, in addition to the most immersive brand experiences, a growing hunger for frights, and, of course, digital art.

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Gamification, also called interactivity, is a burgeoning trend in the attractions industry. Theme parks are increasingly developing and using new technologies to amplify their experiences. Paving the way is Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Gamification features in many of Super Nintendo World’s attractions and experiences. State-of-the-art technology blends the real world and video games. Visitors enjoy interactive experiences using wearable wristbands called Power Up Bands. The Universal Studios Japan app then links these to their smartphones.

Visitors can physically hit the land’s Question Blocks to collect coins. They feel like they’re competing for a high score in a video game. In addition, guests can collect digital keys and unlock gameplay opportunities in ‘Key Challenges’. These include ‘Boss Battles’ against enemy characters.

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“Think of Super Nintendo World as a life-size, living video game where you become one of the characters. You’re not just playing the game. You’re living the game, you’re living the adventure, ” said Thierry Coup, senior vice president and CCO at Universal Creative.

DOF Robotics’ Mission Space is a space experience in which visitors travel via simulated rocket flight to another planet. “It’s a really cool theme park ride that consists of eight different platforms, and four simulator experiences, ” Emrah Ilkan, DOF’s marketing manager, told .

The experience includes interactive games, with guests blasting stray asteroids to avoid a collision and collecting cosmic mines. “You see space, you see planets. You also see comets passing by, you see supernovas, black holes, ” said Bakit Baydaliev, CEO and co-founder of DOF.

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Elsewhere, Universal filed a patent for an ‘interactive Pepper’s Ghost effect system’. Pepper’s Ghost is a special effects technique for creating holograms or transparent ghostly visuals. In Universal’s parks, visitors would be able to interact with the new Pepper’s Ghost effect using a handheld device.

SPREE Interactive has also teamed up with Eurogames to create battery-powered virtual reality (VR) bumper cars. These transport riders to a sci-fi world within a compact floor plan.

AI is a more unique technology to be used in LBE, unlike frequently utilised tools such as augmented reality (AR) and VR.

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Swamp Motel is a trendsetter when it comes to technology-driven immersive experiences. In January 2023, the company opened a new AI experience called ‘Saint Jude’. During Saint Jude, audiences engage with innovative technology created by AI company Charisma. They communicate with the brainwaves of coma patients as well as interacting with AI-powered characters and live performers.

Clem Garritty and Ollie Jones are the founders and creative directors of Swamp Motel, an award-winning creative studio. They aim to create “genre-bending, technologically advanced theatre” as well as “exhilarating, interactive experiences that blur the lines between fantasy and reality”.

Charisma’s Guy Gadney added: “Immersive theatre and Charisma’s artificial intelligence both share the same goal – to pioneer new forms of entertainment by casting audiences inside the stories themselves. This means that participants can speak to the characters, influence their emotions, and then even change the story itself.”

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Elsewhere, the Dalí Museum in Florida opened an exhibition called ‘The Shape of Dreams’. Here, guests can see their own dreams transformed into works of art. The ‘Dream Tapestry’ experience lets visitors generate images based on their own dreams through an AI system called DALL-E. Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Minds over Matter collaborated on ‘Dream Tapestry’, as well as OpenAI, a research company founded by Elon Musk that created DALL-E.

“We take Salvador Dalí’s own interest in science and technology to revolutionize the museum experience. To make his paintings, Dalí invented a way of waking himself from his dreams and then drawing what had passed through his mind. We wondered, how can we give people direct access to their dreams like this?”

In an immersive theatre production, the audience will play a role or experience a physical environment unlike traditional theatre. Before Swamp Motel’s AI-driven theatre experience, the group opened a theatrical thriller in London called The Drop. This followed the Isklander trilogy of online mystery experiences – Plymouth Point, The Mermaid’s Tongue and The Kindling Hour.

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The Drop took audiences to London’s criminal underworld. Guests got to explore a hidden world created for a maximum of four people at a time. “Like all our work, audiences will be right at the centre of the story, a story we hope will leave them questioning what was real and what wasn’t long after they leave, ” said Jones and Garritty.

“In my mind, theatre is experiencing a show from a seat, ” Swamp Motel’s managing director Daniel Hemsley told . “Immersive theatre pulls you from that seat. We had already been developing an approach that made it feel as if the action was happening to you. What we liked was that you were stepping into something that felt like you were a protagonist. It was your story to move through and drive forward.”

Department of Wonder describes itself as equal parts immersive theatre, arcade, art gallery and theme park. Located in Sugar Land, Texas, the award-winning immersive, mixed-reality fantasy blurs the line between physical and digital reality. Guests must solve puzzles within a fantastical universe of interactive experiences and colourful characters.

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In the ‘Lamp Maker’s Emporium’, audiences are equipped with a light-gathering lantern and then allowed to explore the fictional world. They encounter several characters, some human and some digital – and one grumpy puppet swamp frog. Guests must find their own way on a path as they explore and gather light.

The concept of movement between certain points in time still isn’t possible, but immersive technology is. Layered Reality’s Gunpowder Plot experience takes place at the Tower of London. It brings the history of the 1605 plotters to life and completely immerses the audience as participants. Starring Harry Potter’s Tom Felton as Guy Fawkes, the attraction builds on the Layered Reality technique. This combines digital technology and live theatre, as well as real physical sensations to create a uniquely immersive and memorable experience.

Andrew McGuinness, the CEO and founder of Layered Reality, told : “You step back into 1605. Rather than viewing or reading about history, you become part of that history. You become a participant in the plot to blow up parliament and the king. Ultimately, you have to decide whether you are going to back the king or whether you are going to back the plotters. The technology and the layered reality tools allow us to tell that story in a way that otherwise couldn’t be done.”

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“If you can suspend your disbelief, and believe you’ve genuinely travelled back in time, then we’ve done our job correctly. You feel that thrill, that excitement, that peril. At one point, you have to escape and hide in priest holes whilst a manor is being raided. If you feel that viscerally, not just as something you’re consuming, or that is entertaining you, but you feel that fear, we have achieved our goal.”

Beyond King Tut is an immersive exhibition making its way across North America. This brings to life the archives of the National Geographic Society. Visitors embark on a journey to ancient Egypt. During the experience, they meet ancient Egyptian gods such as Ra and Anubis, and descend into King Tut’s burial chamber.

“New technologies are making it possible to fully immerse people like never before in important stories from our past, allowing us to develop connections and understand history’s influence on our present and future generations.”

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Eerie attractions and horror experiences are intrinsically immersive, with spooky sounds, scare actors and spine-chilling sets. The trend for these horrifying offerings is huge, and many new venues and pop-ups are also launching around the world. These include an official Saw experience and a Halloween Ends attraction in London. There is also an It-themed escape room and an escape experience based on the

Universal is even opening a new year-round horror experience at AREA15 in Las Vegas. Page Thompson, the president of new ventures at Universal Parks & Resorts, told the decision to open the attraction is due to a “huge and growing demand for immersive experiences”, particularly

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