Immersive Gamebox and Netflix have teamed up to launch a new gaming experience based on the Floor is Lava show at physical venues in around the world.
Immersive Gamebox has created venues where players can move in a physical way, enjoying a gaming experience with special lighting and interactive exhibits. Each Gamebox has state-of-the-art rooms equipped with 3D motion tracking, projection mapping, and touch-sensitive walls, and more for multiplayer action for players.
Now players will be able to go into the gameboxes for 30-minute sessions where they can pretend to be inside the Floor is Lava experience. The Netflix show, Floor is Lava, is a TV game show that has become extremely popular since its debut on Netflix in 2020. Contestants navigate an obstacle course in a room filled with (fake) lava, with the goal of finding an exit without falling in.
The Immersive Gamebox version of the adventure game will open on November 15 at 32 Immersive Gamebox locations around the world. Tickets are available starting today.
The Floor is Lava game transports players into a high-energy, immersive environment where the walls are lava. Using motion tracking, projection mapping, and touch screens, groups of up to six players must work together to navigate challenging, fast-paced obstacle courses, jumping from virtual platform to platform to avoid falling into the lava.
“Our further extension of our multi-title partnership with Netflix brings a beloved show to life in an entirely new way,” said Will Dean, CEO of Immersive Gamebox, in a statement. “The Floor is Lava game blends the exciting, physical fun of the TV show with the innovative technology of our Gameboxes. We can’t wait for players around the world to experience it.”
David Spindler, cofounder and chief commercial officer at Immersive Gamebox, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the games are designed for anywhere from two to six players, with a focus on audiences including friends, families or team-building events.
The spaces are designed to be challenging and spur strategic thinking by the players, who must work together to tackle increasingly difficult levels, testing their reflexes, problem-solving skills, and teamwork.
The tech for each game box is a projection-mapping system and motion-tracking technology on the ceiling of each game box. It’s a mix of proprietary audio-visual tech and projection mapping.
The game will launch in locations in the U.S., United Kingdom and Europe. Immersive Gamebox’s library of interactive adventures include games like Squid Game, Ghostbusters, Tetris, and Angry Birds. Each experience costs $30 a person.
Immersive Gamebox has more than 25,000, five-star Google and Tripadvisor reviews putting them in the top 10% of attractions worldwide. By the end of 2025, Spindler expects the company will have around 50 stores around the world. The venues are in a variety of areas such as shopping malls, downtown spaces or other leisure areas.
Spindler said the company has raised $50 million in capital from investors such as Index Ventures since starting in 2019, and its central team has 38 people. Including retail, the company has more than 150 people. Immersive Gamebox owns most of the locations in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and it has franchised the rest.
He said the company has worked with Netflix for a few years, starting back in 2022 with a version of Squid Game for Immersive Gamebox.
“This year, we decided to work with them on Floor is Lava, which is one of their big family titles,” Spindler said. “We wanted to work with them on a family-oriented game. Floor is Lava is hugely popular with the tween and family audience, and that’s the target we wanted to fill. It’s a great property to convert to Gamebox, where you have people jumping around, dodging and avoiding obstacles.”
The resulting game is all about collaboration, coordination and good timing. It makes use of the full physical area in a Gamebox.
“You can face different directions and it creates a fun dynamism in the room, because you’re bumping into people, having to watch, having to jump around together,” he said. “You jump from one obstacle to another obstacle in the game. You can jump on a button that allows a bridge to come up for you buddy in the room to get across. You can collect little lava balls as you go. It’s high energy fun.”
You have to climb a lava volcano to put a lava piece on the top to shut off the volcano. Each store has around eight to 10 game boxes. That allows the place to accommodate larger groups.
The game took about three months to create. It competes with rivals like Sandbox VR, which operates scores of locations that focus on virtual reality experiences. Spindler said his company goes with a more casual crowd of families, people on dates and corporate groups.
“It’s not your most traditional gaming audience,” Spindler said. “It’s the social element that attracts them.”
Each experience takes a few months for the team, which has veteran game designers on it, to design. Some team members worked in theater, museums or schools.
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