Using Worldbuildr, designers can collaborate remotely and still see their shared attraction take shape together on any device at any time, from their smartphone to their desktop to their high-end VR headset.
Although many companies within our industry have been using game engines like Unity and Unreal to previsualize entertainment attractions for several years now, they all use a workflow that involves one or more software engineers coding WITHIN the game engine and then ultimately exporting a static video to be played back for presentation or design purposes.
Rather than trying to justify the cost for creation of a previz “ride-thru” video during a concept phase, Worldbuildr aims to divorce previz entirely from project-specific costs. Instead, it is seat-based subscription software that can be used for all projects at any point in their development process.
It’s the first software of its kind that has been fully-designed within a game engine and then actually published as a software product, complete with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and no coding ability required. An added UI layer of buttons, custom dials, and dropdown menus provide non-technical users with the tools they need to visualize their experience, figure out the show timing/programming, maximize their guest flow, and accurately predict their return-on-investment.
This democratizes the process of attraction design and development, allowing for small project teams to develop incredibly immersive experiences at a fraction of the cost and with no technological skills required, all wrapped up in a user interface that is intuitive enough for consumers but robust enough for industry professionals.
Development of the Worldbuildr software started several years before the pandemic, but the rapid technological acceleration brought about by Covid-19 has created a new normal for professional entertainment, requiring new technologies like virtual production, digital experience design, and remote collaboration. Worldbuildr saw these trends coming before the pandemic, and got a head start on development before debuting the first version of its SaaS design software during the pivotal year of 2020.
Like “Google Docs” for entertainment attractions, Worldbuildr allows ALL members of a project team to remotely view and update a real-time simulation of an attraction or experience from anywhere in the world. Importantly, it’s not just previsualization of an attraction’s architecture or facility— it’s also previsualization of what HAPPENS in the space.
As different vendors deliver iterative media files, audio files, ride profiles, and facility footprints, Worldbuildr aggregates all of the most recent versions of assets into the same simulation that can be viewed by everyone. This means that mistakes, clashes, and scope gaps can be caught during the earliest concept phases, as opposed to making expensive mistakes onsite towards the end of production.
The most revolutionary thing about Worldbuildr is that project teams use it to create a complete, fully-functioning digital twin of the physical attraction that they intend to build. The software then transitions from being previsualization design tool to becoming the actual operating system for the attraction itself. Previsualization is no longer a sunk cost, but instead it evolves to become the show controller itself. This concept, part of a brand new area of emerging technology called “spatial computing,” uses a 3D model of a building or environment to control its real-world counterpart.
Most tantalizingly, the benefit of using the Worldbuildr process is that by the time opening day of your attraction arrives, you’ve also created an exact, Metaverse-ready digital duplicate of the attraction, at no additional cost. Complete with lighting, media, and show logic, the digital twin can now stand alone as an attraction that can be experienced anywhere, or even connect to the physical installation to provide a unique hybrid play experience.
More information can be found here.