Triotech and BoldMove Nation have joined forces to revolutionize regional entertainment venues with their innovative Smash & Reload interactive dark ride. This groundbreaking attraction was born out of the COVID pandemic, with BoldMove Nation envisioning a new interactive dark ride that would redefine the standards of entertainment experiences. Partnering with Triotech, they created a compact, immersive dark ride that offers big thrills within a smaller footprint, making it possible for regional venues to offer the excitement of larger theme parks attractions.
Le PAL, a renowned theme park and zoo in France, was in need of refurbishing their outdated 4D cinema for their 50th anniversary celebration but faced budget constraints that prevented major investments. Smash & Reload emerged as the perfect solution, allowing the park to introduce an exhilarating indoor ride that could actually fit in the existing building. In addition, the new attraction operates year-round and caters to the park’s target audience: families.
The fruitful collaboration between Triotech and BoldMove Nation has resulted in the creation of Champi’Folies, a smart and compact interactive dark ride specifically designed for families.
Champi’Folies: The Innovation of Immersive Dark Ride Experience
One of the creative challenges faced by the team behind Champi’Folies was to deliver an engaging dark ride experience within a limited budget and a compact footprint. Instead of viewing these constraints as limitations, the team embraced them and turned them into strengths, resulting in a unique and immersive experience. Smash & Reload dark ride, the platform on which Champi’Folies is based, fits within a very small footprint. Key elements are placed in a central control room and all cabling hidden. At Le PAL, Champi’Folies has been installed in the same building where their old 4D Cinema was, requiring only 225 sq.meters (2450 sq.ft.).
This impressive ride was brought to life with a budget of less than $3 million USD, making it accessible and affordable for regional venues to offer this kind of attraction typically found in larger theme parks.
The storyline revolves around the humorous “Mushies” characters whose their forest home is threatened by urban sprawl. The ride’s innovation lies in diverse Mushies’ reactions, driven by AI algorithms. Guests join them on a frantic escape to the city, using interactive devices to freeze them and prevent their invasion. To provide the Mushies with diverse and unexpected reactions, sophisticated algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence technology were applied. This ensures that Mushies act differently in various instances, adding an element of surprise and increasing replayability. The cart rotates to reload stations between scenes, allowing visitors to refill their ice cube stock through a different and less intense gameplay. At the end of the ride, visitors discover their final score and ranking, adding an element of friendly competition.
Champi’Folies is a family experience that can be enjoyed by young children, parents, and even grandparents. Young children can maximize their results and rankings by “freezing” the Mushies, while older visitors can appreciate the humour and intricacies of the Mushies’ world. The ride features numerous references and “Easter Eggs,” including nods to other parks, the park’s history, and the physical world. These multiple layers of content ensure that every visitor, regardless of age, can enjoy the ride with their family and friends. The characters, the intuitive gameplay, and the group-play combined with the friendly competition to get the highest score encourages replayability of this family-oriented attraction.
Champi’Folies is best described as a double 360° world, seamlessly blending virtual and physical spaces. Four 4-meter-wide screens provide an immersive visual experience. As the ride vehicle stops in front of each screen, the virtual scenery continues to move, creating a sense of continuous progression. Visitors “travel” through 60 ‘running’ meters of virtual worlds, with each scene flowing seamlessly into the next. The track’s outer side features mostly physical elements, providing an “old school” rich themed physical environment.
Unlike traditional dark rides that isolate visitors from one another, Champi’Folies allows up to 30 players to participate simultaneously, generating a beautifully choreographed and dynamic experience. The guests’ enthusiastic reactions play a crucial role in creating positive group dynamics. To ensure sound clarity, each vehicle is equipped with 16 loudspeakers, effectively eliminating sound pollution, and allowing everyone to fully immerse themselves in the experience.
Champi’Folies exemplifies the future of live gaming experiences, creating an illusion of grandeur with its attention to detail and imaginative world. Its success lies in the combination of intuitive gameplay, engaging characters, and family-friendly features, providing an unforgettable adventure. With its innovative approach, Champi’Folies sets a new standard for interactive dark rides, where the ride itself comes to life, leaving guests with a sense of wonder and excitement.
By uniting forces and combining expertise, Triotech & BoldMove Nation showcase the power of creativity and collaboration, demonstrating how constraints can be transformed into strengths.
partners
BoldMove Nation, Polymorph