An Experiment. A Good Old Fashioned Experiment!

Soon we will be releasing a new game in Early Access. It’s a subset of a chunk of a piece that fits into the master plan. But it’s a very very critical piece.

It’s a legitimate VR dark ride.

What is a “dark ride?” I hear you say. Good question Chappy. Can I call you Chappy? It sounds good to me and you just don’t have much say in the matter so. Here we go Chappy.

Chappy. A dark ride is a classic Disney concept where the original concept was to let people “ride the movies” - a tagline later stolen by a competitor. People would continually go to California and drive by the Disney studios and they wanted to see Mickey and Snow White.

Did they know that these were cartoons? I think so. But it was the 50’s, so who knows what they thought was inside of the magic picture box. But at a minimum they thought they would see a cool statue or get to go on a tour or shake Walt’s hand.

So Walt had this idea to make an amusement park. Which people thought was insane. His wife in particular. Because the closest analogy people could think of for this was mostly carnivals. Dirty, full of scams and shifty shifty carnies. But Walt was going to do it differently.

He was going to make a park that was clean and safe for the family. And as someone who was used to going behind the scenes on movies. He had an idea to borrow from the carnival “Love tunnels” (wink wink nod nod -am I right Chappy?) and instead of it being a dark ride for teens to attempt unspeakable mouth on mouth activities. These _dark rides_ would be family friendly.

A quick little train ride through a backstage experience where you can pretend to be one of the stars of your favorite movies and wave to all your friends as you go by. And a couple of them would shakily wave back.

It’s a charming and wonderful thing. If you have ridden these little... things. Trapped in their time from decades ago. The technology and the naivety frozen in amber. And it just so happens that this modest but amazing experience is perfectly suited for VR.

And that. Is our Early Access that you will see soon. Not the first, but kind of the first “VR Dark Ride” - something I, the writer of this article has had in my head since like the very first second I put on a Vive so many years ago.

Just to spend a little time in an imaginative world where there are no headlines and no news and no headlines. And no news. A safe and fun place to be inside of for a few minutes. To feel like a kid again.

Will it work Chappy!? Will you like to ride this ride that is strapped to your face? Will you feel sick to your stomach? Did we get the inertia right? Will it be dull? Does the vibe translate when there is no popcorn and ice cream filling your stomach. (Can we call it a “belly” Chappy? Is that word retired?)

Will it be too short? Will it be too MUCH stimulus for your inner child to take in all at once? Will you be glad there are no lines! Will you miss the lines. Chappy you sadist.

We honestly do. Not. Know. But the good news is you will be able to tell us. For free. Right to our virtual faces. Be rude to us Chappy. If that is your sadistic jam. Tell us it suucks. Tell us you were transported to a dopamine high. Tell us anything. The only thing we do not want to hear is nothing.

An experiment Chappy. A good old fashioned experiment.