by Dot Cannon

In the downtown Los Angeles arts district, the bartender was falling in love.

Pouring a drink at Two Bit Circus™‘s new Micro Amusement Park™, his eyes flashed red hearts at a Media Day visitor.  He gave a low whistle and a throaty, “Oh baby”.  He even offered a digital red rose.

Fortunately, his affections tended to be somewhat fickle.

“You’re literally, like, the fifth person he’s fallen in love with,” said the bartender’s designer, roboticist Daniel Busby.

Undeterred, “Gearmo Del Pouro” continued his duties–and his flirtatious ways.

“This is a custom robot, made completely by our crew,” Daniel explained.

“Gearmo” can make six signature drinks, from his Ferris-wheel-like setup.

“The human bartender selects the different drinks, and (there are) different modes (he can select),” Daniel said.

Those modes, he added, include one where the robot is drunk, the falling-in-love pattern and a mode where “Gearmo” plays a Vegas-style game.

“So if you order the same drink as the person in front of you, you might get a different show.”

Breaking ground for “the future of fun”

And “Gearmo” is just one part of the show in the 38,000 square feet of Two Bit Circus™‘s first Micro Amusement Park™, set to open on Friday afternoon, September 7th.

Now, why the venue name?

“We took over this building, (an) old industrial warehouse, we call it a Micro Amusement Park™,” explained Two Bit Circus™ co-founder and CEO Brent Bushnell.

“(It’s really) just a term we made up.  But the idea is, it’s small, compared to (major theme parks) but still huge, right?  This is bigger than a football field.”

Describing the “Micro Amusement Park™” tends to be a challenge.

But, imagine STEAM Carnival, on which we had the pleasure of reporting in 2014.

Now, set it in a permanent location, upgrade it with VR (multi-person and individual), digitized carnival games, lots of inspiration from a full spectrum of creators, and interactive entertainment and creative opportunities…

…and your imagination probably still won’t come close to the actual experience.

Maybe the most accurate description is Two Bit Circus™‘s own statement, in their literature, that they’re creating “the future of fun” in “a brand-new kind of social playspace”.

Minotaurs, VR and legends

Like a theme park, the Micro-Amusement Park™ is divided into, as Brent says, “a lot of different zones”.

Walking into the facility, we first saw the “midway”, with carnival games, reimagined into digital versions.

“You’ll see, today, a bunch of stuff that we’ve made, and a bunch of stuff that partners have made,” Brent said.  “We’ve worked together to adapt existing games to (the) public.”

Guests get to try their skill in teams, and it’s a blast.  (Even if, during our late-July media tour, a reporter whom we, ahem, won’t name, couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!)

Next to the midway are three VR-based escape rooms, called “Story Rooms”.

Brent explained that guests can choose from experiences that vary in length, from ten minutes to an hour.  And those guests’ choices include a haunted bayou, a legendary California mine–and even the bridge of a spaceship, where players can experience a replayable, and episodic, game in several different roles!

In the same area is a “Minotaur Maze”, which has multiple VR games–and startled one participant as we walked by!

Besides “Story Rooms”, which are designed for groups, there’s a separate VR zone.

In this area are “Cabanas” for VR games for three to five players…

…as well as stations for individual games.

Two Bit Circus™ Chief Creative Officer Nancy Bennett says the park contains 28 virtual-reality experiences.  These range in level, from those designed for visitors who have never done VR, right up to experiences for hard-core aficionados.

And for all the imagination and creativity, the virtual-reality section came together relatively quickly.

“We spent a week locked in a room, with storyboarding and the creative team,” Nancy said.  “(That was) June, a year ago.  It’s been a record.”

“But VR’s only about 20 percent of our park.  We have a lot of other stuff,” Brent said.

A chance to kick back–and observe the fun

That “other stuff” includes a VIP lounge for guests to relax, game shows like none anyone has experienced before and the “Arkane”, which features both new and classic games.

The VIP lounge, upstairs, offers a chance for visitors to relax over drinks and snacks, perhaps play a board game and observe what’s going on down on the main floor.

“For us, this is all about a social experience,” explained Two Bit Circus™ President Kim Schaefer.

“If you come a hundred times, you’ll have a hundred different experiences.  You may make your reservation for a story room one time…you may come another time for Club 01 and play some games.

“We love the idea of people being able to curate their own experiences.”

Part of that experience, for every guest, will be a staff that knows everything that’s going on.

“We’ve hired a hundred carnies (who) will be at your disposal,” Kim said.  “But we also want to make them part of your experience, so they’re going to be part of the show.

“They may pull you aside, and tell you a little story about what it’s like to be at Two Bit Circus™.  They may…tell you something that’s going on here, or why this location exists.

“And it’s up to you to decide what to do with that.  You can make it part of your larger games…or you can use it to tell your own stories to your friends that you’re here with.”

The origins of Two Bit Circus™

So, how did all this imagination, fun and technology come into being?  With an economic slump and two highly creative clowns/engineers/adventurers who started building things from scrap.

That would be Brent and Two Bit Circus™  CTO and “Mad Inventor” Eric Gradman.   (And no, we’re not being disrespectful–both are actual clowns, as in “circus performers”!)

In 2008, Brent and Eric began crafting their STEAM-oriented experiences for fun.  But their talent and ingenuity soon led to commissioned projects for entertainment companies and special events.

“We built escape rooms…we built a cloud that rains tequila…made our own 360 cameras, wrote our own stitching software,” Brent said.

“(We) took thirty thousand people through virtual reality, seven at a time, at the Superbowl.  So really, (we did) a lot of public attractions.  Hundreds of events.  After awhile, we said, ‘Hey, let’s do our own traveling event’.  So we did a traveling carnival for a few years and finally said, ‘Gosh, traveling is so hard.  Let’s go permanent!

“And so we’ve been building this site ever since 2015.”

Going “clubbing”, Two Bit Circus™ style

Our tour included a stop at Club 01–a 100-seat venue for interactive stage shows.

“When Brent and I founded this company, we wanted to create games where people could play together, ” explained Two Bit Circus™ CTO and “Mad Inventor” Eric Gradman.

The games in Club 01 start with a “bar trivia” or game-show format.

But then, enhanced by technology and community, they zoom into new territory.

“People come from all over the country to Hollywood, to sit in darkened sound stages and not play games,” Eric said.  “But here, everybody gets to play.”

Club 01’s computer terminals are designed to light up with colored lights, dividing the audience into teams.  Then, they get to participate in a variety of games.

Those could include a “horserace” trivia game.  Your team’s answers, on individual computer screens, move your horse forward on the video screen at the front of the room.

Other options include Escape the Werewolf Village, and a game where numbered stars appear on your individual terminal.  Hitting them in order gets you points.

There’s even a wine-tasting show.

“Everyone who walks in this room gets four little tasters of wine,” Eric explained.

After taking a sip, participants register their experiences on their computer screens.

“At this point (in standard wine tasting), they’d be telling you what you’re supposed to taste,” Eric said.

“What I want to know, is what you taste.”

The shows, Eric explained, will be listed outside the Club 01 area, and visitors can make reservations.

Let’s play!

Our final tour stop was the “Arkane” arcade.

Like the standard arcades of our youth, it had numerous game stations.

The similarities ended there.

“We can switch the games at any time. These are generic cabinets that are designed to play any number of different games,” Eric said.

Those games, while including some classic favorites, are mostly re-designing the gaming experience.

“This is Danger Danger.  You’re rolling a ball around, trying to avoid mines,” Eric explained.

Other games included Wiffle Waffle, where players launch digital “baked goods”, skee ball-fashion, towards a score target.

There was also Super Thunder Fox, which one intrepid member of our party illustrated.  But beware, if you play this one–there is a hidden element!

“You’ve just been dancing in front of a camera,” Eric said as group members laughed.

And the best game was still to come.

This is a six-player arcade game!

“People show up at places like this in twos, threes and fours.  Nobody shows up in sixes!” Eric said.  “And you know what?  When people play a game together, …they go to the bar together.  They hang out, friendships are made.  It’s super cool.

“It brings people together in a way that a single-player, Ms. Pac-Man never will.”

The arcade game itself allows players to choose from a variety of group games.  “Bubbles”, where each team’s bubble grows to “eat” the smaller ones, was a team favorite!

The winds of creativity

At the core of Two Bit Circus™‘s sense of play and innovation, is a “why not?” willingness to erase the boundaries between visitors and performers.

“Not only is this place a big platform, but there’s a lot of secret stuff,” Brent said. “Secret closets, secret doors, secret hallways.

“And we really encourage people to be curious and explore.  One set of rabbit holes can be found here,” he added, indicating what looked like two gumball machines with plastic capsules in them.

“There’s little clues inside each of these (capsules) that are going to take you on a little journey.”

Ongoing innovation

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Micro Amusement Park™, is another facet of its interactivity: local, and global, creative communities get to be a part of developing new content!

“Think of us as the new theatre for interactive,” Brent commented.  “We can run existing immersive theatre productions.  A bunch of our friends make immersive theatre, and we’ve got at least one (company) that we’re launching with.”

“We have the opportunity to do indie games,” Kim said.  “We…have an entire country and world that is filled with people who have developed their own games.

“We have the platform for them to put those games up.”

The switchable game cabinets, in Arkane, represent just one of those opportunities.  Eric says that if an “indie” game does especially well, it will be included in several of those locations.

“These are platforms for us and others to develop on,” Eric explained, after our group game.  “We see this whole place as, in essence, a new-style community center.”

“It’s a place for people to come out and play with their families and friends, but also to create together.”

Look for that creativity to expand.  The future, Brent said, may very well include more Micro Amusement Parks™ in other locations.  We’ll keep you posted!

Two Bit Circus™’s first Micro Amusement Park™, located at 634 Mateo Street in Los Angeles, will open to the public at 4 pm, Pacific time, on Friday, September 7th.   Admission to the park is free, but online reservations are required for Club 01, the VR cabanas and the “Story Rooms”.  For gameplay, guests buy “Playing Cards”, available on the Two Bit Circus™ website.

Currently, Two Bit Circus™ is having a “Sneak Peek Sale” for anyone who’d like to be among the first to experience all the cool stuff!   They have a limited number of cards, each with $50 worth of gameplay, available for $25 each, good for use during weekdays throughout September.  Here’s the link for more information.