Location-based virtual reality (VR) startup Imverse has teamed up with MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff and “Lawnmover Man” director Brett Leonard to launch a MacGyver-themed VR escape room. MacGyverWorld, which is being produced by Mark Rickard from Leonard’s Studio Lightship outlet, is expected to debut in 2020.
The experience will make use of Imverse’s 3D capture technology, which scans participants before they enter MacGyverWorld. “When you look at your friends, you can see their holograms,” explained Imverse CEO and co-founder Javier Bello Ruiz in an interview with Variety this week. “In virtual reality, you need to have presence.”
Rickard said that MacGyver was a great franchise for combining location-based VR with the escape room concept. “This was an easy fit,” he said, arguing that MacGyver’s character would help to shape people’s expectations. “It’s always him in an outrageous, difficult situation,” he said. “We don’t have to coach people.”
Imverse will show off some of its technology at Siggraph in Los Angeles next week. Ruiz said that the company was positioning itself between high-end location-based VR startups like The Void and Dreamscape and mass-market VR arcades.
As part of that strategy, Imverse plans to open a flagship location next year, and then license its content as well as technology to VR center operators. This will include its holographic capture technology. “You will have our volumetric capture stage in your venue,” he said.
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