Hero Zone, creators of immersive VR experiences, has worked with The Broken Controller VR Experience in California, US, a 4,000-square-foot attraction which aims to “to redefine the boundaries of gaming and entertainment through the immersive power of VR and AR”.
The venue offers a wide range of immersive and traditional games. It chose to add Hero Zone to its offering for its cooperative playing style and wide range of games, which have proven highly popular with its core student audience.
Abraham Macias, CFO and co-owner of The Broken Controller VR Experience, says: “Hero Zone consistently has more people than all of our other attractions. It’s in first-place in our shop.”
Student audience
The Broken Controller VR Experience was founded by Macias together with Marquez and Allison Grays to meet a need for entertainment for people between the ages of 14 and their early thirties.
Macias explains: “We wanted to provide something for high schoolers and college students. We wanted to be a little bit more unique while we still offer some expected arcade video games. Our primary focus is VR, hence our name, The Broken Controller VR Experience.”
Visitors can enjoy two free-roam VR areas (including Hero Zone Arena), a ValoClimb augmented reality climbing wall, VR and AR racing simulators from Sim Gear, and two multicade arcade systems with classic games such as Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Metal Slug, Dig Dug, and Pac Man, plus the freestanding shooter Halo: Fireteam Raven and Time Crisis 5.
The venue is ideally situated at The Square at Campus Pointe shopping mall, one mile from California State University, Fresno. In addition, it regularly partners with State College in Fresno to develop events for the student community. Hero Zone’s varied catalogue of games has proven valuable in engaging with this audience.
“Let’s say you got a group of six college guys,” says Macias. “They’re a little rowdy and they’re a little bit on the sportier side. The attendants will say, ‘Hey, you guys would like Dead Ahead, it’s a little bit more intense.’ Or if quests walk in and the guys are wearing Hellfire Club or D&D shirts, they’ll probably like Arrowsong. So there’s a lot of diversity.”
Zombie shooter Dead Ahead and magical game Arrowsong are joined by Cook’d Up and Cyber Shock. The tricky collaborative cooking game Cook’d Up is The Broken Controller team’s favourite, and high scorers are rewarded with a free game.
Cyber Shock offers a great first VR experience. “That’s the one we put anyone under the age of 10 into for the first time in VR. It’s just easy to pick up and easy to understand. There’s no real way to die in that game until you get to the end,” says Macias.
The selection of maps and levels within each game add repeatability, and The Broken Controller VR Experience has found that around 10% of its early customers return to play again.
When compared to other VR experiences, The Broken Controller VR Experience has found that the Hero Zone Hangout—which functions more like a minigame arcade than the typical VR loading area—is one of the highlights. Macias notes: “The Hangout is by far one of the best things about Hero Zone. The guests can actually have fun while they are trying to figure it out.”
Additionally, the Hero Zone Hangout has a Party Mode that lets users have some birthday-themed VR fun.
“The Hangout in Party Mode is really funny. People come in for their birthday, we give them free extra points, we give them a free game and we use the happy birthday in-game message like “Happy Birthday to Jaden’, and we activate the Hero Zone Hangout Party Mode. All the balloons fall down and everyone is super excited.”
Easy operation
The spectator-friendly attraction brings further benefits to The Broken Controller VR Experience.
“You have to have some room for guests to watch. That’s half the battle,” comments Macias. “When guests walk in, if they see people in the free roam arenas, on the racing sims, or on the rock-climbing wall, they’re more inclined to play because they see what’s going on. So we have benches for people to walk in and sit down to watch.”
In addition, the venue has thoroughly trained its employees in all of the Hero Zone games. It ensures that staff are available to both sell the product and support players.
Macias notes that Hero Zone is easy to operate. “We haven’t experienced any hardware issues. We can update the Hero Zone software or the firmware and we can get another headset in the arena and replace it just like that.
“The maintenance on Hero Zone is far easier than what we would’ve expected.”
He also praises the design of the arena: “The storage of the headsets, the user interface for the operator, it is just so much better with Hero Zone. The charging system for the headsets – the wireless, magnetic chargers that are used for the Hero Zone headsets – is just a better charging system. It’s so much easier.”
“We feel like there’s not going to be a need for us to upgrade other than maybe the occasional wear and tear on the headsets of controllers,” Macias adds. “We feel that the Hero Zone product is a good one that’s going to stand the test of time as a staple of our shop.”
Find out more here.
Hero Zone recently shared insights from a recent installation at Bray Bowl in Ireland, a much-loved FEC which features 12 bowling lanes, laser tag, two arcades, pool and snooker tables, and a cafe and pizzeria.
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