Netflix’s Squid Game, the sleeper hit TV series from South Korea that won six Emmy awards, looks like it would be fun to compete in except for the whole dying a violent death if you lose.
Immersive Gamebox, the interactive game attraction in the Grandscape shopping and entertainment district in The Colony, has come up with an interesting way to play the Squid Game without suffering a violent, grisly death at the end.
The UK-based game studio that opened its first US location in The Colony two years ago is bringing a special Squid Game experience to its Immersive Gamebox locations starting on September 21. Players 16 and up will only be allowed to play in the new Squid Game series. The Grandscape location gave us the “red light” and “green light” to take a test run at the new Netflix-series-inspired game.
The hour-long game mirrors the games in the hit show minus the ddakji game hosted by the recruiter who attracts economically dispersed citizens to participate in the deadly games. The opening animations are a colorful array, mimicking the show’s central storyline of how the participants make their way to the secret location where the games are played for filthy rich, masked businessmen to bet on the lives of the lower classes.
The games are displayed on four walls by projectors in an enclosed room. Four Vicon motion capture cameras track players’ movements with a special tracking device attached to a visor called a “constellation.” Other games require touching the walls to make choices and launch player pieces are tracked using a wall of ultra-fast lasers that can locate a player’s hands on any of the four walls. All rooms are also monitored on closed circuit cameras during players’ games if they need hints or help during the experience.
“We can put two to six players within each game,” says Immersive Gamebox general manager Kristen French. “Everyone will put on a visor so as you move around the rooms, so does your player. You’re the human controller.”
Each game starts with a round of “red light/green light” complete with the giant, robotic girl doll watching over players’ movements in the Gamebox. The players must move an icon on either side of the front screen around a series of obstacles to the finish line to bank more money for the survivors. If the game senses a player’s movement when the doll turns out and yells “Red light!” they are “shot” on sight. You’ll need to tighten your muscles and keep your wits sharp as you race across the finish line before time and your life ends.
The dalgona game is also simulated from the show but on a much larger scale. Dalgona is a popular Korean candy made with melted sugar and baking soda featuring familiar shapes pressed into the center of the circular treat such as circles, squares, stars and umbrellas. Players must carefully guide their tracking dongle along the line of one of four different shapes to guide a virtual needle through the design and remove the shape without breaking the inside of the shape.
The Immersive Gamebox experience also mimics deadly child games such as tug of war, marbles and the glass bridge in which players attempt to navigate across two rows of glass platforms by choosing the thicker glass pane in each pair to avoid falling to a grisly demise. Just like the show, each game requires a different skill set to master and all of them are equally challenging and fun in their own ways.
Finally, the seventh round features the titular game in which players must navigate their icon through several different squids to the final goal without being touched by one of the defensemen. The collected funds serve as each team’s final score, which goes up on Immersive Gamebox’s leaderboards.
The Squid Game experience will be one of 11 games ranging from 30-60 minutes at Immersive Gamebox. Other experiences include a multi-dimensional version of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, the Pac-Man-inspired maze runner Temple of Coins, the trippy puzzle challenge Psychedelic Mansion and the spy adventure James Bunny: Casino Tropicale.
