iMyth

Category: Industry

  • Your Place in the Story

    Your Place in the Story

    Join iMyth’s Quest to Redefine Interactive Storytelling

    Imagine stepping into your favorite story—becoming the hero, interacting with legendary characters, and shaping your adventure in real time. iMyth is bringing this vision to life through iMyth Heroes, an innovative augmented reality experience that places the world’s most beloved characters in the palm of your hand.

    But every great adventure needs allies.

    The Quest for Co-Founders and Supporters

    iMyth is at a pivotal moment. Our team of visionary artists and technical experts has built the foundation of a world-class immersive storytelling platform, but to bring it fully to life, we need bold, strategic minds to join us. We are seeking co-founders, investors, and collaborators who believe in the power of interactive storytelling and want to shape the future of entertainment.

    We are looking for:

    • Co-Founders & Leaders with expertise in business development, marketing, account management, delivery management, and application development.
    • Angel Investors ready to fuel the next generation of immersive entertainment.
    • Creative and Technical Collaborators passionate about pushing the boundaries of storytelling and AR.

    The iMyth Vision

    From theme parks to films to video games, storytelling has evolved—but it has yet to reach its full potential. iMyth is pioneering a new era by fusing:

    • The narrative depth of books and films
    • The interactivity of video games
    • The immersion of theme parks

    Through cutting-edge AI and AR technology, iMyth Heroes lets anyone, anywhere, experience interactive storytelling that adapts to them. Children can embark on personalized adventures, parents can trust a safe and meaningful experience, and fans of all ages can connect with characters in ways never before possible.

    Why Now?

    The world is ready for a revolution in interactive entertainment. With over 6 billion smartphones in circulation, AR-powered characters have the potential to reach and engage audiences at an unprecedented scale.

    iMyth has proven its concept and built a working prototype. The next step is expansion—refining our product, growing our team, and launching iMyth Heroes to the world. That’s where you come in.

    Join the Adventure

    If you’re ready to be part of something groundbreaking—to build, invest, or collaborate—this is the perfect time to get involved. iMyth is assembling a core team of passionate visionaries who will help shape the future of immersive storytelling.

    ? Reach out today to explore how you can contribute, collaborate, or invest in iMyth’s mission. Let’s create the world’s most unforgettable stories—together.

  • Disney Contributing to Location-Based Experiences

    Disney Contributing to Location-Based Experiences

    I like to stay abreast with technological developments which not only advance location-based entertainment but interactive storytelling as well. This new announcement from Disney sounds interesting. Disney research just filed a patent for a new head mounted display(HMD) and a gizmo which is referred to as an “Air Flow Generator”. I have no information about the HMD but the air-flow generator sounds interesting.

    This air-flow generator evidently generates gusts of directed airfields which can be used to simulate the haptic sensation of the movement of a virtual object such as sword swinging, animal moving etc. In addition, the generator can also manipulate the smell of the generated air gusts to simulate particular smells such as the smell of soil, smell of flower, etc.

    For sure there are many other air field generators, (fans), which can be actuated by trigger events within an experience. However, these have always been very “low frequency, high amplitude”, for lack of better terms, sensations. This generator sounds very localized and directed. There have also been other manufacturers of HMD attachments promising custom generated scents. This gizmo, as an external generator, promotes more of a collaborative, shared experience. The Void produces similar sensations in their experiences. I am unfamiliar with their technology.

    In a conversation with an Imagineer many years ago, I think Disney is on to a product which can really contribute to large scale experiences. He told me exactly how such a gizmo exactly like this could be implemented. Maybe he decided to have Disney research actually implement it?

    If this product is what I think it is then I believe it could make a significant contribution for the location-based entertainment market. An apparatus such as this could not be marketed for home use. If location-based immersive experiences are to be bigger, bolder and more fantastic than home based experiences, then this technology could aid in widening the gap between home and location-based. Of course there is a huge dependency on how reconfigurable this device is. However, if it fully reconfigurable and “dynamic”, then it will contribute to an experience that is physical, collaborative and highly memorable, (Always unique) – Just what the iMyth team ordered.

  • Physical Experience

    Physical Experience

    Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve contributed to the iMyth Blog site. It’s time to fire up the Furnace and get cooking again! This time it’s not about reporting about another article or another development but to support a concept that has pushed iMyth from the very beginning.

    iMyth is built on three tenets; Physical, Social and unrepeatable. I’m writing this article to support the first and third tenets, phsyicality and non-repeatability. The support for this comes from an article written by Harry Baker for UploadVR, Two-Bit Circus Maze.

    In Harry’s article, he talks about the Maze created by Treyarch/Ubisoft for the indoor amusement park of the future, Two Bit Circus. While this maze is nothing new or revolutionary, I really am drawn to two aspects about the article. The first aspect is that the maze was created with two facades; the mine/maze filled with skeletons and minotaurs and the second filled with iconic Rabids. The experience is basically the same except the experience can be a little more tame or less frightening, depending on the demeanor of the participant. iMyth has always supported an experience that changes dynamically in order to conform to the individual in order to provide them with a “rewarding” immersive experience. This will continue to be something iMyth focuses on. It is confirming to know that a funded immersive experience, Two Bit circus, also stands for the same concept.

    The second tenet, physicality, seems like an unintentional element at Two Bit but really seemed to capture the attention of the article writer, Harry Baker. To quote his article, “For me, I find VR experiences that intersect with physical space and location really interesting. When I’m playing VR, immersion is everything for me. The more immersed I am, the more I enjoy the experience. To be able to walk through a physical space and feel the walls, the wind and feel like I’m in an elevator made the experience notably better. Had I completed the maze in an open-plan room with no walls or physical alterations, it just wouldn’t have been the same.“

    I see this inclusion as further conformation that physicality is and will continue to be a significant contribution to the overall quality of an immersive experience. While I myself would not call the sensation ‘immersion’ but rather ‘presence’. Presence, as defined by philosopher Mel Slater, is the willful suspension of disbelief in the presence of an understood pretentious situation. Presence will continue to be an iMyth objective and physicalness will continue to be one of its primary focuses.

  • IAPPA 2018 Review – The Year of the VR Escape Games

    I just got back from a grueling seven hours on my feet after checking out this years’ IAPPA Expo. While the size of the expor only grew, I have a hunch, I honestly was only focused on the evolving state of the immersive experience industry. More specifically I was looking at attractions which focused on interactive and non-linear storytelling. In a nutshell, I would have to say this is the year of the VR escape games. VR escape games are different form the other VR games in that they are usually longer, ranging from 25 minutes to an entire hour and they are not focused on distribution through typical platforms such as Steam. Moreover, all of the development companies I talked with not only produce their own escape games but they also produce their own “Turnkey” operations. A Turnkey operation is a VR setup including all of the equipment needed for a VR arcade to install into their location and immediately start charging per use for their experience. All of the companies I talked with offered their own turnkey solution except for Breakscape games. Ironically almost all of the experience companies are anchored outside of the US; mostly Canada. Here is a list of the Companies I talked with:

    • Breakscape Games – Sells their product for $1500 per player. For a four person game the company would need to pay $6K for the license. Sit down experience, non free-roaming.
    • VR Cave – From Alberta, Four available titles.Up to six players and up to 30’X30′ play space with new Steam VR 2  Lighthouses.
    • Back Light – From France, Offers a haptic floor which is an extra nice touch and utilize 6 Point tracking for full body avatars – Super Nice! First game is called Eclipse.
    • Hollow Zone – From LA Area. VR arm of visual effects studio, Hollow Studios. One available title, Jack the Ripper, Three more on the way.

    Good luck Teams!

  • The Void to Add New Titles to Their Lineup

    The Void to Add New Titles to Their Lineup

    Just as a quick announcement about the state of location-based immersive theme world experiences, The Void recently announced it would be adding five new titles to its expanding catalog. As of the moment there are three Void experiences to choose from:

    • Ghostbusters Dimension
    • Star Wars Secrets of the Empire
    • Nicodemus: Demon of Evanishment.

    Regretfully you will need to travel to different parts of the globe to experience each of these titles. However, for the savvy immersive experience aficionado, the number of opportunities is growing.

    The first of the new five will be based on the Disney Wreck-It-Ralph theme world and will be released near the end of the year to coincide with the release of the new Disney film, Ralph Breaks the Internet. Keeping in line with the theme, the new experience will be called Ralph Breaks VR. The Void partnered with ILMxLab to create the Star Wars experience. ILMxLab will be partnering again to actually produce the virtual worlds for these five new titles.

    The identity of the second experience has not yet been released but will be based on an undisclosed Marvel theme world to coincide with the release of a Marvel film in 2019. The Marvel films slated for release in 2019 will include Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and a still untitled Avengers film. The identities of the remaining three experiences has yet to be released. Possibly the new experiences will be based on the Frozen  sequel and the up and coming Star Wars film.

  • ‘Jack Ryan’ Most Immersive Theme World Experience Ever?

    ‘Jack Ryan’ Most Immersive Theme World Experience Ever?

    Although I did not attend, this year at San Diego’s Comic-Con is an attraction like no others. In conjunction with the Amazon Series, ‘Jack Ryan’, is a 60,000 square foot immersive VR Themeworld experience. This thing is huge. A crew from Media Monks, an immersive marketing firm from Holland,  worked for months to create this outrageous, location-based experience. You Go Guys!

    As mentioned before, the experience takes place over a 60,000 square foot lot at the San Diego Comic-con. Participants done a backpack computer complete with Oculus VR headset, a climbing harness and motion control markers for hand and feet. During the experience, participants engage in gun fights, duck and cover to avoid fire, Get dropped in from a helicopter (Something I never thought of), escape from a zip line, walk a plank and drive a motion controlled vehicle. These guys pulled out all the stops! This is fantastic and I’m glad someone was able to pull it off if anything as a proof of concept.

    I don’t know much about Media Monks. However, their headquarters are in Amsterdam and they have offices around the world. The realm of immersive marketing is so big I have trouble wrapping my head around the scale and it is only getting bigger. If there any ambitious young people not certain to place all their eggs in the film or games basket may want to consider going into this growing field.

    Business-wise I see this as a marketing event sponsored by Amazon. Such practices are often employed by other production companies such as Lion’s Gate. So this experience is tied in with a major IP, taking place at the world’s largest geek’s fair. I’m sure this experience will do a great job demonstrating what could be done with VR immersive experience and hopefully open the floodgates for other future location-based attractions.

    As a foundation upon which to create a business model from I have my doubts. This is a very linear experience. Very few people, except for the die-hard Jack Ryan lovers, will want to go through this experience more than once. This is also a solo experience. The future of immersive experiences is dependent on collaborative experiences. Until the opportunity is given for participants to share the experience with others it will be a hard sell. Folks may argue that there is an interactor helping the participant through the experience. However, this interactor has no digital presence and is only concerned for getting the participant through the experience in the safest, fastest way while still adhering to the context of the themeworld. If the interactor had a digital presence and collaborated with the participant in fleshing out a unique story then folks would really fall in love with the adventure. Then of course there is the evil specter of throughput preventing this from being a commercially viable experience. I don’t know how many participants can be in the experience at one time but it does not look like many. The involvement of an interactor for each participant also drives up the cost of the experience itself. If an attraction such as this were in a for-profit facility then the throughput would have to be increased at least by tenfold or the cost of there experience would need to be staggering. This looks like a fantastic experience. However, would it warrant a $100 admission price?

    Overall, this is a very exciting and promising prototype. I wish I could be in San Diego to give this experience a try! Hopefully events such as this will continue to keep attracting the attention of the world and make immersive themeworld experience an expected component of our every day media.

  • The Void Debuts Nicodemus

    The Void Debuts Nicodemus

    Hallelujah!Now we are talking! Although there has been little to no press about this I believe the Void has started to realize their own potential in the location-based immersive experience realm. Instead of creating another linear, shoot-em up gallery, the Void teamed with Ninja Theory up to create a true immersive experience, Nicodemus: Demon of Evanishment. Instead of rescuing or liberating a particular objective, the goal for Nicodemus is simple, explore an old 1893 Chicago World’s fair exhibit and don’t get caught by the demon … Nicodemus. Check out this video!

    Very little is known about this attraction except that participants will explore, touch and interact with the decaying ruins of the once-hopeful fair. Participants may choose to adapt one of six possible avatars and are encouraged to discover frights, trials, and adventures around every corner.

    The video shows participants interacting with physical props and sets which are integrated with the story. This is really exciting. If this is a true free roam experience then the Void has made collaborative storytelling a reality! The participants will interact with themselves and have a physical adventure inside an immersive, interactive theme world which is guaranteed to never reproduce the exact same experience twice. I really want to give this experience a try, now! When can I get to Las Vegas?

  • Is “Spaces” Going To Do It correctly?

    Is “Spaces” Going To Do It correctly?

    I was nutso when I first heard about The Void. When Dreamscape Immersive formed I really got excited. I thought The Void broke new ground but are wasting their time with immersive shoot-em-up experiences. Dreamscape Immersive launched into an impressive prototype with Alien Petting Zoo. These guys are creating immersive experiences and not just new shooting galleries. Regretfully I have not heard much from them since their initial trial run. There have been other attempts at creating immersive experiences such as Zero Latency. However, in my humble opinion, all have fallen short due to one factor or another. Now, please let me introduce “Spaces” the newest entry in the location based immersive experience arena. If the public is encouraged and with a bit of luck, these guys will make it. I think they are doing a lot of things correct. You can check out a video of their experience by following this link: Spaces: Terminator-Salvation.

    Similar to The Void, Spaces seems at first to be a Terminator themed Shoot-em-up. No big deal. However there are hints of other more important components. In much of the promotional material, the participants are interacting with physical props on physical sets. Physical immersion is essential for maintaining presence in immersive experiences. Participants are running around with props, they are using tools against physical sets and they seem to be interacting with the world with motion control devices. Now you are talking! Dreamscape immersive gave hints of these components. “Guys, what are you up to?”

    From the looks of the video and some of their promotional material, the participants seem to be equipped with HTC Vive Prop HMDs. They also appear to be decked out with 7 point tracking. 5 point is the minimum needed to track participant arms, legs, body position and orientation. However the seven point tracking tracks the elbows which solves a gnarly issue with effective motion capture. At the beginning of the experience, participants’ face are scanned and their likeness is used for their experience avatars. Fantastic. Even if the faces are not animated they will do a sufficient job of identifying the participants from each other in the middle of a high action environment. (I have to admit, Secrets of the Empire left me totally confused.) Getting back to the tracking. If these guys have some advance access to Steam tracking 2.0 then they not only have room scale access but they now have warehouse scale access and the potential for fully realized redirected walking. (I’m still waiting to get my hands on some Steam Tracking 2.0 lighthouses!) From what little review I have encountered, Spaces also employs other haptic devices such as wind, heat and smell. These are becoming standard expectations in any modern immersive experience. Different from The Void and Dreamscape Immersive, Spaces also integrates a scoring mechanic and video recording. These components are essential for experiences to take on lives outside of the actual physical attraction. This is starting to look super exciting!

    With all of this awesome sauce, what could go wrong? What could prevent Spaces from becoming a dominant player in the location-based immersive experience area? Throughput! A look at the promotional image on their website indicates they are looking for partners to open retail locations in public spaces such as malls. This may be a big mistake. Spaces is obviously run by a couple of Gen-Xers who haven’t come to the realization that the millennial folk don’t go to the malls! Traffic in malls is just not what it use to be. In order to make an operation like this profitable, they will need to have multiple immersive experiences going, each filled with multiple participants during all hours of operation. This may be attainable on the weekends. You can forget Tuesday morning around 11:00 am. Malls have very high rent and to keep the throughput sufficient to pay for the overhead costs may be too insurmountable. The solution to this very problem is what plagues the Void and Dreamscape Immersive as well.  I suppose this is a topic for future blog posts.

    I hope for the best for Spaces. I really believe they are stacking their deck with the correct equipment and the right attitude for make truly rewarding location-based immersive experiences. I just hope the realities of the economics don’t crush them into obscurity. Good luck Guys! I’m rooting for you!

     

  • Steam VR Components

    Steam VR Components

    A year and a half I had the privilege to attend SteamVR training. Steam tracking is amazing piece of engineering. The solution has only improved with version 2.0 which has just now started releasing.

    I was all hopped up and ready to start creating my own Steam VR controllers and tracked object. That was until Triad Semi-conductors, the manufacturer of the new tracking chip released the prices for it’s SDK. 

    Wow! almost $600 for one kit. My dreams for creating my own controllers for Steam VR were dashed. I did not have those kind of resources. Until I had an actual product to work with this tool kit would have to remain out of my grasp.

    Today I learned about another player in the Steam VR line, Virtual Builds, that has just released a new kit for $200. 

    If purchase a-la-carte the board and sensors would probably still cost you the same. Still, $200 is a lot cheaper than $600.

    When I can get back into the game of creating my own controllers this will definitely one of the first places I check out!

  • LARPing Assists in Theme World Marketing

    LARPing Assists in Theme World Marketing

    While not necessarily related to AR/VR/MR, immersive experiences are becoming more and more available to us in every day life. Live, immersive theater such as “Sleep No More” is becoming more popular than ever. Brands are using these same immersive, interactive techniques to pull the audience into their theme worlds in an attempt of lavish marketing. Here are a few examples:

    Samurai Films

    Ever wanted to be a Samurai but don’t want to necessarily devote a large portion of your life studying the way of the sword? Samurai Films lets travelers at the Haneda Airport tape a scene as a samurai and have it edited into a professional-looking feature. Led by movie stuntman Kenji Sato, the project allows those who partake to dress the part and battle ninjas, all documented in a short movie showcasing their swordsmanship. The entire process, including costume change, rehearsal and filming, takes 2 and a half hours and is available at the airport only on certain occasions.

    Star Wars

    This one is a no-brainer as guest are invited into Disneyworld Star Wars experience and become co-creators of their own story within the Star Wars Universe. When the Star Wars resorts open at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in 2019, the theme park will allow visitors to develop a reputation. If a visitor rides the attraction that pits the First Order vs. the Resistance, the side they pick will have ramifications throughout the park. You may be asked to do tasks for one side or the other in a bar and whether you choose to do it or not could affect your park experiences. The whole point is to immerse the viewer in Star Wars in a way they’ve never felt before. I know too many people who are chomping at the bit for this opportunity.

    Lust Experience

    Like Sleep No More on extended Viagra, the Lust Experience is an immersive theater project in which 100 participants are involved in a months-long game of conspiracy and paranoia. Each person involved in the experience has to complete various tasks, including speaking with actors on the phone, taking part in one-on-one encounters, and tracking messages while grisly murders and corrupt deals take place.

    SimuLife

    This is a new one for me and more surprising since it is created my one of my mentors, Jeff Wirth and his Interactive Play Lab. Simu-Life is four-day fictional narrative experience that plays out in real-world locations, mixing the line between reality and fantasy by letting users interact with the story as part of their daily lives. The experience is centered around one or more participants, and is supported by a full cast and crew, as well as captured on hidden cameras. I’ll need to contact Jeff to get more information about this extended experience.

    Westworld

    The remake of the Westworld movie into the HBO television series left me at a fairly satified state. However, There’s money in them dare hills thus HBO is creating a new series. To help promote this new series they contracted a UK based robotics manufacturer to pull a little stunt in a local UK pub. The glitchy robot had conversations with the unwilling patrons, asking them such questions as, “What are your thoughts on the impending humanoid robot invasion?” and “Humanoid robots are so much useful than humans, don’t you think?” I think it was a fairly effect publicity stunt.