Alice Davis and Tom Anstey travelled to Moscow, Russia, to check out the newest VR multiplayer attraction on the block, a start-up called Anvio. CEO Eldar Iskhakov talked them through the huge opportunities – and challenges – offered up by this next-gen entertainment model
The first Anvio VR attraction is located in Moscow and opened in May 2017
You know when you meet people who are making a career out of doing what they love? That’s the feeling you get when you meet Eldar Iskhakov and his team at Anvio, where a passion for gaming and some world-class programming skills are helping the company deliver their own vision of the latest form of out-of-home entertainment.
After less than a year in development, Iskhakov has opened the company’s first VR multi-player free-roam experience in a former warehouse in the Presnensky district of Moscow. The experience – ideally set up for four people, in this case – takes place in an 200sqm (2,150sq ft) room and lasts about 30 minutes, with a 10-15 minute pre-show and instruction session, and followed by a 5-10 minute debrief.
The game we played was a multi-level zombie shooter, City Z, set in a devastated building in post-apocalyptic Moscow. Once you complete a level, you enter a new scenario on the next storey of the building, repeating the process until you reach the roof. Each level is different – darker levels, brighter levels, levels where you walk around, levels where you shoot. Priced at 6,000 rubles per peak-time session – about £20 ($25, €23) each with four players – the experience is expensive by Russian standards, but doing well so far, nonetheless.
“We can host more than four people, but in the space we have, four people is optimum. We don’t want people running into each other. Our priority is always that this is fun for the customer. As we’re charging relatively high ticket prices, we don’t want to impede the experience,” Iskhakov says.
Immersive Anvio’s offer has been fine-tuned to provide a stimulating, exciting, immersive challenge for its audience and since the location opened in May, it’s going well and feedback has been positive. Iskhakov now wants to bring the product to other countries and is looking for partners who can help make that happen. At the time of writing, the company was close to securing a site in London.
The company has worked hard to try to set Anvio apart from the competition.The 15-strong team – most of them in their 20s and 30s – has developed an advanced free-roam platform that supports precise full-body tracking including hands, legs, head, torso and weapon – thanks to markers worn on the player’s body, which are tracked by the 30-plus cameras in the game zone. Every movement is transferred into the game so players can better inhabit their characters, able to see their arms and legs and their teammates movements in real-time.
A gamesmaster controls the experience and can adjust in-game elements according to how the players are responding. The media content has been made to be as immersive as possible, with long “views” off into the distance making the player really feel as though they’re in an expansive world. The company has also experimented with having live actors play some of the roles.
Library of games One learning curve has been gauging what level of difficulty or stimulation works best without either boring people or upsetting them. “With horror, some people will just get really freaked out. We’ve got to try to cater for everyone," he says.
A major selling point of the Anvio model is its versatility. Iskhakov says the hardest part is finding a suitable open (obstruction-free) space, but once you do, “you just need to map the canvas and you can put it up in a day”. With a team of game developers constantly working on new content, Anvio will be able to offer a library of games options which can easily be changed on-site according to the customers’ needs.
“We’re working on an India Jones-style, temple-type, Tomb Raider-type game,” says the entrepreneur. “There are caves to explore, a lost city, a lake, treasure to find and puzzles to complete. There are also environmental elements like planks to walk over, traps and labyrinths. This game will be strictly no guns, so we’ll have a grappling hook, a flashlight, items like that. We’re developing as much quality content as possible.”
There are other companies taking advantage of the gowing interest in VR, who are harnassing the technology in a similar way (see AM/1/17). The Void, a more established Utah-based firm, has recently worked with Merlin Entertainments on Ghostbusters: Dimension at Madame Tussauds in New York City. The company also just announced it is working on an immersive Star Wars experience with Disney – it indicates that the potential for this area of the industry is developing.
In terms of technology, Anvio's platform is graphically and immersively playing at the top of the league. Anvio is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve, eyeing wireless systems and next-gen 4K headsets coming down the line – though there’s no current hardware solution to run that effectively. However, the technology is only getting better, until someday virtual reality will look as crisp and clear as the real thing.
Iskhakov says: “We use the best engine and the best equipment publicly available and put a lot of effort into making it work seamlessly and look as good as possible. Moore’s law says that computing power doubles every two years. Nowadays, that’s more like every 13 months.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2017 issue 3
Interview: Wolfgang Kiessling
We talked to Wolfgang Kiessling, who set
up a small parrot park on Tenerife in the
1970s. Today, Loro Parque and Siam Park
are some of Europe’s top attractions
Promotional feature: Sysco Productions
Sysco Productions is a world-class experience delivery
company, working for global clients in the museum and
heritage, exhibition, and sports and leisure industries
I’m a non-gamer and someone who always achieves the lowest score in this kind of exercise, but once I was immersed in this new zombie battlefield reality, that didn’t matter at all. All that matters is shooting as many of the attacking zombies – each one created with its own unique look – as possible. City Z lasts a long time in comparison to other VR experiences, around 30 minutes inside your headset, so you completely lose yourself in the story and focus on achieving your aims, such as finding the generator to proceed to the next level.
I enjoyed the element of teamwork. The game is also punctuated by quieter moments where you can admire the stunning views over post-civilization Moscow or take in the clever detail of the closer surrounds inside the derelict zombie-filled tower block. It’s an intense experience where my heart rate was definitely elevated and I was literally scared of walking over a narrow bridge some 15-storeys above ground level. I certainly screamed aloud on several occasions.
FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTS
Tom Anstey
Tom AnsteyNews editorAttractions Management
Having tried several VR experiences – both as static and moving attractions – nothing has felt as immersive and complete as the offering from Anvio. In addition to the full-body tracking, the multi-level game means you feel as though you’re going on a journey, despite the fact you’re really pacing an empty room.
From balancing on pipes to mowing down hordes of the undead, City Z offers a great mix so it doesn’t feel as though you’re repeating the same process over and over.
As an avid gamer, this experience matches up to games such as Left 4 Dead and goes on to deliver much more. If each experience is as crisp as this, and if VR keeps developing at the rate it has in recent years, it won’t be long before this kind of product makes a worldwide impact.
Eldar Iskakov, CEO at Anvio, says his company's model is versatile and scalable
Anvio is working on an adventure game set in an abandoned temple
Each player is provided with a set of VR gear, including an Oculus Rift headset and tracking equipment
Each player is provided with a set of VR gear, including an Oculus Rift headset and tracking equipment
The City Z VR experience takes place inside a tower block in post-apocalyptic Moscow, Russia
COMPANY PROFILES
Simworx Ltd
The company was initially established
in 1997. Terry Monkton and Andrew
Roberts are the key stakeh [more...]
Holovis
Holovis is a privately owned company
established in 2004 by CEO Stuart
Hetherington. [more...]
Taylor Made Designs
Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
Polin Waterparks
Polin was founded in Istanbul in 1976. Polin
has since grown into a leading company in
the waterpa [more...]
Alice Davis and Tom Anstey travelled to Moscow, Russia, to check out the newest VR multiplayer attraction on the block, a start-up called Anvio. CEO Eldar Iskhakov talked them through the huge opportunities – and challenges – offered up by this next-gen entertainment model
The first Anvio VR attraction is located in Moscow and opened in May 2017
You know when you meet people who are making a career out of doing what they love? That’s the feeling you get when you meet Eldar Iskhakov and his team at Anvio, where a passion for gaming and some world-class programming skills are helping the company deliver their own vision of the latest form of out-of-home entertainment.
After less than a year in development, Iskhakov has opened the company’s first VR multi-player free-roam experience in a former warehouse in the Presnensky district of Moscow. The experience – ideally set up for four people, in this case – takes place in an 200sqm (2,150sq ft) room and lasts about 30 minutes, with a 10-15 minute pre-show and instruction session, and followed by a 5-10 minute debrief.
The game we played was a multi-level zombie shooter, City Z, set in a devastated building in post-apocalyptic Moscow. Once you complete a level, you enter a new scenario on the next storey of the building, repeating the process until you reach the roof. Each level is different – darker levels, brighter levels, levels where you walk around, levels where you shoot. Priced at 6,000 rubles per peak-time session – about £20 ($25, €23) each with four players – the experience is expensive by Russian standards, but doing well so far, nonetheless.
“We can host more than four people, but in the space we have, four people is optimum. We don’t want people running into each other. Our priority is always that this is fun for the customer. As we’re charging relatively high ticket prices, we don’t want to impede the experience,” Iskhakov says.
Immersive Anvio’s offer has been fine-tuned to provide a stimulating, exciting, immersive challenge for its audience and since the location opened in May, it’s going well and feedback has been positive. Iskhakov now wants to bring the product to other countries and is looking for partners who can help make that happen. At the time of writing, the company was close to securing a site in London.
The company has worked hard to try to set Anvio apart from the competition.The 15-strong team – most of them in their 20s and 30s – has developed an advanced free-roam platform that supports precise full-body tracking including hands, legs, head, torso and weapon – thanks to markers worn on the player’s body, which are tracked by the 30-plus cameras in the game zone. Every movement is transferred into the game so players can better inhabit their characters, able to see their arms and legs and their teammates movements in real-time.
A gamesmaster controls the experience and can adjust in-game elements according to how the players are responding. The media content has been made to be as immersive as possible, with long “views” off into the distance making the player really feel as though they’re in an expansive world. The company has also experimented with having live actors play some of the roles.
Library of games One learning curve has been gauging what level of difficulty or stimulation works best without either boring people or upsetting them. “With horror, some people will just get really freaked out. We’ve got to try to cater for everyone," he says.
A major selling point of the Anvio model is its versatility. Iskhakov says the hardest part is finding a suitable open (obstruction-free) space, but once you do, “you just need to map the canvas and you can put it up in a day”. With a team of game developers constantly working on new content, Anvio will be able to offer a library of games options which can easily be changed on-site according to the customers’ needs.
“We’re working on an India Jones-style, temple-type, Tomb Raider-type game,” says the entrepreneur. “There are caves to explore, a lost city, a lake, treasure to find and puzzles to complete. There are also environmental elements like planks to walk over, traps and labyrinths. This game will be strictly no guns, so we’ll have a grappling hook, a flashlight, items like that. We’re developing as much quality content as possible.”
There are other companies taking advantage of the gowing interest in VR, who are harnassing the technology in a similar way (see AM/1/17). The Void, a more established Utah-based firm, has recently worked with Merlin Entertainments on Ghostbusters: Dimension at Madame Tussauds in New York City. The company also just announced it is working on an immersive Star Wars experience with Disney – it indicates that the potential for this area of the industry is developing.
In terms of technology, Anvio's platform is graphically and immersively playing at the top of the league. Anvio is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve, eyeing wireless systems and next-gen 4K headsets coming down the line – though there’s no current hardware solution to run that effectively. However, the technology is only getting better, until someday virtual reality will look as crisp and clear as the real thing.
Iskhakov says: “We use the best engine and the best equipment publicly available and put a lot of effort into making it work seamlessly and look as good as possible. Moore’s law says that computing power doubles every two years. Nowadays, that’s more like every 13 months.”
Read more from this issue of Attractions Management magazine
View contents of Attractions Management 2017 issue 3
Interview: Wolfgang Kiessling
We talked to Wolfgang Kiessling, who set
up a small parrot park on Tenerife in the
1970s. Today, Loro Parque and Siam Park
are some of Europe’s top attractions
Promotional feature: Sysco Productions
Sysco Productions is a world-class experience delivery
company, working for global clients in the museum and
heritage, exhibition, and sports and leisure industries
I’m a non-gamer and someone who always achieves the lowest score in this kind of exercise, but once I was immersed in this new zombie battlefield reality, that didn’t matter at all. All that matters is shooting as many of the attacking zombies – each one created with its own unique look – as possible. City Z lasts a long time in comparison to other VR experiences, around 30 minutes inside your headset, so you completely lose yourself in the story and focus on achieving your aims, such as finding the generator to proceed to the next level.
I enjoyed the element of teamwork. The game is also punctuated by quieter moments where you can admire the stunning views over post-civilization Moscow or take in the clever detail of the closer surrounds inside the derelict zombie-filled tower block. It’s an intense experience where my heart rate was definitely elevated and I was literally scared of walking over a narrow bridge some 15-storeys above ground level. I certainly screamed aloud on several occasions.
FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTS
Tom Anstey
Tom AnsteyNews editorAttractions Management
Having tried several VR experiences – both as static and moving attractions – nothing has felt as immersive and complete as the offering from Anvio. In addition to the full-body tracking, the multi-level game means you feel as though you’re going on a journey, despite the fact you’re really pacing an empty room.
From balancing on pipes to mowing down hordes of the undead, City Z offers a great mix so it doesn’t feel as though you’re repeating the same process over and over.
As an avid gamer, this experience matches up to games such as Left 4 Dead and goes on to deliver much more. If each experience is as crisp as this, and if VR keeps developing at the rate it has in recent years, it won’t be long before this kind of product makes a worldwide impact.
Eldar Iskakov, CEO at Anvio, says his company's model is versatile and scalable
Anvio is working on an adventure game set in an abandoned temple
Each player is provided with a set of VR gear, including an Oculus Rift headset and tracking equipment
Each player is provided with a set of VR gear, including an Oculus Rift headset and tracking equipment
The City Z VR experience takes place inside a tower block in post-apocalyptic Moscow, Russia
Expo 2030 Riyadh is being planned as a permanent visitor destination, with organisers
confirming the six-million-square-metre site will become a Global Village after the event closes.
The owner of one of Australia's best-known waterparks has acquired a major competitor,
creating a new attractions business spanning two of the country's largest visitor destinations.
The Toverland theme park in the Netherlands has announced a €98m expansion programme
that will add a resort, new attractions and staff facilities as it pursues plans to become a multi-
day destination.
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
is preparing to open near the world-famous archaeological site in southern Italy.
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
+ More news
COMPANY PROFILES
Simworx Ltd The company was initially established
in 1997. Terry Monkton and Andrew
Roberts are the key stakeh [more...]
Holovis Holovis is a privately owned company
established in 2004 by CEO Stuart
Hetherington. [more...]
Taylor Made Designs Founded in 1993, Taylor Made
Designs supply corporate clothing
and brand-enhancing merchandise
to [more...]
Polin Waterparks Polin was founded in Istanbul in 1976. Polin
has since grown into a leading company in
the waterpa [more...]
