IMMERSIVE DESIGN & CONSULTING
Whether you're looking for:
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Decks full of ideas of exciting new ways to bring your brand into the world.
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Day one interactive and narrative design to create magical experiences for your guests.
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Consultation on how to gamify existing spaces.
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Feedback on how to alter your existing asset for even more engagement and fun.
We can help.
We love working with clients to understand their goals, budgets, and limitations, and will then dream up exciting ways that clients can captivate and delight their audience within those parameters. This can be as simple as a blue sky deck or we can work with you through every step of the process from concept to final product.
"We knew we needed a team that not only brought unmatched creativity and craftsmanship, but also good old fashioned professionalism. That’s what the Wild Optimists bring to the projects on which we continue to collaborate. We always know we’re in the best hands."”
Josh Sugarman, Area 15
AREA 15: Origin queST
Area 15 hired the Wild Optimists to design all of the puzzle and gaming interactions for their Origin Quest.
This self guided experience is part escape room, part scavenger hunt. Led by communications on their phone from the Multiverse Maintenance Crew, questers travel throughout the building to find and solve puzzling locations.
Each answer reveals a bit more of the narrative, cluing players in on the mysterious past of the building and how Area 15 came to be.
“Clue: A Walking Experience is easily the most wonderfully fun experience I’ve done in a long time. Key to my enjoyment is The Wild Optimist’ fantastic puzzle design…For the first time ever, a game of Clue is an actual mystery requiring real detective work.”
Patrick B. McLean, No Proscenium
CLUE: A WALKING MYSTERY EXPERIENCE
Wild Optimists worked with Hasbro and Right Angle to bring the game of Clue to life on the streets of Chicago! Players step into the roles of the descendents of the colorful suspects. After being greeted by the butler, they are sent on a journey to solve the cold case of Boddy Black's murder by finding furniture from the iconic Tudor mansion, which has been auctioned off to local businesses.
This completely unique spin on a beloved game brings together the best elements of a walking tour, an escape room, and a true crime podcast, allowing players to take on the roles of detectives and use their powers of deduction to solve the crime. Best of all, the self guided, discovery nature of the tour allows a low staff count to service a high number of guests.
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ELECTRIC FOREST MUSIC FESTIVAL
PUZZLE QUEST: 2019-2025
Every June 50,000 people gather in Rothbury Michigan for the Electric Forest Music Festival.
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For four days, guests are immersed in every kind of art, including music, paintings sculpture, performances, and puzzles.
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The Time Travel Agency, Electric Forest's official Puzzle Quest has grown from a bonus for enthusiasts, with 7000 people playing in 2019, into a Hero’s Quest that is one of the Festival’s premiere offerings, with 25,000 people playing in 2024.
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"Nobody comes close to the artistry, flair and ingenuity that Ariel and Juliana bring to every project. Having worked with them on large scale TV-focused projects and smaller scale personal ones, it’s immediately apparent from the very beginning of working together why they are the best in the business."
Bryan Seabury, EVP CBS Studios
“Ariel and Juliana are a super creative team and thoughtful designers. I’m always excited to see what they come up with and can’t wait to play their next game!”
Brian Yu, Mattel
GAYLORD TEXAS:
DC's UNIVERSE OF LIGHT
The Gaylord hotel partnered with DC Comics to bring super hero powered delight to their guests. The Wild Optimists were brought in to design the interactives for a comic book quest that makes the guests into the heroes.
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For DC's Universe of Light, we worked with the Gaylord Hotels and design firm Brian Morrow Productions to understand the full scope of the project. We wove puzzling elements throughout the space, utilizing lanterns, screens, and set decorations to create a custom adventure quest.
Players received a thrilling DC comic that guided them through the quest, directing their attention to the necessary clues and keeping the audience flowing constantly through the experience.
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For the Universe of Light Atrium Activations, we created the Riddler’s Revenge: A series of rhyming riddles that directed players to cryptic objects.
Once they figured out the correct object, they solved a puzzle themed to each superhero being held captive by the Riddler! Only by solving all the puzzles could players transmit the necessary information to the Justice League and free the captured heroes!
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"“It has been our great pleasure to work with the clever folks at Wild Optimists. We are always amazed at the joy, surprise and success of their creative concepts that liven up our attractions in new, imaginative ways for our guests. Wild Optimists are the best kind of optimists!""
Charlotte Huggins, CEO, Miziker Entertainment
GAYLORD HOTELS:
SO MUCH CHRISTMAS
The Gaylord Hotels are known for their stunning atriums and epic “So Much Christmas” Celebrations. They hired the Wild Optimists to up the fun on their Christmas Scavenger Hunts.
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We created two different hunts to meet the different needs of two different properties. One hunt is almost purely visual and aimed at a younger audience, with engaging puzzles on brightly colored standees scattered throughout the atrium. The second is more hands-on, designed for slightly older kids, with interactive challenges like spinning gears and measuring whimsical toys.
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Both adventures are wrapped in a charming holiday storyline that invites families to join in the Christmas magic. And as a festive finale, every young explorer who completes the hunt is rewarded with an adorable keepsake plushy!
"The perfect collaborators for game play and immersive storytelling."
Justin Fix, JFI
TRAITORS: LIVE EXPERIENCE
Peacock wanted to give diehard fans and curious souls a chance to step into their hit television show The Traitors. They hired immersive magic makers JFI Productions to bring the fun filled murder mystery to life. JFI created a stunning set populated with fantastic actors, and brought in the Wild Optimists to assist with the overall gameplay as well as specific challenge creation.
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The Wild Optimists collaborated to craft a series of original challenges that captured the intrigue, strategy, and suspense of the show—while also arming players with just enough intel to raise the stakes in the final, cutthroat deliberation room. They conducted testing of the experience in advance of the final buildout, allowing the creative team to make necessary tweaks and changes to the overall arc of the show.
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The Traitors Live Experience went on to be a smashing success, selling out quickly and receiving high praise from those lucky enough to nab a ticket.
“Working with The Wild Optimists was like finding the key to unlocking the mysteries of great collaboration. But, it’s no secret, Juliana and Ariel are just the best at what they do. Great listeners, brilliant creators and beyond fun to work with."
Chris Grap, Mall of America
MALL OF AMERICA: MYSTERY COVE
Mystery Cove is an ambitious new waterpark coming soon from the Mall of America. We worked with them to design an overarching narrative for the park that included mysteries down every slide. The goal was to improve the guest experience in 3 main areas:
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•Queue Games - We turned the most boring part of any theme park into its own delightful experience with a variety of games and quests.
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•Mini Games - All of the zones in Mystery Cove are alive with surprises! We designed stand alone interactions that were their own reward.
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•Mystery Quests - Mystery Cove is so much more than the slides. Guests can choose to spend their day immersed in epic quests, meeting characters, discovering hidden lore, completing challenges, and decoding cryptic clues.
"Talented, Professional, and always open to innovation, the Wild Optimist are a great team to look at for interactive elements in both events and products."
Ivan Van Norman, Critical Role, Hunters Entertainment
DTLA PROUD & WEEDMAPS
HISTORY PUZZLE QUEST
How to you make DTLA pride even more fun?? With puzzles about cannabis!
Weedmaps hired the Wild Optimists to take their DTLA booth to the next level, increasing customer engagement and brand ambassadorship. Rather than simply being handed a piece of merch, players had to earn it by solving puzzles throughout the festival.
The quest featured cryptic rainbow pennants, a photo booth hiding a smoky secret, and a perfectly instagram-able pool full of giant inflatable joints. After solving each puzzle, players received not only their unique prize, but a keepsake postcard illuminating the intersecting history of the cannabis movement and the gay rights movement.
"We know that everyone, especially families, are looking for safe and fun activities, and we are lucky to have puzzle masters like the Wild Optimists and an open-air space to make it happen!"
Negin Singh, Santa Monica Pier
santa monica pier
secret story tours
For their 110th anniversary, the Pier wanted to do something unique and memorable to celebrate their history.
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They hired us to create an official historical tour as a puzzle quest. So we created a custom app that showcases the history of the pier in a safe and socially distanced way.
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Rather than lecturing players about history, it comes alive in their hands, inviting them to discover the mysteries lying just beneath the surface. A tiered hint system means the tour is fun and accessible for both novice players and experienced puzzlers.
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Finally, it provides unique opportunities to hold history in your hands, and then take an exclusive photo to share with the world.
"Ariel and Juliana are two of the most thoughtful and versatile creatives I have had the pleasure of working with. Their expertise and deep knowledge of the game world make them invaluable to any project, big or small.”
Tommy Honton, Stash House, Museum of Selfies
LOST LANDS MUSIC FESTIVAL
PUZZLE QUEST
Lost Lands was already a well established festival beloved for their iconic DJs and giant animatronic dinosaurs. In 2021, they wanted to make it even more interactive and immersive, and brought in the Wild Optimists to create a puzzle quest throughout the Forsaken Forest.
The quest was playable at any time so that it could be enjoyed between sets. The puzzles were designed in such a way so that multiple people could all play them at the same time, ensuring there wouldn’t be any annoying bottlenecks. The puzzles were scattered throughout the forest, inviting players to peer into bird’s nests, study dinosaur patterns, and look for some very unusual foliage. It all culminated in a giant dinosaur nest, where questers needed to find the exact right egg and use it to open a mysterious boulder, revealing the end of the story and their keepsake prize!
“Loved working with Juliana & Ariel. They created a magical experience for our Anti-Gala. It got attendees making new friends and playing together in a matter of seconds. Can’t wait to find more things to build together."
Brent Bushnell, Two Bit Circus
TWO BIT CIRCUS
GALA GAME
Two Bit Circus hosted a 500+ person gala to raise money for their amusement park.
The challenge we were presented with was how to make dinner fun and get the energy up before the auction so people would be more willing to spend.
Our answer: A puzzle quest that was ”discovered” after the salad plate was removed and revealed that the centerpiece was actually a machine you needed to build (by solving puzzles.) Once solved, it spit out gold coins that could be used to purchase a prize.
This event included video games, circus performers and a cocktail making robot, but on a poll of the biggest donors after the event our game was cited as the most fun of the evening.
