MONOPOLY LIFESIZED

About

Based on the popular game, four teams entered a gigantic, whacky looking Monopoly board, roll the dice and advance to a property. To buy it, they opened the door into a small immersive set (themed around the property name) and played a mini escape room style game. If they won, they got the deeds. Complete with jail, free parking, chance and building hotels, all the classic tropes of Monopoly were here - but Lifesized!

The System

Powering the mini-games

The show ran as a timed piece, yet there were interactions that needed to both run independently of and take cues from the timecode. Our show control system, COGS, automated & oversaw all the physical electronic games which could be played at at time and in any order, triggering any sound and lighting effects required. It also handled all of the screen content.

Our technical team worked out all the game mechanics for each puzzle, suggesting the appropriate sensors, integrating them into the props & set as well as testing them thoroughly. They were often asked to draw on our experience in escape room design & creation to interrogate the puzzle logic and make sure the games would be satisfying to play.

Interesting challenges included creating a model train set that could sense where the train was (and reset itself), building versions of “Dance, Dance Revolution” & “Guitar Hero” from scratch and a exercise bike that controlled the speed of footage of cycling through London streets.

Operator Aids

Our dev team not only programmed all the custom content for any touchscreen mini games, but also created custom dashboards with dynamic CCTV feeds so a skeleton crew of operators could oversee the show. They also developed an interface with the score keeping and game tracking application in order to present the final scores at the end on large LED screens.

Cost Saving Upgrade

Originally, each board ran with 4 actors plus 3 tech crew. Working with The Path, we revamped the boards with more automation so the games could run on 2 actors and only 1 tech crew, without compromising on gameplay quality.

Saudi Version

A version of this system was exported and installed by our team when the show was opened in Riyadh, KSA.

Touring Version

For the USA touring version we had to reinvent the way the system was designed in order for it to move effectively. The way the tech was integrated was revamped into modular packages and the show control racks/cabling were redesigned to become effectively “plug and play”. As far as we know, it was the first modern immersive theatre show to go on tour.