We must begin with a disclaimer: though I (and my six traveling companions) did purchase tickets to Evermore’s pre-opening party, we received notice after we were already en route that our tickets would be comped because we were traveling from out of town to an event that was not going to be finished to the extent that they were aiming for. I don’t believe this substantially affected my take away from the experience, but here’s your permission to call me a miserable shill. Go nuts.
There’s never been anything quite like what Evermore promises to be, but there have been a lot of steps on the road to get here.
Created by a team of artists, designers, and performers led by THE VOID co-founder Ken Bretschneider, the park takes the VR-purveyor’s commitment to immersive design and brings it outside of the virtual space and into the physical. A roughly ten acre theme park (#notathemepark), but one without rides, queues, or hamburger stands. Instead, you have a vaguely Tolkienesque fantasy setting with one foot grounded in immersive theatre , and — in theory — one foot grounded in some level of live action roleplaying (#pleasedontsayLARP). Its closest parallels would be found in Legends of Frontierland and Ghost Town Alive, immersive games created for Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm respectively. The biggest difference, though, is that those experiences were grafted onto theme park areas that have existed for decades. Evermore is being built from the ground up specifically to facilitate this type of interactive play. It’s a new evolution of the themed entertainment space, and that in and of itself is incredibly exciting.
But it’s not finished yet. In fact, it’s not really even close.
Continue reading the full article at No Proscenium.
David Daut 