Speaker 1: A new type of amusement park. What's going on. I'm
Speaker 1: Richie Demurrow. This is rich On Tech, and I'm here
Speaker 1: at a place called two Bit Circus. This is opening
Speaker 1: in downtown Los Angeles. And with me is Eric Bradman.
Speaker 1: He is one of the guys responsible for this place. Eric,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker 2: My pleasure.
Speaker 3: Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: Nice to meet you as well. This is amazing.
Speaker 1: This is kind of like it's an adult amusement park,
Speaker 1: but I don't mean that in a bad way, Like
Speaker 1: it's really cool. If you grow up with something like
Speaker 1: a Chuck E cheese, this is that. Time's a thousand
Speaker 1: tasing the latest tech.
Speaker 3: When we set out to build this place, we wanted
Speaker 3: a place that would entertain us. And you know, we
Speaker 3: have friends. I have a kid, like. We want a
Speaker 3: place that can entertain us, our friends, our families. So
Speaker 3: it's not just aimed at kids. It's mostly for adults.
Speaker 3: We have a full bar, we have a full restaurant,
Speaker 3: but we also have high tech games that can entertain
Speaker 3: pretty much anybody.
Speaker 1: So you walk in, you've got bars. The lighting is
Speaker 1: really cool. It's in this spacious kind of warehouse and
Speaker 1: it's all been made to entertain and amuse adults and kids.
Speaker 2: Like you said, so kids are allowed, let's start with.
Speaker 3: That, definitely. So before nine pm, kids are definitely allowed.
Speaker 3: This entertainment is perfectly suitable for kids. But after nine
Speaker 3: pm we kick the kids out and we have a
Speaker 3: full bar and lots of other fun stuff.
Speaker 2: There's food, there's a bar, there's games. There's no rides, right,
Speaker 2: there are no rides.
Speaker 3: We do have some virtual reality with motion simulations in them,
Speaker 3: so you will feel the ground shifting beneath your feet,
Speaker 3: but we don't have any actual rides here unfortunately.
Speaker 1: And the games that you created, there's sort of these
Speaker 1: larger than life. They're fun, they're simple, they're easy, kind
Speaker 1: of pick up. They're not your typical video games per se.
Speaker 1: But there are things that you guys have actually come
Speaker 1: up with you and your partner.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple principles that have driven our design
Speaker 3: process for all these games.
Speaker 2: First of all, all of our games are social. We
Speaker 2: want people.
Speaker 3: To play together. So whether you came in a big
Speaker 3: group of people or whether you're looking to make new friends,
Speaker 3: these games draw people together and get them play together.
Speaker 3: And nothing gets people playing together better than you know,
Speaker 3: standing elbow to elbow with somebody doing the same thing.
Speaker 2: It creates new friendships. Our games are also very high tech.
Speaker 3: You know, we are inspired by old school carnival fun
Speaker 3: games that have been you know, crowd pleasers for generations.
Speaker 3: But we're living in a very special time and we
Speaker 3: have the ability to transform these games with projectors and
Speaker 3: sensors and mechatronics and robotics technology.
Speaker 2: And we do that.
Speaker 3: So we're creating these games that feel familiar but at
Speaker 3: the same time look unlike anything anyone's ever seen.
Speaker 1: Like one of the games that I played was sort
Speaker 1: of a twist on the typical bubble pop you or
Speaker 1: balloon pop you would play at any amusement park, sure,
Speaker 1: except it's a big screen. It's got these real life
Speaker 1: balls that you throw at the screen and they pop virtually.
Speaker 3: Yeah, walk into any amusement park and you'll be handed
Speaker 3: at dart and told to pop real balloons. Here, those
Speaker 3: balloons are projected on a screen, and what you're doing
Speaker 3: is you're picking up what are actually ballpit balls, colored
Speaker 3: ballpits balls, and throwing these balls at that projection screen.
Speaker 3: Sensors in the ceiling track the color ball where it hits,
Speaker 3: and if you hit a blue balloon with a red ball,
Speaker 3: you're changing the color of.
Speaker 2: The balloon on the screen. You're playing a match three game.
Speaker 3: This is a game you can play on your phone
Speaker 3: right now, but it's completely transformed by making it, you know,
Speaker 3: nine feet wide by twelve feet tall, and allowing you
Speaker 3: to play it with friends.
Speaker 2: You've got a robot bartender. Tell me about that. We do.
Speaker 3: Our robot bartender is named Guerremo del Porro and he
Speaker 3: serves a mean oil martini, also some delicious municipal champagne.
Speaker 3: And he was custom built for this place by a
Speaker 3: very talented engineer, Dan Busby, And it's just a thing
Speaker 3: of beauty. The control systems in there, the custom machining,
Speaker 3: every part of that thing was built from scratch for
Speaker 3: the sole purpose of getting people drunk.
Speaker 1: That's okay, there you go. Now this place has like
Speaker 1: a level of mystery to it. Now we're here during
Speaker 1: the day, the lights are on at night. I imagine the
Speaker 1: first time people come here, they're just going to be
Speaker 1: an amazement of kind of the larger than life properties
Speaker 1: of the things that you've built.
Speaker 2: But also wondering is are there secrets in this place.
Speaker 2: This place is chock full of secrets.
Speaker 3: You know, when people arrive here, there's too much for
Speaker 3: you to do in one night, and we believe that
Speaker 3: that's going to get people coming back again and again.
Speaker 3: When you come back again, you'll discover something that you
Speaker 3: didn't see last time. But more than that, we've filled
Speaker 3: this place with intentional mysteries, with rabbit holes that we
Speaker 3: continue to dig, a meta story, a backstory that underlies
Speaker 3: this whole place, characters who you might encounter while you're
Speaker 3: playing games, and you'll slowly come to the realization that,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, there's something going on here, there's something
Speaker 3: behind the scenes. You'll want to know more, and we
Speaker 3: hope that will keep people coming back again and again.
Speaker 1: So one thing I really liked about coming here is
Speaker 1: that there's not like a typical admission fee, Like, you
Speaker 1: don't pay a fee to come here. You come in,
Speaker 1: you pay as you go, and you play the games.
Speaker 1: You have a drink. There's also food.
Speaker 2: Yep, what what kind of food should we expect? Oh?
Speaker 3: So the food is amazing. I can say that because
Speaker 3: I have nothing to do with preparing it. It is
Speaker 3: so delicious. We call it farm to Circus. There's there's
Speaker 3: locally sourced, there's gluten free, there's also you know, all
Speaker 3: those all those options that people are really looking for.
Speaker 3: We're accommodating all of those. And it's good stuff. I
Speaker 3: have never had meatballs that weren't made with meat that
Speaker 3: tasted that good. But we also have delicious hand pies
Speaker 3: and and proper carnival food, shrimp corn dogs, shrimp corn dogs.
Speaker 2: That's insane. I love.
Speaker 1: That is insane, Okay, And tell me about some of
Speaker 1: the things that people should see when they come here.
Speaker 1: I saw, you know, just walking around, you're kind of
Speaker 1: just your your brain is drawn to the visual elements
Speaker 1: of this place.
Speaker 3: There are different zones here in Tubid Circus. We have
Speaker 3: the Carnival Midway with games we've already talked about. We
Speaker 3: also have what is probably analogous to a classic arcade,
Speaker 3: but is also full of games that we created, some
Speaker 3: very high ten alternatives. One we call Skidoo, a giant
Speaker 3: arcade game nine feet in length, thousands and thousands of pixels,
Speaker 3: really powerful computer inside playing a variety of different games
Speaker 3: developed by us and by some of our partners. We
Speaker 3: have a VR section with all manner of different VR
Speaker 3: experiences from four person shoot them ups to what's called
Speaker 3: Beat Saber, which is a very popular arcade VR title.
Speaker 3: Now to Battle Zone, which you can play in these
Speaker 3: motion platforms. Sit in a chair that's rocking, put on
Speaker 3: a VR headset, and battle it out with your friends
Speaker 3: in a tank battle. We have a walk around May's
Speaker 3: VR experience. There's a ton of different VR stuff. We
Speaker 3: also have an interactive game show theater. This is called
Speaker 3: Club zero one. It's a one hundred seat theater. You
Speaker 3: walk in, you sit at your table, and there is
Speaker 3: a touchscreen at every single table. And whether it's trivia
Speaker 3: night or a wine tasting show, you're gonna be You're
Speaker 3: gonna be entertained by a host up on stage who's
Speaker 3: running the event, but you're also part of the show.
Speaker 3: Everyone is participating during the entire show. So you may
Speaker 3: be answering trivia questions, you may be filling out little
Speaker 3: surveys about what you taste in the wine, you may
Speaker 3: be solving puzzles. But it keeps people engaged, keeps people laughing.
Speaker 3: For you know, anywhere from thirty minutes to an.
Speaker 2: Hour long show.
Speaker 1: And where we're sitting right now, this is just kind
Speaker 1: of a typical lounge area upstairs, so you can come
Speaker 1: to play, you can come to hang out with friends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a special lounge upstairs, special bar menu
Speaker 3: up here, some fancy stuff.
Speaker 2: It's a membership model. So oh, you can be a member.
Speaker 2: You can be a member, absolutely okay. And you can
Speaker 2: be a member or you can be a member.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because your partner and all this Brent yep,
Speaker 1: Brent bush Now bush Now so obviously the son of
Speaker 1: Atari founder Nolan bush Now yep.
Speaker 2: So did you know him as a kid. When did
Speaker 2: you meet? No, Brent and I met ten years ago.
Speaker 2: You met ten years ago right here in downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: We were among the co founding members of what we
Speaker 3: call a drinking club with an art problem. And we
Speaker 3: would get together with our friends every week in downtown
Speaker 3: at a bar and talk about all the crazy things
Speaker 3: we were building.
Speaker 2: We had normal jobs.
Speaker 3: I was a roboticist working on government contracts building crazy
Speaker 3: robots for the military, and he was building an interactive restaurant.
Speaker 3: And we were just looking for other creative outlets for
Speaker 3: our technoledge, and we just started collaborating on fun stuff together.
Speaker 1: Where do you see this all going two bit Circus
Speaker 1: starting in La downtown or do you see it in
Speaker 1: five ten years?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, Well, we're very excited about this location. There
Speaker 3: will be more. We're excited to expand this concept. We
Speaker 3: know that there's a huge appetite for things like this
Speaker 3: in the world. In five to ten years, I planned
Speaker 3: to be doing exactly what I'm doing right now, which
Speaker 3: is creating crazy experience with people, testing them, finding the
Speaker 3: ones that work, and just building them bigger and bigger
Speaker 3: and bigger and showing people a good time.
Speaker 2: That's what I love to do, all right.
Speaker 1: Eric DMan from two Bit Circus, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining me. If you want to see pictures or video
Speaker 1: from inside two Bit Circus, just go to my website
Speaker 1: richon tech dot tv or look for links in the
Speaker 1: show notes and.
Speaker 2: Definitely check out two bit Circus. It is opening, uh well, by.
Speaker 1: The time you listen to this, it will be open,
Speaker 1: so enjoy and maybe I'll see there.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening on rich Snamiro. I'll talk to you
Speaker 2: real soon.