WEBVTT - Two Bit Circus: High Tech Games, Food and Fun 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.160 A new type of amusement park. What's going on. I'm 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.440 Richie Demurrow. This is rich On Tech, and I'm here 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.399 at a place called two Bit Circus. This is opening 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.759 in downtown Los Angeles. And with me is Eric Bradman. 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.640 He is one of the guys responsible for this place. Eric, 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:20.599 thanks so much for joining me. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:21.200 My pleasure. 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:21.880 Nice to meet you. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:24.720 Nice to meet you as well. This is amazing. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:26.920 This is kind of like it's an adult amusement park, 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.639 but I don't mean that in a bad way, Like 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.920 it's really cool. If you grow up with something like 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.279 a Chuck E cheese, this is that. Time's a thousand 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:35.960 tasing the latest tech. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.800 When we set out to build this place, we wanted 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.800 a place that would entertain us. And you know, we 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.720 have friends. I have a kid, like. We want a 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.479 place that can entertain us, our friends, our families. So 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:49.880 it's not just aimed at kids. It's mostly for adults. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.680 We have a full bar, we have a full restaurant, 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.840 but we also have high tech games that can entertain 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:55.720 pretty much anybody. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.040 So you walk in, you've got bars. The lighting is 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.800 really cool. It's in this spacious kind of warehouse and 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:06.640 it's all been made to entertain and amuse adults and kids. 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.520 Like you said, so kids are allowed, let's start with. 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.200 That, definitely. So before nine pm, kids are definitely allowed. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.640 This entertainment is perfectly suitable for kids. But after nine 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.039 pm we kick the kids out and we have a 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.080 full bar and lots of other fun stuff. 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.480 There's food, there's a bar, there's games. There's no rides, right, 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:24.480 there are no rides. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:27.680 We do have some virtual reality with motion simulations in them, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.560 so you will feel the ground shifting beneath your feet, 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.560 but we don't have any actual rides here unfortunately. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.479 And the games that you created, there's sort of these 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.040 larger than life. They're fun, they're simple, they're easy, kind 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.559 of pick up. They're not your typical video games per se. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.560 But there are things that you guys have actually come 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:44.600 up with you and your partner. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:46.959 Yeah, there's a couple principles that have driven our design 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:48.040 process for all these games. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.040 First of all, all of our games are social. We 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:52.200 want people. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.720 To play together. So whether you came in a big 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.320 group of people or whether you're looking to make new friends, 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.520 these games draw people together and get them play together. 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.920 And nothing gets people playing together better than you know, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.040 standing elbow to elbow with somebody doing the same thing. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.600 It creates new friendships. Our games are also very high tech. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.119 You know, we are inspired by old school carnival fun 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:18.000 games that have been you know, crowd pleasers for generations. 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.680 But we're living in a very special time and we 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.320 have the ability to transform these games with projectors and 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.280 sensors and mechatronics and robotics technology. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:28.440 And we do that. 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:32.359 So we're creating these games that feel familiar but at 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.040 the same time look unlike anything anyone's ever seen. 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.200 Like one of the games that I played was sort 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.400 of a twist on the typical bubble pop you or 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.680 balloon pop you would play at any amusement park, sure, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.560 except it's a big screen. It's got these real life 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.800 balls that you throw at the screen and they pop virtually. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.440 Yeah, walk into any amusement park and you'll be handed 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.400 at dart and told to pop real balloons. Here, those 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.079 balloons are projected on a screen, and what you're doing 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.840 is you're picking up what are actually ballpit balls, colored 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.200 ballpits balls, and throwing these balls at that projection screen. 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.680 Sensors in the ceiling track the color ball where it hits, 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.600 and if you hit a blue balloon with a red ball, 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:14.280 you're changing the color of. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.240 The balloon on the screen. You're playing a match three game. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:18.040 This is a game you can play on your phone 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.120 right now, but it's completely transformed by making it, you know, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.639 nine feet wide by twelve feet tall, and allowing you 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:26.400 to play it with friends. 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.080 You've got a robot bartender. Tell me about that. We do. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.760 Our robot bartender is named Guerremo del Porro and he 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.680 serves a mean oil martini, also some delicious municipal champagne. 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.440 And he was custom built for this place by a 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.800 very talented engineer, Dan Busby, And it's just a thing 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:49.320 of beauty. The control systems in there, the custom machining, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:51.520 every part of that thing was built from scratch for 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:53.840 the sole purpose of getting people drunk. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.000 That's okay, there you go. Now this place has like 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.960 a level of mystery to it. Now we're here during 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.080 the day, the lights are on at night. I imagine the 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.240 first time people come here, they're just going to be 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.920 an amazement of kind of the larger than life properties 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:10.960 of the things that you've built. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.760 But also wondering is are there secrets in this place. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:15.920 This place is chock full of secrets. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.240 You know, when people arrive here, there's too much for 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:20.960 you to do in one night, and we believe that 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.080 that's going to get people coming back again and again. 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.920 When you come back again, you'll discover something that you 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:30.240 didn't see last time. But more than that, we've filled 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.479 this place with intentional mysteries, with rabbit holes that we 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:37.040 continue to dig, a meta story, a backstory that underlies 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.320 this whole place, characters who you might encounter while you're 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.640 playing games, and you'll slowly come to the realization that, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.680 oh my gosh, there's something going on here, there's something 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:49.880 behind the scenes. You'll want to know more, and we 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.039 hope that will keep people coming back again and again. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:54.800 So one thing I really liked about coming here is 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:56.960 that there's not like a typical admission fee, Like, you 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.080 don't pay a fee to come here. You come in, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:00.719 you pay as you go, and you play the games. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.240 You have a drink. There's also food. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.760 Yep, what what kind of food should we expect? Oh? 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.280 So the food is amazing. I can say that because 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.120 I have nothing to do with preparing it. It is 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.719 so delicious. We call it farm to Circus. There's there's 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.400 locally sourced, there's gluten free, there's also you know, all 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.520 those all those options that people are really looking for. 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.320 We're accommodating all of those. And it's good stuff. I 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.839 have never had meatballs that weren't made with meat that 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.760 tasted that good. But we also have delicious hand pies 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:33.640 and and proper carnival food, shrimp corn dogs, shrimp corn dogs. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:34.720 That's insane. I love. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.040 That is insane, Okay, And tell me about some of 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.440 the things that people should see when they come here. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.560 I saw, you know, just walking around, you're kind of 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.000 just your your brain is drawn to the visual elements 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:46.760 of this place. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.200 There are different zones here in Tubid Circus. We have 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.600 the Carnival Midway with games we've already talked about. We 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.520 also have what is probably analogous to a classic arcade, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.320 but is also full of games that we created, some 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:03.000 very high ten alternatives. One we call Skidoo, a giant 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.120 arcade game nine feet in length, thousands and thousands of pixels, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:10.040 really powerful computer inside playing a variety of different games 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.760 developed by us and by some of our partners. We 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.480 have a VR section with all manner of different VR 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:19.760 experiences from four person shoot them ups to what's called 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.400 Beat Saber, which is a very popular arcade VR title. 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.080 Now to Battle Zone, which you can play in these 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.000 motion platforms. Sit in a chair that's rocking, put on 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.839 a VR headset, and battle it out with your friends 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.800 in a tank battle. We have a walk around May's 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.240 VR experience. There's a ton of different VR stuff. We 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.440 also have an interactive game show theater. This is called 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.360 Club zero one. It's a one hundred seat theater. You 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.080 walk in, you sit at your table, and there is 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.919 a touchscreen at every single table. And whether it's trivia 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.520 night or a wine tasting show, you're gonna be You're 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.680 gonna be entertained by a host up on stage who's 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.440 running the event, but you're also part of the show. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:02.720 Everyone is participating during the entire show. So you may 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.560 be answering trivia questions, you may be filling out little 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.480 surveys about what you taste in the wine, you may 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.120 be solving puzzles. But it keeps people engaged, keeps people laughing. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.520 For you know, anywhere from thirty minutes to an. 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:14.080 Hour long show. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.920 And where we're sitting right now, this is just kind 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.280 of a typical lounge area upstairs, so you can come 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.120 to play, you can come to hang out with friends. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.520 Yeah, we have a special lounge upstairs, special bar menu 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:28.280 up here, some fancy stuff. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.920 It's a membership model. So oh, you can be a member. 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.600 You can be a member, absolutely okay. And you can 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.040 be a member or you can be a member. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.240 It's interesting because your partner and all this Brent yep, 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:48.560 Brent bush Now bush Now so obviously the son of 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:50.920 Atari founder Nolan bush Now yep. 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.120 So did you know him as a kid. When did 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:55.000 you meet? No, Brent and I met ten years ago. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.720 You met ten years ago right here in downtown Los Angeles. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:58.120 Oh wow. 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.160 We were among the co founding members of what we 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:05.080 call a drinking club with an art problem. And we 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.560 would get together with our friends every week in downtown 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.320 at a bar and talk about all the crazy things 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:10.920 we were building. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.040 We had normal jobs. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.280 I was a roboticist working on government contracts building crazy 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.480 robots for the military, and he was building an interactive restaurant. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.920 And we were just looking for other creative outlets for 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.239 our technoledge, and we just started collaborating on fun stuff together. 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.640 Where do you see this all going two bit Circus 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.280 starting in La downtown or do you see it in 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:36.240 five ten years? 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.920 Oh gosh, Well, we're very excited about this location. There 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.200 will be more. We're excited to expand this concept. We 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.320 know that there's a huge appetite for things like this 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.000 in the world. In five to ten years, I planned 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:49.960 to be doing exactly what I'm doing right now, which 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.040 is creating crazy experience with people, testing them, finding the 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.320 ones that work, and just building them bigger and bigger 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:57.959 and bigger and showing people a good time. 0:08:58.000 --> 0:08:59.560 That's what I love to do, all right. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.040 Eric DMan from two Bit Circus, thanks so much for 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.160 joining me. If you want to see pictures or video 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.240 from inside two Bit Circus, just go to my website 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.200 richon tech dot tv or look for links in the 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.360 show notes and. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.960 Definitely check out two bit Circus. It is opening, uh well, by. 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:16.440 The time you listen to this, it will be open, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.480 so enjoy and maybe I'll see there. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.480 Thanks for listening on rich Snamiro. I'll talk to you 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:20.960 real soon.