Events
Deep Ellum's entertainment offerings continue to reshape and change the district, and one new experience from the United Kingdom will bring the storied Dallas neighborhood into the age of the touchscreen.
By Danny Gallagher
September 13, 2022
Players compete in a round of Angry Birds at Immersive Gamebox, an interactive game attraction headed to Deep Ellum this year.Courtesy of Immersive Gamebox
We have a favor to ask
We're in the midst of our summer membership campaign, and we have until August 25 to raise $5,500. Your contributions are an investment in our election coverage – they help sustain our newsroom, help us plan, and could lead to an increase in freelance writers or photographers. If you value our work, please make a contribution today to help us reach our goal.
Progress to goal
$5,500
$4,400
Audio By Carbonatix
`,`
Related
- Fort Worth Actress Shelley Duvall Dead at 75
`,`
Related
- A New View for the Dallas Contemporary: Lucia Simek Steps Up as Interim Director
`,`
Related
- Bad Dads? Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown Evicts Hundreds of Gay Partiers
`,`
Related
- Dallas Journalist Paul Salfen Goes All In With a New Book on the Stars
`,`
Related
- A 'Butterfly Stop' Art Installation Takes Center Stage at Frisco’s New Kaleidoscope Park
`,`
Related
- Six Flags Over Texas Opens Two New Family Rides This Weekend
`,`
Related
- How The Team Behind Texas Documentary Water Wars Crafted an Award-Winning Movie
`,`
Related
- Arlington Author Shaun Hamill Brings Broken Magic in Dissonance
`,`
Related
- Balancing the Books: Author Sanderia Faye Is Quietly Building Dallas' Literary Community
` ];
Deep Ellum's entertainment offerings continue to reshape and change the district, and one new experience from the United Kingdom will bring the storied Dallas neighborhood into the age of the touchscreen.
Immersive Gamebox, an interactive game experience that opened its first U.S. location two years ago in The Colony, announced it will be coming to Deep Ellum by the end of the year, according to the company's website.
The new location will open at 2525 Elm St. in The Hamilton at The Epic building sometime "before the December holidays," says Nettie Davis, the North America vice president of Immersive Gamebox.
The immersive entertainment venue originally known as Electric Gamebox puts groups of players in a four-walled room with projectors displaying interactive games that can track players' hand and body movements. Rooms can be booked by groups or individuals in a series of competitive and cooperative games that challenge their skills, such as puzzles, for points to compete against other teams on a running leaderboard.
Immersive Gamebox offers 11 interactive games for players of all ages and ranging from 30 minutes to an hour. They include games developed by the company's in-house game studios such as the intergalactic game show Trivia Mashup, the resource management game Ticket to Mars, the sci-fi '80s throwback Alien Aptitude Test and the fast-action adventure game Temple of Coins.
Recently, Immersive Gamebox has teamed up with outside studios to develop interactive games based on popular franchises such as the Aardman stop-motion animation studio's Shaun the Sheep, Rovio's hit mobile series Angry Birds and Netflix's wildly popular Squid Game.
The U.S.- and U.K.-based interactive game experience chain currently has seven location across England and at least one location in each of seven U.S. states, including Texas. Davis says Immersive Gamebox chose to open a new franchise in Deep Ellum because it's an area for socialization and has a deeply-rooted community.
"Our product is about being social and bringing people together — just like live music and art brings people together and acts as a backdrop for socialization," Davis says. "We see ourselves as fitting in with the diverse culture of Deep Ellum and being part of its revitalization as the neighborhood continues to evolve and recover from the pandemic."
Plenty of residents have voiced concerns online that the demographics and atmosphere of Deep Ellum has been gentrified as new venues move into the neighborhood, especially in the wake of places like Wits End being moved out by the building's developerWestdale Property Management.
Davis says Immersive Gamebox took great care in choosing a location that fit with its aesthetic and services in the Deep Ellum community.
"Deep Ellum has always been synonymous with entertainment for Dallas, and we see ourselves as the cutting edge of what entertainment is," Davis says. "The space is situated in what is an up-and-coming area and we hope to be part of the charge here alongside other new and innovative brands and local staples."
The Deep Ellum location could be one of three Immersive Gamebox franchises in DFW. The first location opened in 2020 in the Grandscape shopping and entertainment district in The Colony. The third possible location is The Galleria Mall in Dallas, which the company's website says is scheduled to open some time in 2023.
click to enlarge
A group of players work together to complete puzzles and skill challenges in Alien Aptitude Test, one of 11 games at the interactive game experience Immersive Gamebox.
Courtesy of Immersive Gamebox
') let lineHeight = jQuery('[line-height-check]').get(0).clientHeight; jQuery('[line-height-check]').remove() if (jQuery(element).prop('tagName').match(/HIDDEN/i) !== null) { jQuery(element).children('div').last().css({ marginBottom: `${lineHeight*2}px` }); } else { jQuery(element).css({ marginTop: `${lineHeight*2}px`, marginBottom: `${lineHeight}px` }); } // const insertionBlockClass = `fdn-paragraph-insertion-block`; const styleElementHook = `fdn-paragraph-insertion-styles`; jQuery(element).addClass(insertionBlockClass); if (jQuery(`[${styleElementHook}]`).length === 0) { jQuery('div.fdn-content-body, div #storyBody').append('
') const paragraphLineHeight = jQuery('[line-height-check]').get(0).clientHeight; jQuery('[line-height-check]').remove() const styleElement = jQuery(`
`); const styleText = ` div.fdn-content-body br+.${insertionBlockClass}:not([hidden]), div #storyBody br+.${insertionBlockClass}:not([hidden]) { margin-top: ${paragraphLineHeight*2}px; margin-bottom: ${paragraphLineHeight}px; } div.fdn-content-body br+.${insertionBlockClass}[hidden] > div:last-of-type, div #storyBody br+.${insertionBlockClass}[hidden] > div:last-of-type { margin-bottom: ${paragraphLineHeight*2}px; } ` styleElement.text(styleText); jQuery('head').append(styleElement); } // } } jQuery(element).insertBefore(this.paragraphEndNodes[index]); } else { console.warn('Foundation.ParagraphTool.insertElemenAt: invalid insertion index', index); } } this.insertElemenAtEnd = function (element) { if (this.paragraphEndNodes.length) { let lastNode = this.getNodeAtIndex(this.paragraphEndNodes.length -1); if (this.isDoubleBrParagraphBreak(lastNode) || this.isBrParagraphBreakBeforeBlockElement(lastNode)) { if (jQuery(element).get(0).tagName.match(/SCRIPT/i) !== null) { jQuery('
').insertAfter(this.paragraphEndNodes[index]); jQuery('
').insertAfter(this.paragraphEndNodes[index]); } else { jQuery('div.fdn-content-body, div #storyBody').append('
') let lineHeight = jQuery('[line-height-check]').get(0).clientHeight; jQuery('[line-height-check]').remove() if (jQuery(element).prop('tagName').match(/HIDDEN/i) !== null) { jQuery(element).children('div').last().css({ marginBottom: `${lineHeight*2}px` }); } else { jQuery(element).css({ marginTop: `${lineHeight*2}px`, marginBottom: `${lineHeight}px` }); } } } } this.bodyContainer.append(element); } this.getNodeAtIndex = function (index) { return this.paragraphEndNodes[index]; } }
`); } var paragraphCount = myParagraphTool.getParagraphEndNodeCount(); // No need to insert if there aren't enough paragaphs if (paragraphCount >= parseInt(item.requiredCountToDisplay)) { // Matches specific paragraph insertion indexes if (item.insertPoint.match(/^\d+$/) !== null) { var insertIndex = parseInt(item.insertPoint) - 1; // Insert within content if (insertIndex < paragraphCount) { myParagraphTool.insertElemenAtIndex(componentElement, insertIndex); } // Append to the end if the insert point is beyond the paragraph count else { myParagraphTool.insertElemenAtEnd(componentElement) } } // Matches for 1/2, 1/4, 2/3, 5/6, etc else if (item.insertPoint.match(/^[1223456]\/[23456]$/) !== null) { var fractionMatch = new RegExp(/^([123456])(?:\/)([23456]$)/); var fractionPart = parseInt(item.insertPoint.match(fractionMatch)[1]); var fractionWhole = parseInt(item.insertPoint.match(fractionMatch)[2]); var fractionValue = fractionPart / fractionWhole; var fractionIndex = Math.floor(myParagraphTool.paragraphEndNodes.length * fractionValue) - 1; myParagraphTool.insertElemenAtIndex(componentElement, fractionIndex); } // Matches for every Nth insertion point else if (item.insertPoint.match(/^\d*th$/i) !== null) { var intervalIndex = parseInt(item.insertPoint.match(/^(\d*)th$/i)[1]); var startingIndex = parseInt(item.startingPoint) - 1; var insertionMax = parseInt(item.maxInsertions) || 100; var insertionCount = 0; for (var i = startingIndex; i < myParagraphTool.paragraphEndNodes.length && insertionCount < insertionMax; i++) { if ((i - startingIndex) % intervalIndex === 0) { let currentNode = myParagraphTool.getNodeAtIndex(i); const clonedComponent = componentElement.clone(); myParagraphTool.insertElemenAtIndex(clonedComponent, i); insertionCount++; } } } } }); Foundation.Content['14793182'].setupInlineComponents = function () { return true; }; if (typeof callback === 'function') { callback(); } }, 200); } Foundation.Content['14793182'].previewInsertionPoints = function () { var myParagraphTool = Foundation.Content['14793182'].paragraphTool myParagraphTool.paragraphEndNodes.each((index, item) => { const insertionPointPlaceholder = jQuery(`
`) myParagraphTool.insertElemenAtIndex(insertionPointPlaceholder, index); }); return 'Paragraph insertion placeholders applied.'; }
