Chicago entrepreneur Jeremie Bacon has launched a new gaming company that looks to take the escape room concept digital.
Earlier this year Bacon, along with his son Alex, a sophomore at the University of Illinois, launched Konverg Entertainment, a gaming business that's creating online escape rooms that can be played by teams.
The game, called Operation Mindfall Remote, can be played by teams of 2 to several hundred, where players are playing in real-time by sharing clues, deciphering information and solving puzzles---all while competing from the comfort of their own homes.
Bacon is starting by selling the game to local Chicago companies, who are using it as a team-building activity during the new work from home era ushered in by Covid-19, he said.
Bacon, a serial entrepreneur who's currently the CEO of Imagineer Technology Group, the co-founder of outdoor adventure park The Forge, and the previous co-founder of Synap Software Labs, said he saw an opportunity to bring digital escape rooms to companies in need of team bonding actives beyond Zoom happy hours. The game officially went live earlier this month and more than a dozen teams have so far played the game.
His company is also developing an augmented reality version that allows teams to play the escape room games out in the real world.
"I have this sort of unhealthy fascination with augmented reality and mixed reality," Bacon said. "The merging of the physical and digital is really going to change the way we do a lot of things."
Bacon said he plans to sell the AR version to tour operators, restaurant groups (who could use it as a way to engage diners as they wait for their table) and traditional escape rooms that want to introduce an online component. The technology is built on an augmented reality gaming platform Bacon licensed from a company in Germany.
He's also using the AR feature at The Forge, a massive outdoor adventure park in Lemont he co-founded with fellow Chicago entrepreneur Chris Gladwin. The Forge will have AR scavenger hunts and other activities that are unique to the park, Bacon said.
