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IAAPA Brass Ring Award Winners
Krazy Darts 2023
Krazy Arrowz 2025
Inflection Point for Out-of-Home Entertainment and Dining
Humans have an innate need to socialize, but too many have become zombified by the unending flow of digital distraction. The mass distraction industry (i.e. Youtube, Netflix, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, Snap, Gaming, etc.) has been a significant factor in causing people to lose their already limited desire to socialize on a regular basis.
The reality is that Covid dramatically accelerated the number of people who feel isolated and lonely. With Covid supposedly in the rear view mirror, why aren’t more people going out to socialize?
The reality is that both out-of-home entertainment and dining has failed to keep up with the tsunami of in-home entertainment and the ever expanding variety of in-home dining options.
For people to even think about leaving the comfort of their own homes, we have to be able to provide them with entertainment and dining experiences that are truly compelling and can only be experienced out of the home. If we don’t, we are going to see a continuation of the declines we have already seen for out-of-home entertainment and dining.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many out-of-home entertainment and dining venues that are designed to provide truly compelling out-of-home entertainment and dining experiences that are unique, fun, and make it super easy for people to socialize with their friends, family, and neighbors.
This is why creating and continuously improving the best Social Gaming experiences is so critical to the success of out-of-home entertainment and dining. Social Gaming is really the only thing that can make it easier and much more enjoyable for people to socialize with their friends, family, and the people who make up their communities.
Important note: The dramatic decline in people staying out late is because there are TOO MANY good enough entertainment options waiting for them at home.
If the options for out-of-home entertainment don’t get significantly better, people are just going to continue to go home early or even worse – they might go out even less.
We have to understand that for many people it’s becoming just as fun and even more relaxing to just stay home. They can order their favorite food from their favorite restaurant or even try the new one that opened up and have it delivered to their door. Plus they have a million cheap or FREE entertainment options they can enjoy while sitting on their couch in their comfy pajamas.
Growing Opportunity – People Want More REAL Face to Face Entertainment Experiences
There needs to be a reinvention of out-of-home entertainment – new types of entertainment venues that provide their guests with 5 to 6 of the very best Social Gaming experiences. Ones that enable people to play, laugh, and experience real human face to face socialization and bonding with their friends, family, and neighbors.
The type of Social Gaming experiences offered must be truly fun and super easy to play for ALL the participants. Each Social Gaming experience should have a minimum of 4 units and each one should have the ability to entertain 8 or more guests. A capacity of 32+ participants is critical when it comes to maximizing group bookings.
In addition, a great food and beverage experience must be integrated with each Social Gaming experience as well as the ability for non-participants to be a part of the overall group experience.
The best Social Gaming experiences are all about bringing friends, family, and neighbors together in the same reserved space whether everyone is playing or not. Those who are not playing should be having just as much fun watching, eating & drinking, and socializing with those who are playing.
The best Social Gaming venues are designed to attract adults who just want to relax and destress from life’s ongoing challenges – this group of adults is by far the biggest target market when it comes to generating the most recurring revenue.
Whenever possible, the best Social Gaming experiences should be capable of being played by younger kids. If we want to fill up our afternoon and dinner time slots on weekends and holidays, we have to have Social Gaming experiences that cater to the entire family. This means Billy, who is 4 years old, can play along with his older siblings, parents, and even grandparents in at least some of our Social Gaming experiences.
Gaming experiences that focus more on competition and have a high skill level variance are doomed to fail in out-of-home entertainment venues. Why? The market opportunity is way too small (even in densely populated markets).
What is the objective when it comes to creating the best Social Gaming experiences?
It’s to create fun, intuitive, and easy to play social gaming experiences that make socializing easier and more enjoyable to do for both participants and nonparticipants.
The best Social Gaming experiences are purposely designed to create lots of opportunities to communicate both verbally and non verbally. It gives participants multiple opportunities to share their stories with their friends, family, and neighbors. It’s through sharing their stories that they bond more deeply with each other.
Socializing is a human need, but that doesn’t mean they are good at it.
The most important Social Gaming experiences are the ones that make it easier and more enjoyable to meet new people or those we haven’t seen in awhile – these types of Social Gaming experiences are the holy grail for out-of-home entertainment venues.
Empty Calories
Too many existing out-of-home entertainment experiences are just empty calories. In other words, they create the same dopamine stimulus as the endless flow of in-home entertainment or the avalanche of distractions available on a person’s mobile device.
To be successful as out-of-home entertainment operators, we have to provide our guests with truly unique out-of-home only entertainment experiences. Social Gaming experiences that make it super easy for our guests to interact with their friends, family, coworkers, and the people who make up their communities.
Krazy Darts XL with all its newest updates is one of the BEST Social Gaming experiences available today!
Krazy Darts “What’s New”
- NEW Auto Scoring Recognizes Soft Juggling Balls and Steel Tipped Darts
- This enables players as young as 3 years old to play in the same game as their older siblings and parents.
- NEW Krazy Darts XL = 2x BIGGER Target Area (50x BIGGER than a standard dartboard)
- The easier our Social Gaming experiences are to play, the more our Casual Players want to play them again and again and again. To repeat, Casual Players are the biggest target market for out-of-home entertainment. If we don’t cater to them first, second, and third, we aren’t going to be in business long-term.
- NEW Lower Height Option for Krazy Darts
- Krazy Darts XL can be designed to be as low as 96 inches (8 feet tall) by removing the scoreboard at the top. The scoreboard information will be relocated to additional displays that will be visible to the player currently throwing as well as all the participants.
- NEW Floor Mounted Laser Projector
- There is no need for the operator to install unistrut to hang the projectors. Our installation team will do all the required work.
- NEW Card Swipe Game Activation
- This enables players to start playing immediately by using the soft Juggling Balls located on the stainless steel trays.
- Players can extend game play by swiping their game card at any time.
- NEW Pager Integration
- A “Request Help” button on the touchscreen display will enable guests to page a staff member for help. Once the “Request Help “ button is pressed, a menu of options pops up. For example, the options for help can be “Need Darts”, “Food and Beverage”, “Game Assistance” or “Other”.
- Pagers can also be used to notify a Staff Member when a Social Gaming experience has been activated by a swipe. This lets the Staff know the game has been activated and they can go and see if the players need any assistance.
- Pagers can also notify staff members when a group’s session time is about to run out. A Staff Member can ask if they want to play more. If not, the Staff Member can secure the darts by locking them in the cabinet.
- All the above notifications can also be tracked to see how long it takes for a Staff Member to get to the Social Gaming experience to provide assistance.
- Typical Guest Comments About Playing Krazy Darts
“Wow! We just came from Big Cedar Lodge where we got a chance to play Krazy darts. It was the most fun family outing we’ve had in a long time. We were wondering if there are any personal sales available through your company. We were not wanting to franchise this in a business. We were wanting to install one in our home. Is this currently an option?” Cody C
Important Updates on Krazy Arrowz:
We have now been operating (4) Krazy Arrowz for over 6 months at our Rochester, New York entertainment venue. Its performance operationally has been fantastic. We’ve made several tweaks and improvements and are now finalizing the details for the production model.
The costs to maintain and operate the attraction is running at 5% of the game’s total revenue and does not include any Food & Beverage sales. Food & Beverage sales typically add another 50% to 100% plus in revenue. The higher percentage for F&B happens when we have catered group events with buffets, drink tickets, etc.
Supervision is required for Krazy Arrowz, but it’s pretty easy to operate. It only takes a minute or two to show guests how to shoot an arrow and once they shoot their first three practice arrows they are ready to play.
Krazy Arrowz is definitely going to be one of the very best Social Gaming experiences. I don’t see any other Social Gaming experience being able to out perform it as a guest favorite or from a revenue generating standpoint.
Krazy Arrowz is going to be the MUST HAVE Social Gaming experience going forward.
By the way, Krazy Arrowz will also have all the same updates mentioned above for Krazy Darts.
Thanks for reading!
Jim Kessler