AR Game with Nikola Tesla: Roller Coaster for Everywhere

Link to the article in the PAGE Magazine

High tension guaranteed – the Hamburg-based digital agency Curious Company makes Europa-Park Rust’s newest attraction accessible as an inventor’s story in AR.

It’s all about electricity, levers, and motion! The world-record roller coaster “Voltron Nevera powered by Rimac” will open in a few months at Germany’s largest amusement park. Until then, a digital counterpart is set to generate attention and excitement among die-hard coaster fans worldwide – and in the most technically innovative way possible.

Together with their client – the legendary Europa-Park in Rust – the digital agency Curious Company, which specializes in immersive brand experiences, developed the AR application “Voltron ChARge” as an extension of the amusement park’s app. With it, users can gradually discover all the details and special features of the roller coaster while playfully following an interactive storyline.

Secret Experiment by Nikola Tesla

The story behind the nearly 1,400-meter-long new coaster, which boasts several records such as the steepest launch (105 degrees!), is inspired by the energy experiments of inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. The storytelling concept for the coaster in the park was created by MACK One, Europa-Park’s innovation and creative agency.

In the AR experience, this story is taken up and digitally extended as a spin-off: Nikola Tesla is on the verge of completing his greatest experiment. But he is being pursued and must secure it. This is where the users come in: they teleport Tesla’s entire experiment to their own space in order to finish it before Tesla’s pursuers catch up. Under time pressure, they must open valves, connect electrical contacts, and flip switches.

Storytelling Through Interaction

The experience design truly gets us moving. To experience the story, we have to crouch, move from left to right, and stretch. As Nikola Tesla’s assistants, we draw quite a bit of attention from passersby on Hamburg’s Spielbudenplatz – thanks also to the gripping sound design.

For the AR experience, Curious Company recreated the entire roller coaster to scale and in full detail on a two-meter experiment table. In addition to the high-quality production and seamless technical integration into the Europa-Park & Rulantica app, the focus was on the story and multi-layered immersive storytelling.

The experience is being promoted through a supporting social media activation by the Europa-Park community, which generated organic reach within the target group immediately after its release. Curious Company is already working on the further development and expansion of this long-term digital brand experience.

“We wanted true immersion – not just a view-in-AR gimmick”

explains André Hennen, Creative Director of Curious Company, and adds: “The users are not just passive viewers but become active participants and characters within the story – as part of Nikola Tesla’s team. And the whole thing is implemented using state-of-the-art technology. A true Europa-Park attraction for your own home.”

Curious Company’s current projects include the realignment of Globetrotter’s digital content strategy as well as a platform for business-to-employer communication for Siemens. Their WebGL making-of was featured in PAGE 01.24.