DreamCraft Attractions
DreamCraft is a close-knit family of theme park attraction originators, spatial computing tech futurists including Hololens technology development and video game pioneers. Our unmatched expertise around location-based entertainment allows us to build truly immersive AR and VR story experiences never seen before.
Recipient of: Innovative Excellence (Software or Service)
Finalist for: Technology Company of the Year (30+ Employees)
Interviewee: Dave Elton
What’s your company’s story?
DreamCraft’s origins began in late 2015, through a serendipitous meeting between two small Victoria companies: One Bit Labs and CAVU Designwerks. One Bit Labs was a small studio of veteran VR, AR and game developers formed from the remains of the Microsoft’s HoloLens studio here in Victoria. CAVU Designwerks is a creator and manufacturer of large-scale theme park dark rides, flying theaters, roller coasters and the like – and they had an interest in this new “VR” technology they’d began hearing about.
Our two companies began developing some incredible ideas for creating a theme-park-ready VR dark ride, and we immediately got to work building a prototype: a flying dragon. Five months later, DreamCraft Attractions was born, and hence began a flood of theme park industry giants through our doors. By the end of 2016, we had begun work on two signed theme park projects and had designed our own soon-to-be-patented hygienic VR headset for high volume attractions.
Who do you work with? What are some interesting projects you’re involved in?
We work with worldwide theme park clients such as Universal Studios, Lions Gate Entertainment World, Sea World Parks (Busch Gardens) and others. We work closely with some large media and VFX studios to collaborate on cinematic content creation, and we utilize motion capture and body scanning studios in Vancouver. We also work closely with the VR and AR headset providers themselves, as they work with us to integrate our hygienic headset design to their new models of hardware.
In 2018 we completed work on Busch Gardens’ Battle for Eire, a twin 59-seat motion theatre which we converted to a VR attraction, providing an industry-first throughput of up to 1000 people per hour in VR.
We are currently installing a custom 24-seat motorcycle VR ride which we designed and built from the ground up for Lionsgate Entertainment World in China.
What are you most proud of in the work that you do?
The most enjoyable moments of pride for us are to see and hear the gleeful reactions of sheer joy and excitement when our guests first experience our rides and creations. We were fortunate to be involved and on-site during the opening weeks of Battle for Eire, and it was heartwarming to hear the elated reactions of the theatre-full of guests of all ages, from 5 to 85, as many of them were experiencing a VR theme park ride for the first time. We love that we are helping to stir feelings of joy, happiness, and wonderment in people of all ages and out in the broader world beyond our little city of Victoria.
If your team had a theme song, what would it be and why?
We chose the Game of Thrones Main Theme as we’ve been inspired by the show, specifically the amazing dragon visual effects. The emotional range and deep fantasy world of the series parallels our storytelling experience ambitions.
What are some hopes and dreams for your company?
We are developing new and unique ground-breaking attraction concepts which are unlike anything we or anyone else has ever done before – our hopes are to bring these ideas and attractions to reality through funding and partnerships and then spreading them to hundreds of locations across the continent and then the world. Our bigger dream is to bring theme-park-quality larger-than-life entertainment that stimulates all the senses, the body, and emotions, out of expensive and hard-to-reach theme parks and into every home to everyday people.
Why is Victoria a great spot for your organization?
We love Victoria because it is still a much smaller city than Vancouver, without all the traffic, congestion, high costs, and big-city problems there, yet just “city” enough to provide everything we need here to succeed in our international business. We are also close enough to both Vancouver and Seattle that we can hop over to either of those quickly whenever we need to collaborate or use the services of special providers or partners there. Our high-calibre university and college, and ever-growing tech sector have helped create a vibrant community of local technologists and developers of all disciplines – and Victoria is such a beautiful city that it is an incredibly attractive destination for new hires and talent.