FriscoVania 2017 - Haunted Virtual Reality Experience

On October 21st, Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX was transformed into the family-friendly Dia de los Muertos themed halloween event, FriscoVania. The event is a relatively new event to DFW, helmed by the Hunt Family, owners of local MLS team FC Dallas, and has already become a staple of the holiday calendar.

FriscoVania approached 900lbs to find away we could collaborate on a high-tech and buzz-worthy experience for their event. After initial brainstorming sessions with their team, we collectively went to work towards transforming our VR experience “Soccer Blocker” into a haunted experience – one that could be used by all ages, and provide a unique experience for the event’s trick-or-treaters.

We quickly went to work on storyboarding out the haunted transformation, starting with a new environment. We knew we wanted to place our trick-or-treaters in a spooky environment with all the typical haunted elements, like a dark corn field, fog and a creepy moonlit scene. We 3D modeled a dark and foggy corn field, a haunted house, and full moon. We added in live weather events including rain, wind, fog and lighting storm. We also added in ghostly sound effects like distant screams, wind, thunder and creepy laughter.

To provide some more haunted elements, we replaced our soccer opponent with the famous Headless Horseman, who would summon jack-o-lanterns, which would replace our soccer balls. Over the course of the experience, the Headless Horseman would steadily increase the amount of jack-o-lanterns he would hurl at you, sometimes throwing as many as 5 at a time. Your task was to keep the jack-o-lanterns from hitting you, which you could block with skeleton hands.

At the day of the event, 900lbs set up 3 separate HTC Vives inside Toyota Stadium, and saw over 300 kids experience our Haunted VR Experience.

Proceeds from Friscovania help support City House, a local shelter for Homeless Children, as a show of support to the family and friends of Kelly Whaley. 900lbs was a proud Associate Partner of the event, happily donating our time and creative resources to help such a great organization. At 900lbs, it is important for us to give back to our community organizations like FriscoVania and City House, and we hope you will join us in supporting their causes.