Activate Gaming Interview: Where Gaming Gets Physical

Play Activate: At Activate, we’ve designed our games to be as engaging for your body as they are for your mind while making them a ton of fun. Many of our challenges require continuous movement—running, jumping, dodging, and reaching—which can elevate your heart rate in the same way traditional cardio exercises do.

What sets Activate apart is the added mental stimulation. You’re not just playing; you’re solving puzzles, collaborating with teammates, and engaging in a dynamic, tech-driven environment. This combination of physical and cognitive effort can make the workout feel more like play, which is why so many of our players come back again and again.

Many guests tell us they get more steps in during an hour of gameplay than they do at the gym!

Play Activate: My wife, Megan, and I were first introduced to the entertainment industry after experiencing an escape room. There weren’t a lot of entertainment options where we lived. We took the lessons from that experience and developed one of the most successful escape rooms in Western Canada.

While running that company, we also saw a gap in the market for interactive entertainment that encourages replayability. Inspired by this need, we embarked on a mission to merge the thrill of video games with physical activity. This led to the development of Activate. Our aim wasn’t just to redefine entertainment, but to create an experience that promotes social interaction, health, and fun.

One of the most exciting aspects of Activate is that it allows for constant innovation. Being an inventor at heart, I find it a platform to keep developing new content and share it globally.

Play Activate: While gaming consoles introduced a generation to motion-based gaming, they lacked the immersive and communal aspects that Activate offers. Today, the focus of gaming has shifted towards online and mobile platforms, which often isolate players.

Activate fills this void by offering a shared, interactive experience in physical locations. Unlike at-home gaming, Activate’s games are designed to foster social connections and collaboration. The real-time feedback and advanced technology also create an unparalleled level of immersion that home gaming systems cannot replicate. You can also challenge your friends at different locations and monitor their scores even if they’re on the other side of the world.

Play Activate: Activate is designed to cater to various fitness levels ensuring that everyone can enjoy the experience. Our games are designed with this in mind. When you choose a game, you can pick your level. The levels range from one (easy) to ten (extreme).

Many of our games focus more on strategy and problem-solving than physical endurance. We also offer cooperative modes that emphasize teamwork over physical activity, ensuring everyone can participate and enjoy the experience. For those who enjoy competition, our games also feature competitive modes for an extra challenge.

Activate is all about creating an engaging and inclusive environment where everyone can immerse themselves in the fun.

Play Activate: Activate’s unique blend of real-time technology, physical interactivity, and gamification sets it apart from other gaming facilities. Unlike traditional VR or AR setups, Activate uses RFID wristbands to track progress, unlock rewards, earn badges, and create a personalized gaming journey.

The games are replayable, with frequent updates and new challenges ensuring fresh experiences for returning players. Additionally, the focus on physical activity and teamwork distinguishes Activate from competitors, offering an engaging alternative to passive entertainment.

Our game rooms are proudly designed and manufactured in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, giving us unparalleled control over quality and innovation. By keeping everything in-house, we maintain rigorous quality standards at every step—from concept to production—ensuring product excellence and consistency across all locations.

If we need to make a change, we simply walk 10 feet to our manufacturing plant and implement it immediately. Should a game experience a minor issue, our tech support team can resolve it directly through our systems—no lengthy downtime or waiting weeks for a technician.

When it’s time to introduce a new game or mode, our advanced technology enables us to roll it out globally at the push of a button, delivering updates to every location in seconds. This hands-on, in-house approach allows us to stay ahead of the curve while delivering a seamless, top-tier experience to our players.

Play Activate: Activate’s games are designed with scalability, allowing players to select difficulty levels. This ensures accessibility for beginners while providing a challenge for experienced players. For example, families can enjoy entry-level games focusing on fun, while competitive groups can push their limits with advanced levels. The design considers players’ physical and cognitive abilities, making it an inclusive experience for all ages 6+ and skill levels.

Play Activate: Player feedback isn’t just important—it’s the cornerstone of our development process. We actively engage with our community through surveys, focus groups, and in-depth analysis of in-game data to uncover areas for improvement and spark ideas for new game concepts. This feedback has directly led to enhancements in-game mechanics, smarter difficulty scaling, and the creation of fan-favorite features like competitive modes.

By listening to our players, we ensure that every game remains dynamic, engaging, and relevant. At Activate, our players are more than participants—they’re partners in shaping the future of immersive gaming.

Play Activate: Activate is deeply committed to innovation. We constantly integrate advanced technologies to elevate the gaming experience. We’re continually exploring new gamification elements and cutting-edge ways to enhance the tech in our rooms.
On the backend, we are working on enhancing tech support systems, allowing for self-diagnosis and issue resolution without players missing a beat.

As we move into different countries around the world, we have been adapting our gameplay for different languages paying attention to cultural considerations, and ensuring that our gaming experiences resonate while maintaining the core elements that make Activate unique.

Play Activate: While these technologies are still evolving, they hold enormous potential to deepen the level of engagement and interactivity in gaming. At Activate, we believe the future lies in blending physical activity with advanced technology to create experiences that are not only entertaining but also social, physically engaging, and mentally stimulating.

Play Activate: As a leader in active gaming, the company plans to continue expanding globally while continuously innovating to appeal to new audiences. By promoting health and social interaction, Activate positions itself as a counterbalance to the passive nature of traditional gaming media.

Play Activate: Each room is equipped with a network of sensors, cameras, and custom hardware that track player movements and actions with precision. These inputs are processed through our proprietary software, which ensures instant responses and dynamic adjustments based on gameplay. The system is designed for split-second accuracy, creating a fluid, uninterrupted experience.

We also leverage RFID technology to personalize the experience for each player. This allows our system to track progress, win rewards, and unlock achievements in real time, ensuring that every session feels unique and tailored.
On the backend, our centralized tech infrastructure monitors all rooms across locations. It performs real-time diagnostics. This ensures that our games run smoothly while maintaining a high standard of reliability and performance.

By combining state-of-the-art hardware, intelligent software, and real-time data processing, Activate delivers an unparalleled level of interactivity and innovation in active gaming.

Play Activate: The hardware includes motion-sensing cameras, infrared detectors, touch-activated LED buttons, and LiDAR systems for precise tracking. These sensors enable the games to adapt instantly to player movements, creating a fluid and interactive experience.

Play Activate: Creating seamless real-time challenges with adjustable difficulty levels required overcoming several technical and design hurdles. One major challenge was developing a system capable of processing player inputs instantly. With multiple players interacting simultaneously, it was critical to ensure that sensors, cameras, and our custom software could accurately track and respond in real time without lag.

This required extensive testing and optimization to ensure every action—whether a tap, jump or throw—was registered and reflected immediately in the game. Another challenge was balancing difficulty levels to cater to a wide range of players. Designing games that are equally engaging for beginners, casual players, and hardcore gamers meant creating intelligent systems that adjust complexity dynamically.

This involved significant time in prototyping and gathering player feedback to refine difficulty scaling without sacrificing the fun or challenge for any group. These challenges pushed us to innovate and refine our technology and design processes, resulting in the dynamic and inclusive gaming experiences that define Activate today.

Play Activate: At Activate, player safety and the integrity of our game rooms are our top priorities. The waiver players sign is designed to ensure they understand the physical nature of our games and acknowledge any potential risks associated with active play. It’s a standard procedure meant to protect both the players and the company.

While we take every precaution to minimize risks through our safety guidelines and monitoring, the waiver helps clarify that players are participating at their own risk. This ensures that players are aware of the physical activity involved. We provide clear instructions, safety measures, and support to reduce any potential hazards.

As for damages to the game rooms, we take great care to ensure the technology and equipment are durable and built to withstand the energy of active play. Our team works hard to design rooms that can handle the demands of active gaming. The games are checked and tested daily to ensure our strict safety standards are met and exceeded.

Ultimately, our goal is to create a fun and safe environment where everyone can enjoy the excitement of active gaming without concern.