ValoArena at SuperPark Vantaa

SuperPark represents 13 parks and counting and describes itself as “Humbly Finnish, Proudly Global”. “We’re trying to make people move,” is a verbatim quote from both of the SuperPark team members who shared their perspectives on the first ValoArena installation. “The idea is to take people away from their devices and bring them to an environment that is so positive, so filled with joy and fun things to do that they don't even realize they are exercising,” beamed Kirsi Ojakoski, head of SuperPark’s 8 Finnish locations. What better testing ground than for the first-ever installation of Valo Motion’s extremely physical and decidedly upbeat multiplayer Mixed Reality Playground, ValoArena?

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Valo Motion and SuperPark have forged a unique relationship, with the SuperPark Vantaa location serving as the first public testing ground for each of Valo Motion’s major game offerings to date. It’s an arrangement that requires wide-open communication between SuperPark’s onsite employees and Valo Motion developers and engineers. With Mika Jimenez’s micro-focus on the Vantaa SuperPark and Kirsi Ojakoski’s macro focus on all of SuperPark’s Finnish locations, these two venue employees' observations and feedback are illuminating and invaluable.

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"With ValoArena, they forget they’re moving, because they’re playing." – Mika Jimenez

Why did you choose Valo Motion?

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When asked about SuperPark’s objectives and business model, Kirsi and Mika’s responses mirror each other’s. “Kids nowadays don't do anything besides their phones and computers and PlayStation and so on,” Mika says, perfectly paraphrasing the preface Kirsi gave when asked the same question. They both separately agree that SuperPark aims to help people have so much fun that they “don’t even realize” as Kirsi puts it, or in Mika’s words, “forget” they’re exercising. This kind of laserlike focus on a particular objective adds tremendous weight and specificity to SuperPark’s overall positive experiences with ValoArena, which provides physical movement and fun to help SuperPark Vantaa accomplish one of its primary goals: to provide guests with fun and exercise.

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Mika says, “When they get in front of the ValoArena wall, they forget they are moving because they’re playing.” Mika illustrates this point with a description of a scene that now plays out regularly at SuperPark Vantaa.

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“Even with the bigger kids, who are not that active once the other kids start playing, all of a sudden a big kid will start playing, and it’s quickly been more than 5 minutes, which is more than the kid might have done in the past a year. Gamifying the sports experience makes moving so much more joyful. And that's the whole point. ”

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"If only two players can play at the same time, the queuing is a big challenge. With ValoArena, six players can play at the same time, which is very good." – Mika Jimenez

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What makes it different?

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The SuperPark team is quick to list ValoArena’s six-player group play feature as a significant advantage and differentiator. When asked what advantages ValoArena has “over other attractions,” Kirsi didn’t skip a beat. From her business-focused perspective, it’s all about reducing lines and wait times:

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“With ValoArena, six players can play at the same time, which is very good. We can have 1,000 customers in our park in a day and you can imagine how long the queues are for the most popular attractions.”

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Mika also chose ValoArena’s six-player feature as an advantage but instead described the impact on the player's experience. “In ValoArena, you can share the fun with five friends,” he said, “which is a lot different and better than if you play by yourself.”

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Mika noted that with ValoArena’s game experiences, “Kids would enjoy the game alone but they enjoy playing it more with friends because they can share the fun.” Mika also identified ValoArena’s six-player feature as a key differentiator compared to other mixed or augmented reality games: “Most Augmented Reality games are one or two-player,” he said, “ValoArena is six, so the more, the merrier.”

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How does it attract people?

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The SuperPark team noted the value ValoArena adds as a marketing device. Mika made this point when describing ValoArena’s placement near the entrance to SuperPark Vantaa. “Once you enter SuperPark, on the right side there are screens showing people playing the game, '' Mika said, “that's the first contact. Kids see it, they want to come inside.” Mika describes the powerful effect images of people playing ValoArena seem to have had on SuperPark guests: “When they see ValoArena it's like, I want to play this game.”

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Both Kirsi and Mika have seen great results when they incorporated ValoArena into their marketing and advertising. Kirsi notes:

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“Without ValoArena, our marketing would have been very boring. We would not have had a key message to promote. ValoArena has that wow factor that we like to promote. At the moment it is the key attraction.”

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Mika too feels ValoArena is a valuable asset when promoted in marketing aimed at getting guests in the door. SuperPark Vantaa used ValoArena in their post-COVID marketing and Mika believes it made a difference. “People come looking for ValoArena because of marketing,” Mika said, “it’s a good value if you put it in your marketing.”

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How easy is it to operate or maintain?

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“ValoArena is very easy to operate. You just need to know where to turn it on and off,” Kirsi said. The ValoArena ease of operations extends to the user experience as well. ValoArena is so intuitive that a “how to play” mode or posted instructions are deemed unnecessary. “You just go inside the ValoArena and see that your movement and your body control the game,” said Mika, “it’s easier to learn than reading instructions or a website describing how to move left or right.”

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Kirsi made the same point, “I haven't heard anybody ask how to play ValoArena,” she said, “they just figure it out.” If a venue’s demographic includes children, it’s even more imperative that a game can be enjoyed quickly and easily. “If it wasn’t like that, nobody would play it,” Kirsi said, “with kids, you want everything to be fast and easy to access. It needs to be one button press and you’re playing - ValoArena is like that.”

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One might expect this attraction to require at least one attendant to operate. However, ValoArena can accommodate 6 players per session, without an attendant. When asked how ValoArena compares to other attractions in terms of ease of operation, Mika had an answer: “ValoArena is the easiest attraction. We don't have to do anything with it. You just leave it and it works.” From a business perspective, the benefit of not having to staff such a high-volume attraction is perhaps even more important.

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How's support work?

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The SuperPark team expressed their appreciation for Valo Motion’s support of ValoArena. They value an attraction that comes with a service they can rely on. When asked why he would recommend ValoArena to similar businesses, Mika focused on his experience working with Valo Motion support when ValoArena was first installed:

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“They educated us well on how they set up ValoArena. If something is wrong with the game, they fix it. This is one of the reasons that we work with Valo Motion, it is so easy. Mika continued, “We wouldn’t have Valo Motion’s products if there were major technical issues, or if there were problems with Customer Service or maintenance. With ValoArena we have a good product and Valo Motion is a good company.”

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"If someone was starting a new park in Europe, I would tell them to buy ValoArena." – Mika Jimenez

Final thoughts from the SuperPark team

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Kirsi connected the joy in players' faces directly to the technology that powers ValoArena: “The quality of those ValoArena sensors amazes me, you can see your picture played on the screen. You can also see the amazement in the faces of children as they tell their parents that they’re in a game.” Mika noted the difference between ValoArena’s augmented reality and the other typical VR/AR experiences: “ValoArena puts you inside the game. When you play with a cartoon avatar, then you're outside the game. But when the avatar is a picture of you as it is in ValoArena, and your actual movement dictates the play, then you are part of the game, not just a player.”

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Kirsi’s description of ValoArena’s gameplay is perfectly said, “ValoArena is an amazing game that brings together a videogame and physical movement. You get to see your picture on the screen. You get to play together with your five friends and do it with a smile. Run. Jump. Enjoy.”

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According to Mika, ValoArena has been so popular that SuperPark Vantaa had to change their repeat play policy: “Kids don't want to get out of the ValoArena when their game is over. They stay inside and start a new game. We had to control it by saying ‘you can only play two in a row.’’