Newly opened Warp Zone’s virtual-reality escape-room and adventure games work out the mind and body

Tim Harty, The Business Times 

When the Bentley family members were in their home’s driveway in January and February, wearing virtual-reality headsets and talking and flailing and turning and moving around in bizarre ways, it got the neighbors laughing. And wondering. What in the world are they doing?

The answer is now on display at 1059 North Ave., Suite 4, where Warp Zone VR Adventures opened July 1. That was the soft opening. The grand opening then took place this past weekend.

Warp Zone VR Adventures offers virtual-reality games, some being of the escape-room variety, some more of the adventure ilk, some more puzzle-like, some as quick as 10 minutes, some that will take 30 minutes. All will exercise your mind and often your body.

“People sweat here,” Warp Zone VR owner Nicole Bentley said. “It’s also a workout in and of itself.”

Case in point came from Marcos Cisneros, who played an adventure game, “Ninja Trials,” as part of a group of four on July 6. He was sweating after the group successfully completed the game.

“I think it was incredible,” Cisneros said. “I mean, I think just the way we had to put our heads together to figure it out. And it wasn’t too hard, but I think it was challenging, definitely.”

“Ninja Trials” allowed the gamers to shoot at things, and Cisneros said that was different than traditional, tactile escape rooms. He didn’t expect it, but he welcomed it.

His first experience at Warp Zone VR also had him inquiring about his next visit and the other games that are available.

“I didn’t realize it had a lot more options,” Cisneros said, “so most definitely we’ll be bringing other people.”

Bentley said “Ninja Trials” is like training to become a ninja, and it’s proving to be popular.

She said a game called “The Parvus Box” is “fun, cartoony. Dr. Parvus has created a shrinking machine. That is an escape room, because you’re trying to escape his shrinking machine. The video looks childish, but it’s not. It’s also one of the ones that people are just loving.”

Bentley added there’s a wizard game among the virtual-reality games that are part of Warp Zone VR’s initial launch. She emphasizes escape-room VR games are only part of the mix.

“We always explain to people, ask them what they’re looking for, and make sure we put them with the right kind of genre that they’re looking for and the right kind of puzzles that they’re looking for,” Bentley said.

“We have launched six what we are calling escape rooms that are in our escape-room library. 

Two of them are more puzzle-y, but they’re still super fun. And we will be able to rotate them at the drop of the hat.”

Seeing what’s popular and what isn’t will help determine when changes in the game lineup are made. Plus, seasons can dictate what’s on hand, such as a horror or haunted-house game or two around Halloween.

“We will always assess what are the best-moving ones. Which ones do people seem to like the most? Which ones maybe people don’t seem to like when they’re done, or they’re just not interested in the concept, and we can switch things out,” Bentley said. “We can even bring them back if somebody’s like, ‘Hey, I remember last year you had this,’ and we can do that. So, we’ll always have new stuff.”

When Bentley touts Warp Zone’s virtual-reality games, she’s careful not to disparage the traditional escape rooms. She said she and her family love the traditional, one-room escape rooms.

Her family loves games in general, which is part of the reason they opened Warp Zone, where her youngest son, Brody, is the director of customer experience and most likely to be running the operation, and her oldest son, Nico, is the “tech guy.”

“We love games,” Bentley said. “We do game nights. And our friends, we do game nights with them.”

Bentley said she wanted to run a business with her sons, and research into the virtual-reality games piqued their interest.

“I asked, ‘What do you guys think? Do you think this is something you want to do?’ And they’re both like, ‘Yeah.’ So, we’re here,” Bentley said.

Challenge of landing a location

Deciding on the kind of business was the easy part. Finding a home for it was much more difficult.

Bentley said they looked at places that appeared to be a good fit, then would get rejected. Another person was awarded the lease, or the property owner didn’t understand what Bentley’s business is.

“We looked, and we looked, and we looked, and, of course, small business, pricing, you want a good spot, all those things. So, it was really, really tough,” she said. “We had one place we loved; the owner is not from here – I think he’s a corporate guy – and he wanted not only the rent and the triple net, he also wanted a percentage of all of our sales. And that broke our hearts, because we really liked that place.

“And then we fell in love with another spot, and that owner, who has several commercial properties here, said he didn’t think we were gonna make it, (and said) don’t apply for any of his other properties.”

Even getting the spot they got at 1059 North Ave. required extraordinary persistence, checking back repeatedly with the owner and his real-estate agent.

“We were just like, ‘Anything? Anything? Anything? Anything?’” Bentley said. “And it took me explaining to his real estate agent what we were doing … and she was like, ‘Oh.’ And then the ball started rolling.”

Bentley was vigilant in pursuit of 1059 North Ave., because so many elements were ideal: location on a busy street; a small unit, but large enough to accommodate two VR arenas; and near several restaurants and next-door to Third Bowl Ice Cream.

“We loved that the ice cream shop was next door,” she said. “We loved that it was on this corridor, some restaurants around here, kind of have dinner-and-a-show kind of a thing, almost dinner and a game.”

For rates, business hours and more information about Warp Zone VR’s offerings, go online to warpzonegj.com.

There are mini games in addition to longer games, and some are geared toward kids as young as 7 years old.

Cost depends on game variables such as game length and the number of people in a group. Bentley said six people is the limit for a group, and four people is an ideal number for playing games and pricing.

The day of the week affects pricing, too, as Monday through Thursday are considered off-peak days, leading to reduced pricing, while Friday through Sunday are peak days.

For those who love a challenge

Bentley said no customers as of July 6 had played “Runaway Train,” which is the hardest game Warp Zone VR has right now.

“And it is a really, really good game,” she said. “There’s gonna be some hard-core people that are like, ‘I can figure this out.’ And we knew that it wasn’t going to get played a lot, because it’s a 5 on our ranking, which is elite. We know somebody’s going to come in and play it, because there’s always going to be those people that are up for that challenge, that love escape rooms, and they’re just like, ‘I can do this.’ So, it’s a good one.”