For my graduation assignment, I worked on a commissioned project for Lot66, a Family Entertainment Center aiming to strengthen its focus on storytelling and immersive attractions. The assignment centered on an existing American Greyhound bus that was already present on site, but lacked a clear purpose. My task was to develop a fully integrated, story-driven experience concept that could transform this unused asset into a compelling guest attraction.

I developed a competitive, immersive experience in which guests are divided into two teams and become part of a high-stakes narrative set in Chicago, 1965, inspired by one of the largest fictional heists in American history. The experience combines environmental storytelling, live-action role elements, and escape-room-inspired challenges, culminating in a tense final act inside the bus where teams must either arm or defuse a bomb. Multiple outcomes are possible, depending on team performance, creating replay value and emotional engagement.

My role covered the entire concept development from A to Z. This included creating the storyline and characters, designing the guest journey across multiple locations, developing all challenges and game mechanics, and writing the full operational script. I applied experience design models such as the Guest Experience Model, Customer Journey Mapping, and pre- and post-exposure theory to ensure the concept was immersive, coherent, and suitable for Lot66’s target audience.

The final result was a detailed implementation plan that could be directly used by Lot66 as a guide for execution. It demonstrated how storytelling, theming, and gameplay can be layered onto an existing FEC environment in a feasible and scalable way, turning a single underutilized prop into a high-impact, immersive attraction that strengthens the overall guest experience.