LEVEL99, the new interactive gaming venue moving into Disney Springs, is built around mental and physical challenges, unique games, group efforts and artwork, the company’s CEO says.

“We’re not an escape room. We’re not DisneyQuest,” says Matthew DuPlessie, founder and chief executive officer of LEVEL99, which eventually will be in the two-story, 45,000-square-foot area once occupied by the NBA Experience attraction at Walt Disney World.

The format involves groups of two to six people taking on about 60 rooms containing challenges.

“It might be very physical, almost obstacle-course style, work with your friends in a very visceral, hands-on way,” DuPlessie says. “Or it might be a mental game,” such as solving a logic puzzle.

The challenges take between one and four minutes. The rooms may be repeated multiple times or the group can move on to another one.

“It’s a wild variety of challenge where you don’t know what to expect in the next one,” DuPlessie says.

“You might be in a ninja training dojo in one room and then move into a hall of mirrors art installation in a different room and then you’re up in outer space in the next room,” he says.

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It’s a mature atmosphere, featuring a sit-down restaurant and bar at its center.

“Our sweet spot, our kind of design target is young adults — 21- to 39-year-old is kind of the peak of our demographic curve,” DuPlessie says. It’s aspirational for tweens, teens and older folks, too, he says.

“But these games are not built for kids, per se – this is not the place you have your 7-year-old’s birthday party. Because it’s a little harder than that,” he says. “The games are harder. They’re mentally harder. They’re physically harder.”

Elements of LEVEL99, particularly the lack of screens and its repeatability factor, impress Bob Rogers, founder of BRC Imagination Arts, a California-based experience-design company.

“These are things that cause people to do things together as a group, and, most often, not competing with each other but competing against the situation or the setup,” Rogers says.

“These are simple ideas really well done,” he says.

“The big thing is that it’s people enjoying people, not screens,” he says. It’s a reason for people to get out of the house and socialize, a concept that took a hit during the pandemic, he says.

LEVEL99 has venues in Natick, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. Locations in West Hartford, Connecticut, and Tysons Corner, Virginia, are scheduled to open this year.

Expansion is in the corporate game plan, and DuPlessie likes the makeup of the Disney Springs crowd.

“It’s a great mix of local traffic and vacationing traffic. It’s people who are socially, mentally and physically active. They want to get out, they want to do something, they want to see something,” he says.

“I think our experience will be a great counterpoint to the all-day theme-park experience,” DuPlessie says.

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LEVEL99’s games do not feature licensed characters or intellectual properties.

“We’re designing all of these games ourselves,” DuPlessie says. “These are bespoke, one-off, one-of-a-kind games that the LEVEL99 team has developed, and you can only get here.”

Players accumulate stars for achieving challenges, by engaging in one-on-one duels and by spying hidden symbols in the venue’s artwork selection.

“You’re accumulating parts of real-world prizes. You’re earning a T-shirt or some free food, and you’re accumulating these stars to make your way up the leaderboard,” DuPlessie says.

The venue periodically changes out some games, he says, and that raises its repeatability factor.

“It’s about 30 hours of game play to beat this venue at your highest level of achievement,” DuPlessie says. “It’s more than you’re going to get done in one trip.”

LEVEL99 “can build all these classics in Orlando, and they might be able to stand for a lot longer because of tourist and overnight business,” Rogers says.

No timeframe for the Disney Springs location has been announced. Modifications to the exterior of the building have started. The silver ribbon-like beam etched with basketball imagery has been removed. But the big screen is staying, DuPlessie says.

The NBA Experience opened there in August 2019 with hoops-related activities and merchandise. It closed down with Walt Disney World for pandemic purposes in spring 2020. About 18 months later, Disney said NBA Experience would not reopen.

The site, in the West End section of Disney Springs, previously was the location for DisneyQuest, a company-owned interactive attraction. It closed in 2017, and its building was demolished.

“I liked DisneyQuest. I thought it was really cool,” says DuPlessie, who has 25 years’ experience in themed entertainment, including design and consulting gigs for Disney as a vendor.  Updating the games regularly and having a larger capacity will be two advantages for LEVEL99, he says.

“This is a very different approach,” DuPlessie says.

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