Beat The Bomb, the world’s “craziest team game,” in fall 2022 will open on Atlanta’s Upper Westside, according to the Brooklyn-based venue’s website and an in-process liquor license application.
Beat The Bomb will bring to Atlanta an interactive team-building experience where players must take on several different challenges including a laser maze and a paint bomb that explodes if they lose. There will also be beer and wine, making for “the coolest night out — start to finish!”
Beat The Bomb in June 2022 announced it has raised $7M from New York-based Conversion Venture Capital (CVC2) and Paris-based Otium Capital, along with several angel investors. The Brooklyn-based company will use the funds this year to bring its entertainment concept to Atlanta in partnership with Jamestown, and to Washington D.C., with Douglas Development Corp.
“Beat The Bomb is real-world immersive video gaming,” CEO & Founder Alex Patterson said in a press release last month. “Since 2017, we have used technology to build human connection via hi-tech game rooms, proprietary multiplayer games, and special effects. In 2022 we will begin our U.S. expansion, with a goal to bring Beat The Bomb to 50 cities globally in the next 5 years.”
Beat The Bomb Atlanta will open this fall, at 1483 Chattahoochee Avenue NW, in the Upper Westside of Atlanta. The property, owned by Jamestown, is known for its dynamic mixed-use properties, including nearby Westside Provisions District and Ponce City Market. Beat The Bomb D.C. will then open this Winter in Washington D.C., at Hecht Warehouse/Ivy City in partnership with Douglas Development Corp.
Working with design-build firm ARCO/Murray, Beat The Bomb’s Atlanta and D.C. locations will feature glass-walled Bomb Rooms, a beer garden, and The Bomb Bar, a full service bar with signature cocktails and slushies, paired with a light food offering. The locations will also each have multiple Game Bays, which are 150-square-foot, 3-walled game areas with dedicated seating allowing players to choose from 20 hyper-social 2-5 minute games developed by Beat The Bomb’s in-house gaming studio.
Described as “Mission Impossible meets Double Dare,” during a 1-hour Beat The Bomb experience, teams of four to siz players undertake a series of 10-minute games deployed through the company’s patented room-based gaming system of touch screens, motion sensors, RFID readers, projection-walls, and laser maze hardware. In the final room, the players — wearing hazmat suits and helmets — must work together to disarm a Paint Bomb before their time runs out, or else “Get Blasted!” 90 percent of teams lose on their first try, but players can come back to try again or play different game sets (Missions) with new endings like a Foam Bomb. Competitive players can opt to go head-to-head in Battle Mode and qualify for Pro League tournaments with cash prizes. Upon the launch of Atlanta, the company’s game system will be programmed to facilitate digital gameplay between locations.
As inspiration for Beat The Bomb, Patterson looked to game shows, escape rooms, arcade games, action movies, and more recently, esports. “Most video games isolate a person with their gaming device,” said Patterson, a graduate of Harvard College and UVA Law School and an early executive at Tough Mudder. “At Beat The Bomb, we set out to build an immersive real world video game platform and multiplayer games that would drive shared memories and stronger relationships among the players.”
