Gamers can battle zombies and throw snowballs in new Minecraft adventure in Rosemont
Starting Friday, video gamers can go to a building in the village of Rosemont and be transported to another village altogether.
Over the course of about an hour, groups of up to 25 will travel from room to room to gather resources, craft tools and weapons, construct buildings, and hunt for ingredients to make an elixir that will save people who’ve been attacked by zombies.
Along the way, adventurers will go underground, encounter spiders and other scary creatures, try to make it across flowing lava, throw snowballs and brew the magic potion that will transform zombified villagers back to life.
“I mean, it is so wacky and crazy, but really, really fun,” said Sara Hougan, the creative director and experience designer behind “Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue” at EXP Rosemont, the new immersive entertainment venue in The Pearl District.
The interactive experience based on the popular video game makes its Midwest debut Friday in Rosemont, following its 2024 opening in Dallas. The traveling installation has since been to London, Toronto, Mexico City, Singapore and Riyadh.
In every place, the experience has a way of bringing people together since they must work with one another on a common task. And for the uninitiated who come with uber fans, there’s a sense of learning and understanding.
“For grandparents and parents, this is the time to let your kids teach you. So it’s a real role reversal,” said Hougan, of the Montreal-based multimedia creative studio Supply + Demand, during a media preview tour Wednesday. “Hopefully at the end of the experience, you have a new shared vocabulary that you can ask them more questions about.
“They’re sort of introduced to these cute characters and this silly story and this crazy little world that you’re kind of like, ‘OK, OK, I get you,’” Hougan said.
Among those who checked out the experience Wednesday was Nathan Banowetz, 21, of Naperville, who has been playing the video game since age 8. He was reminded of his younger self when he spotted 5-year-old Julian Zidek of Elmhurst likewise battling mobs and walking through the game’s nether portal.
“I saw that little kid in there. He was really enjoying it, and I’m still enjoying it. So I think that’s the perfect demographic,” said Banowetz, a senior at Colorado State University. “I really liked the interactive part. The part where you threw the snowballs, that was my favorite part. That was cool. I bet all the little kids will love that.”
The exhibit operates under a service agreement with Montreal-based PHI Studio, who inked a separate deal with the village in 2024 to operate the municipal-owned building and curate the programming. The 26,000-square-foot immersive art venue south of Balmoral Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway opened last September with two virtual reality installations that took visitors to the Great Pyramid of Giza and through the story of evolution.
“Minecraft Experience” is expected to run through July 4 weekend.
Then in the fall, EXP will host “Space Explorers: The Infinite,” a virtual reality show that uses some 250 hours of content filmed at the International Space Station in 2018.
“We’re quite happy with the results that we’ve seen with the first experiences that we’ve shown. Obviously we need to build awareness for the venue itself, because it’s a brand new building,” said Eric Albert, CEO of PHI Studio. “Already, Minecraft is trending to do quite well as well. It’s a very strong, very recognized brand. And this market tends to respond favorably to family-oriented experiences.”
Tickets start at $28 at minecraftexperience.com/chicago/.