‘It’s a whole other world.’ Tech start-up opens Fresno’s first virtual reality escape room

There were two things that Taj Sandhu wanted out of his new business venture.

One: It had to be tech-related, to be a subsidiary of his existing start-up, Uedify.

Two: It had be something people in Fresno hadn’t really experienced before.

“We thought, what does Fresno not have?” Sandhu says.

What they settled on was NeVR Escape, a free-roaming virtual reality escape room, which Sandhu says is a first for Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley.

The nearest VR arcade is in Tulare County, he says. To find another VR Escape room, you’d have travel to Walnut Creek in the Bay Area.

Inside the NeVR Escape room

Sandhu is standing in a fairly nondescript beige room in the back of a storefront at Blackstone and McKinley avenues. This is where the action happens, so to speak. Along the walls are small paper markers that look something like QR codes. These allow the VR googles to track the players within the virtual world and keep everything synced.

Players work in teams of two to four people to solve puzzles and tasks in one of five virtual worlds. There’s a space station and a haunted house (complete with roaring monsters). Players can time travel, battle a dragon and explore an underwater world (can you retrieve an artifact before the air runs out?).

A new game will be added every year, Sandhu says.

These aren’t just typical escape-room mind puzzles, either. Escaping the virtual worlds can take 45 minutes to an hour and players have to get a little physical.

They may have to throw objects or even shoot a bow and arrow. It can get sweaty, Sandhu says.

NeVR Escape uses Oculus Quest 2 googles and touch controllers.

This means all play within the room is untethered and free roaming. That can be unnerving, says Shula Davis, who had her first VR experience at the escape room on Tuesday.

While searching through a room in the haunted mansion, her partner bumps a table, sending a glass container to the floor, where it shatters.

“Oh, no,” says Davis, sounding truly concerned.

At one point, she gets scared (there is a monster about) and tries to hide under a table.

“It’s a whole other world when you do it,” she says.

“You want t touch it, but it’s not there.”

That’s normal. Sandhu says he’s seen people stumble around after trying to lean on a piece of virtual furniture.

NeVR Escape has been open less than a month and is still in a soft opening phase. Slots are available from 4-10 p.m. by appointment only. Check online for scheduling.

Sandhu hopes to have a grand opening sometime early next year.

A new tech hub across from Fresno City College?

Sandhu also hopes to start filling out the rest of the building by then.

The escape room is part of a larger vision for Uedify and this particular spot on Blackstone Avenue. It takes up a small portion in back of a 6,000-square-foot building that used to house a furniture store. Eventually, this will be Uedify’s tech hub/co-work space. There will be meeting rooms and classrooms, and a stage for tech-topic lectures.

A series of talks on Bitcoin will be scheduled for next year, Sandhu says.

At some point the VR room will also double as a testing lab, where students can try out their own virtual reality code, he says.

Uedify’s initial project was an app that connects freelance tutors with students around the Valley, and Sandhu wants to expand VR into that teaching realm, as well.

Part of the reason they landed on the VR escape room is because the company was already developing its own VR code. He can see a day when auto repair students learn to replace parts of an engine without the need for a physical car.

“Our ultimate goal,” Sandu says, “is to become a tech hub here, next to Fresno City College.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.