Lockwood Immersive Blog: August 2026

Bonjour et bienvenue, mes amis! We’ve got a bit of a Francophone flair this month! If you want to know why, just keep scrolling on down through the Lockwood Immersive blog for Août (that means August)!. We’ll be over here, inhaling some poutine.

Updates

In August we took a very special trip to la belle province (more on that in the Extracurriculars section), but we also stayed hard at work with our newest project: launching the Enchanted Forest at the CNE!

We opted for a retro fairytale vibe reminiscent of early Disney animated films. Something about those blackletter-inspired type details and the jewel tones feel so timeless.

When the CNE approached us last year and asked if we were interested in adding some immersive flair to their kids’ programming, we jumped at the opportunity. Working with their team, we brought to life the Enchanted Forest: an immersive framework that introduces live characters into the Kids’ World space, adds lore to tie together the various activities, and even includes special quests for young visitors to embark upon.

Archery practice is serious business.

A close-up of one of the Quests visitors can undertake. For the Crown Quest, they'll need to search the forest for hidden puzzles!

This project required all the tools in our toolbox: there’s puzzle design, of course, but also graphic design, scriptwriting, costume design, and fabrication. We hired our own character staff, wrote operational documents, worked with the CNE team, and did everything we could to create a magical experience for the guests.

Here’s a look at some of the costumes that Jesse put together for the staff. He’s especially proud of the look for Gazebo the wizard, whose blue-and-yellow diamond motif was inspired by the gazebo in the space - note the diamond spangles on the wizard hat, added by hand!

A delightfully blinged-out wizard, for your approval.

Bramble the fairy welcomes you to the Enchanted Forest!

Another custom element we’re very happy with are the stamps created for the Stamp Rally quest guests can enjoy. Bryan designed unique seals for each character, and we used our laser cutter and some laser-safe rubber to engrave them into real-life fancy stamps! How great is that?

We were very inspired by stamp rally events that are popular in places like Japan, and we're doing our part to bring more to North America!

We should also mention here (as we’ve been mentioning everywhere) that The Hunt for the Brightwing Butterfly is returning in September! If you’ve yet to experience this magical outdoor adventure, grab some tickets for your team and meet us in High Park!

Sir Charles needs your help! (And by the time you're reading this, there are only a couple of days left for early bird tickets!)

Extracurriculars

This month, we went to RECON: the Reality Escape Convention! An opportunity to escape room owners and enthusiasts to connect, learn, and play, this is the happening spot for anything and everything in the escape room scene. This year, the convention was held in Laval, Quebec - in no small part due to it also being home of the Escaparium, which currently hosts TERPECA’s top-rated escape room in the world! (And several other high-ranking entries.)

Hooray for RECON! But if we had one note, it might be for more lighting in the photo area. 😅

We were excited and nervous in equal measure as we drove over from Toronto. In some ways we still feel pretty new on the scene, and this felt like heading to a party where you were pretty sure that everyone already knew each other. But with this being the first year the convention was held in Canada, and with our recent Golden Lock for Shades of Grey as a conversation starter, we took the plunge.

…and it was incredible! The crowd was close-knit, but absolutely welcoming to new friends, and there were plenty of other attendees there for the first time as well. There were also lots of groups forming to check out games at the Escaparium, so signing up for as many of those as we could was a great way to meet new people in a more relaxed setting - like battling demons in a condemned cathedral, or saving the world from a killer AI.

Without spoiling too much, this game had enough killer robots, Gameboy games, and laser battles to make Bryan's year.

There were informative talks, networking sessions, and escape games hosted by the convention itself - including a secret, ARG-like game hidden below the surface. In a nutshell, it was a totally exhilarating few days, and we came back feeling totally inspired to keep connecting with other creators, enthusiasts, and to push ourselves to make bigger and better games. Our hats are off to the REA team for creating such a wonderful event!

Saving Atlantis with friends Andrew Reynolds and Michael Andersen

Recommendations

Jesse recommends Strange Buildings:

I’m a big reader, but outside of more standard mystery novels, I don’t read a lot of books that I would categorize as puzzle-y. Recently, though, I’ve enjoyed a new series by Japanese creator Uketsu. Strange Houses, Strange Pictures, and the newly-released Strange Buildings are something like novel-length creepypastas with a mystery element, weaving bizarre and chilling tales of murder and suspense together in a visual-heavy style.

If you like the idea of looking through floor plans to uncover sinister secrets in a house’s very foundation, check these out - but mind the content warnings, as these stories frequently tackle very intense subject matter.

Bryan recommends The Furious:

A low-budget martial arts movie that is a must see for fans of the genre. The movie immediately starts in high gear and only takes small pauses from the complex fight choreography to deliver a mildly written (and dark) plot. But hey, you’re not here for the plot. You’re here for the ballet of blood. This film features some of the best martial artists from The Raid, Everything Everywhere All at Once and more.

If you are looking for an intricately nuanced script with surprising twists and turns, you won’t find that here. What you will get is drop kicked, stabbed, elbowed and thrown into one of the most exciting combat movies of the last decade.