Vasily Petrenko on Scaling a VR Business from a Premium Concept

Vasily Petrenko started his path in the entertainment industry with offline escape rooms, crafting scripts, creating actual settings, and creating thorough encounters for operators all over. As a potential new approach, he started to look at virtual reality in 2016. The technology was not quite mature then; it lacked the dependability, immersion, and user comfort required for a successful business strategy. Accordingly, growth came to a stop. Petrenko, however, made a major leap forward two years thereafter. 

Another World’s CEO, Vasily Petrenko, saw possibilities for multiplayer experiences that may grow, without incurring significant expenditures or needing sophisticated configurations, with the development of free-roam VR. He talks in this interview about how the first prototype was built, why badly built physical surrounds can degrade a VR experience, and how to guarantee the business viability of VR.

How Vasily’s road in the entertainment business began, and what path he followed toward VR?

Starting in 2014, when a group of businesspeople launched their first escape room in Russia, the journey began. Although creative, the concept soon became well-known; the business, within just two months, was self-sustaining. Taking advantage of this success, they put their profits into fresh venues, most especially the opening of the first humor escape room available. Leaving traditional locks and riddles, they included interactive electronics and features, thus spreading their technical and imaginative knowledge among other operators.

The company evolved into a full-service manufacturing company as demand rose. Offering scripts first, they soon expanded their services to include full puzzle designs, set constructions, and ready-to-use technical solutions. They began receiving international queries by 2016 and were completing projects across Australia, Europe, Asia, and the United States. They sent hundreds of launch-ready escape rooms throughout the world successfully.

Though they started exploring VR in the same year, early equipment’s limitations, brief experiences and discomfort made it impractical. They stopped growing until 2018, when they discovered free-roam VR. This invention improved the immersive potential of Virtual Reality by letting players physically traverse space. 

What were the initial steps taken to develop Vasily’s VR product?

Most VR solutions such as Meta and Apple sought huge, big-budget projects at that point. The price of one system they investigated was tens of millions, and one had to travel abroad to a restricted-access showroom to see it. Most operators found such a model just unworkable. They understood from the start that they had to go on a different course. Their intention was to produce something financial and technically scalable.

They purposely stayed away from expensive gear. Rather than thousands of dollars, they produced a functioning prototype for just $15,000. Drawing extensively from their escape room background, the script and interaction design stressed free movement, simple spatial logic, and player-driven gameplay. Early versions confirmed their basic idea: it was actually possible to create a high-quality system that could also expand.

They displayed the demo at a Nashville industry event after it was ready. An attendee from the entertainment industry tested it and purchased it right away. The enthusiasm was evident even if it was still a rough edition with an incomplete narrative, unrefined gameplay, and simple hardware.

How did Vasily manage to scale the project and achieve international expansion?

This project builds on the current network of escape rooms for kids as well as the older generation. The first VR consumers came from the same areas: the United States, Europe, and Australia. First, the emphasis was on working with partners who already believed in their ability; there was no distinct plan for expansion. The number of partners had come to nearly ten.

From the very start, the mindset, meanwhile, was worldwide. The aim was to build a system that may be copied, not to rule a single city. This called for the harmonization of every component: technical standards, installation techniques, and staff training resources. This method guarantees consistency as they grow.