From Museum Piece to Multiplayer Powerhouse
The brief: take a beloved single-player exhibit and rebuild it as a next-gen multiplayer experience that could anchor the Derby’s 150th celebrations. Our response? A full-scale rebuild from the ground up. Five lifelike mechanical horses, each mounted on D-Box-powered motion platforms, simulate the real pace of a race. Players select from five historical eras, mount their horse, and race through a cinematic recreation of Churchill Downs - complete with era-specific crowds, commentary, and legendary horses.
A Ride Through Time
Every element of Riders Up 2.0 is crafted to honour the Derby’s legacy while pushing the boundaries of what a museum game can be. From Victorian grandstands to modern-day jockey silks, we meticulously modelled five distinct time periods - each with its own horses, fashions, track conditions and crowd energy. Players vote on the era, choose from iconic horses with unique stats, and compete in a hyper-detailed 3D environment backed by spatial audio and reactive race commentary.
Accessibility and Experience Design
Inclusion was core to the redesign. Riders Up 2.0 includes a fully accessible horse with custom controls and a colour-blind mode, ensuring no visitor is left on the sidelines. Gameplay spans multiple modes - from quick-play to tournament to educational - letting the museum adapt the experience to group visits, private hires, or casual drop-ins. At the finish line, winners are celebrated on a shared podium with their faces auto-inserted on jockeys and emailed as a keepsake photo, primed for sharing.
Built for Longevity, Designed to Dazzle
Powered by a high-performance Unity engine and installed across networked PCs, Riders Up 2.0 is a permanent exhibit engineered to perform at scale. Behind the scenes, we designed and fabricated the entire space - from TV mounts and tablet stands to wall vinyls and ADA-compliant setups. The result is an experience that’s not only fun and educational, but also robust, future-proof, and now a centrepiece of the Kentucky Derby Museum’s visitor offering.
Kentucky Derby Riders Up!
A next-generation racing experience for the Derby’s 150th anniversary In celebration of the 150th Kentucky Derby, we partnered with the Kentucky Derby Museum to reimagine their flagship interactive exhibit. Riders Up 2.0 is a five-player, motion-platform multiplayer game that transports visitors through the sights, sounds, and speed of Derby history. Fully immersive. Visually stunning. Built for every kind of rider.
Category
MOTIONplay
Year
2024
Client
Kentucky Derby Museum
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