Le Temple

The starting point

This is Pix Entertainment's first project.

The contact was made at the escape room trade show. Ludovic Joubert handed us the full fit-out of the reception room of his new venue in La Rochelle, and the creation of four action-game rooms, game and set alike.

The commission came at the end of September. The venue had to open before the Christmas holidays. Less than three months to design, draw, build and install.

The design decision

We built the venue on the four elements: earth, fire, water and air, one room for each. It is not a themed wrapper, it is a grammar. Every space holds its own material, its own light and its own sound register, and you know where you are without needing signage.

A world structured that way has a property purely narrative sets do not have: it extends. A room can be added without rewriting the venue. That is exactly what happened next.

The design work

Dimensioned drawings were produced room by room, with the circulation, escape and operating constraints of a venue that serves food and drink while running games.

The build

This is the only project where Pix built the sets itself, from construction through to ageing.

Every stone laid on the walls came from a mould made for the purpose. The planted ceilings, the laser-cut wooden logos, the bookcases: all of it came out of the workshop. Only three items went outside, the action-game technology, the tree and the two giant totems.

Installation took three weeks, with four people, for an opening before the Christmas holidays. On a project commissioned at the end of September.

It taught us something we have applied everywhere since: the difference between a set that lasts six months and one that lasts five years comes down to details nobody sees on opening day. And this build opened the doors to the ones that followed.

The result

The operator commissioned a second project: renewing an action game room. In this trade, that is the only measure of quality that counts.

Documents

Leaf through the dossier44 pages

What Pix did, exactly

Overall design, writing of the world, design of the four games and their gameplay, dimensioned drawings, 3D renders, art direction, then the building and installation of the sets in house: bespoke mouldings, planted ceilings, laser cutting, furniture. The game technology, the tree and the two giant totems were entrusted to contractors.