Dream Park Immersive, a bold startup blending physical storytelling, social impact, and immersive tech, has raised $1.1 million in seed funding to build a new kind of real-world theme park - one designed not around IP or mascots, but around the planet itself.

Led by Brent Bushnell (co-founder of Two Bit Circus), Aidan Wolf, and Kevin Habich, Dream Park is creating what it calls “experiential ecosystems” - fully immersive, themed spaces designed to entertain, educate, and activate environmental imagination.

The round was backed by Long Journey Ventures and Founders Inc, with support from early believers in physical, purpose-driven entertainment.

The vision? “Making an Earth worth playing,” as the company boldly states across its website. That mission isn’t just poetic - it’s architectural.

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What Dream Park Is Building

Dream Park is developing a 112,000-square-foot immersive environment with multiple themed zones, interactive installations, and story-driven experiences. Think part science museum, part escape room, part regenerative village.

Rather than trying to digitize reality, Dream Park is working to re-enchant it - using immersive design to bring sustainability, stewardship, and creativity into public, participatory space.

Features include:

• Climate-themed adventure paths and interactive exhibits
  
• AR and projection-mapped storytelling woven into physical structures
  
• Real-world mission challenges and quests tied to ecological action
  
• A digital companion app that extends the narrative into the real world
  
• Community-driven programming designed to evolve the park itself
  

It’s less “ride the rollercoaster” and more “become the story” - a dramatic shift in how entertainment infrastructure is being imagined.

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Why Now?

Experiential demand is skyrocketing. Following years of screen fatigue, isolation, and digital overwhelm, families and communities are craving meaningful real-world engagement. The boom in immersive art spaces, escape rooms, pop-up exhibits, and learning adventures all point to a cultural appetite Dream Park is poised to meet.

• The global location-based entertainment market is expected to reach $30.3 billion by 2032, up from $17.7 billion in 2022 (Allied Market Research).
  
• 70% of Gen Z and Millennials say they prefer spending money on experiences over material goods (Eventbrite & Harris Poll).
  
• The experiential education sector - including edutainment spaces - is projected to grow 2x faster than traditional classroom solutions by 2028 (HolonIQ).
  
• Immersive venues like Meow Wolf and Two Bit Circus are achieving up to 90% ticket sell-through rates on weekends, with year-over-year foot traffic growth.
  

But Dream Park goes further: it’s not just entertaining. It’s building for engagement with place, planet, and purpose. And that’s the difference.

What’s often missed in physical startup execution is the role of story as operating system. Dream Park isn’t layering narrative on top of infrastructure - they’re designing infrastructure as narrative. Every square foot tells a story, invites participation, creates feedback, and unlocks identity. That’s a model with implications far beyond theme parks.

Founders building in physical or hybrid spaces should take note: the best immersive environments don’t just immerse - they empower. Instead of focusing only on spectacle or aesthetics, Dream Park is building a system where participants evolve as characters inside the world. The metric isn’t just dwell time or repeat visits - it’s transformation per square foot.

This is the core insight: if you want retention, build a world where users don’t just feel welcome - they feel essential. That emotional architecture becomes the foundation for community, monetization, and long-term relevance. And in an age where digital products can feel disposable, anchoring your brand in real-world mythmaking might be the smartest moat of all.

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Where the Vision Gets Radical

At the heart of Dream Park’s design is a belief that public entertainment can become public infrastructure. That the places people gather to play can also serve as on-ramps for civic and environmental participation.

And this is the core insight other founders should take note of.

Dream Park isn’t competing with Netflix or Disney+ for attention. It’s creating an entirely different game: one where you are the avatar, the real world is the canvas, and the outcomes have real-world weight.

This reframing - of place as interface, of fun as fuel for change - is something more product builders should consider. When you stop asking how to hold people’s attention and start designing for where they naturally want to gather, you build ecosystems, not just audiences.

For founders in physical tech, social impact, or community infrastructure: the takeaway is clear. Build places where the product disappears - and only meaning remains.

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Why the Market Is Ready

Beyond macro entertainment trends, the infrastructure for this kind of venture is finally in place:

• Affordable projection, LED, and XR hardware
  
• Open-source narrative and game engine tools
  
• Cultural comfort with hybrid digital-physical play
  
• Local governments hungry for family-friendly destinations
  
• Philanthropic and VC interest in community spaces with impact potential
  

The result? A moment where immersive infrastructure projects are not only possible, but increasingly fundable - especially when they offer public good layered inside private experience.

Dream Park sits at the intersection of tech-enabled wonder, regenerative design, and collective play. That’s not just a business model - it’s a new category.

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Market Outlook: Immersive Spaces Are the Next Cultural Infrastructure

Dream Park Immersive isn’t just building a theme park. It’s stepping into a fast-growing category that sits at the intersection of entertainment, education, environmental engagement, and immersive technology. And the timing couldn’t be better.

• The location-based entertainment (LBE) market is projected to reach $30.3 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 8.2%, as consumers crave real-world, interactive experiences post-pandemic (Allied Market Research, 2023).
  
• Immersive experiences are becoming mainstream: companies like Meow Wolf and AREA15 report year-over-year attendance growth of 20–30%, with younger generations driving most of the demand.
  
• 70% of Gen Z and Millennials say they prefer spending on experiences over physical goods, and 82% are more likely to support brands that align with their values (Harris Poll x Eventbrite).
  
• The edutainment segment is booming: valued at $4.9 billion in 2022, it’s expected to reach $13 billion by 2030, as families seek screen-free, meaningful activities (Grand View Research).
  
• Meanwhile, environmental storytelling is gaining traction: a report from the Aspen Institute found that narrative-based sustainability education leads to 34% higher retention and 60% more behavior change compared to traditional formats.
  

Dream Park is capitalizing on all of it - using story, design, and tech not just to entertain but to catalyze action. In a world where people want to reconnect with meaning, the market is finally ready for real-world worlds.

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What’s Next for Dream Park?

Following its seed raise, Dream Park is focused on completing construction of its first full-scale location, with milestones that include:

• Finalizing themed environments across 3 initial zones
  
• Expanding partnerships with artists, educators, and sustainability orgs
  
• Launching its companion mission app to connect the park experience with at-home impact
  
• Running soft launches and test pilots in Q4 2024
  
• Opening to the public in early 2025, with plans for touring modules and pop-ups in other cities
  

In parallel, the team is also developing a creator platform to allow third-party designers, educators, and impact orgs to build quests, stories, and missions inside the Dream Park framework - making it a creative playground for a new class of worldbuilders.In a world where so much feels designed to divide, Dream Park Immersive is designing for reconnection - to wonder, to each other, and to the living Earth. And now, with fresh capital and a bold team, they’re laying the foundation for a world worth playing.