Future Circus is a mixed reality entertainment venture co-founded by Brent Bushnell and Aiden Wolf. The company develops immersive experiences that combine physical spaces with digital overlays. Its flagship project, Dream Park, is a mixed reality theme park that overlays mapped digital content on real-world locations. The first installation opened in Santa Monica, California, covering 30,000 square feet of public space along the 3rd Street Promenade.
Dream Park uses mixed reality headsets to create interactive environments layered onto the physical world. Visitors wear Meta Quest 3 headsets and participate in games such as The Floor is Lava, interacting with digital objects while moving through real space. Tickets cost $10 and the experience takes place in active public areas.
Brent Bushnell is an engineer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. He is the CEO and co-founder of Two Bit Circus, a company known for creating interactive amusement experiences including micro-parks featuring virtual reality games, robot bartenders, and a social supper club. He trained as an engineer at UCLA and applies rapid prototyping in his creative and commercial work.
Bushnell previously co-founded Syyn Labs, which created branded stunts for companies such as Google and Disney. He also helped design the Rube Goldberg machine featured in the OK Go music video This Too Shall Pass. The video received over 50 million views on YouTube. Bushnell has worked in television, including as an on-camera inventor for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and as a contestant on Shark Tank, where he pitched the concept behind Future Circus.
Aiden Wolf, co-founder of Future Circus, is known for his work in augmented reality and previously co-founded AR House, a collective of developers creating augmented reality content.
Dream Park is built around the concept of downloadable theme parks. These are immersive, mapped experiences that can be installed in various real-world locations with similar spatial layouts, such as parks, sports fields, or promenades. Mixed reality technology is used to anchor digital content to the physical world, enabling games that are responsive to the user’s environment and motion.
Players experience physical movement while interacting with virtual content through pass-through video technology. This allows them to see their actual surroundings enhanced with digital elements, reducing motion sickness often associated with virtual reality.
Mapped experiences at Dream Park include interactive elements like virtual signs on trees, invisible obstacles, and collectible objects. The experience encourages exploration through narrative-driven content and team-based gameplay. A multi-disciplinary team of engineers, designers, and storytellers develops these experiences using spatial mapping and computer vision.
Bushnell is the board president of the Two Bit Circus Foundation, a nonprofit that develops STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) programs for middle and high school students. The foundation previously organized STEAM Carnival, a traveling event promoting technical education through play.
Bushnell is also active in mentorship programs such as NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship), and supports international outreach efforts like Clowns Without Borders. He has expressed continued interest in expanding education through virtual and mixed reality technologies.
Projects under Two Bit Circus and Future Circus include virtual field trips, STEM learning tools, and language learning environments. These applications use immersive formats to enhance retention and engagement in educational settings.
Following the Santa Monica launch, Future Circus has started to expand to new cities including San Francisco. The company is focused on scaling its downloadable theme park concept by leveraging public spaces that follow consistent layouts. This approach allows for standardized game environments across multiple locations.
Future installations may use spaces such as soccer fields or basketball courts, which offer unimpeded and familiar terrain for deploying mapped experiences.
Dream Park and similar experiences generate revenue through ticket sales, in-app purchases, brand partnerships, and subscription models. Users can pay for access to individual attractions or subscribe for ongoing content updates. Additional revenue may come from branded experiences developed in collaboration with franchises and entertainment companies.
