Aris is Co-Founder and CEO of Wishing Horse Productions.
She has a background as a professional woodworker, has extensive experience planning and executing team building events, and as a writer and advocate for healthy relationships at a national anti-violence non-profit. She is passionate about healthy human connections, immersive experiences, storytelling, inclusivity and art.
Mark is Co-Founder and Creative Director of Wishing Horse Productions.
An expert in user-experience and real world game design, he has facilitated more than 1000 live events for large groups. With a background in film studies, multimedia storytelling, puzzle solving, and technology, he has been creating experiences for 18 years that highlight public art, small businesses, and local history.
Wishing Horse Productions is an immersive experience design agency based in Austin, Texas. As thought leaders in the immersive space, WHP’s experiences are enjoyed by groups of up to 500 people. With over 20 years of experience in team building and 6 years of experience creating bespoke adventures for large groups, WHP creates custom immersive games anywhere you want.
Our flagship experience, Escape the Box, is a one of a kind, time-travel-themed outdoor escape game. The experience is an exploration of a city neighborhood that brings life to the history, public art and spirit of a neighborhood. Teams must solve puzzles and clues and complete hilarious photo challenges in order to achieve their singular goal: to get back to the present. If they don’t, they become lost in time forever!
Wishing Horse Productions is an immersive experience design agency based in Austin, Texas. As thought leaders in the immersive space, WHP’s experiences are enjoyed by groups of up to 500 people. With over 20 years of experience in team building and 6 years of experience creating bespoke adventures for large groups, WHP creates custom immersive games anywhere you want.
Our flagship experience, Escape the Box, is a one of a kind, time-travel-themed outdoor escape game. The experience is an exploration of a city neighborhood that brings life to the history, public art and spirit of a neighborhood. Teams must solve puzzles and clues and complete hilarious photo challenges in order to achieve their singular goal: to get back to the present. If they don’t, they become lost in time forever!
Escape the Box has been enjoyed by thousands of participants from across the globe, and is a part of the required curriculum for students at the Immersive Institute at UT Austin’s Audience Participation class. Escape the Box has active play zones in Austin, Denver, San Diego, Nashville, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City, Portland, Orlando, Las Vegas and Miami. We can make an Escape the Box play zone in the city of your choice, just ask!
“We had an epiphany that we could design a more hands-on, collaborative art-focused activity that would engage an active, curious audience.”
But when it came time to officially form our company, Wishing Horse Productions, in the spring of 2020, COVID forced everyone away from each other. In-person events seemed like a distant dream. This loss of connection with other people created within us a fierce motivation to make our eventual reconnection even more meaningful than ever before. So we dug deep, stayed busy and worked hard, believing that someday we would gather again.
In March 2021, just as the world started opening back up, we hosted our first Escape the Box event for families and friends. It was immediately clear that the escape room-style challenges in an outdoor context were the perfect recipe for people just beginning to reconnect. Since then, thousands of teams have played Escape the Box, creating lasting bonds with their group.
We are most proud of the level of participation we bring out of our players. By immersing everyone into a magical story, we allow them to have a willing suspension of disbelief and experience the narrative as characters within it. The buy-in and energy that they’ve exhibited has been palpable and is evidenced by the exhilaration in their bodies and true joy on their faces. We’ve helped create and build friendships, strengthened bonds, and helped people appreciate others’ abilities. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to share this service with the community.
“We’ve helped create and build friendships, strengthened bonds, and helped people appreciate others’ abilities.”
