The historic Santa Monica Pier has reimagined the way guests can experience the Pier with ‘Secret Story Tour,’ the new, immersive digital quest that travels back in time to discover the most legendary secret stories from the landmark’s 110-year legacy.
Created by renowned game design duo, The Wild Optimists, and developed in partnership with the Santa Monica Pier Corporation, Secret Story Touris a family-friendly, location-based digital tour where guests solve a total of 12 puzzles on their quest, each revealing a fun fact or untold story from the Pier’s rich history. Each puzzle game unlocks the next when solved. This is creating an engaging immersive experience that invites guests to discover multiple points throughout the Pier. For added fun, each of the clues offers a photo filter before moving to the next clue to capture and share the experience along the way.
Digital World
“We can’t think of a better time to bring this digital/physical hybrid experience to life,” said Negin Singh, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation. “We know that everyone, especially families, is looking for safe and fun activities. And we are lucky to have puzzle masters like the Wild Optimists, and an open-air space to make it happen!”
This digital tour is an adventure for all ages and can be used in household groups or individually and accessed through any smart mobile device. The location-based tour can be downloaded in the app store and can only be experienced while visiting the Pier. This allows the guests to explore the Pier and solve the quest at their leisure and from safe distances. Secret Story Tour launched on October 15, 2020, for $19.99 and is available now for download on the App Store and Google Play Store.
New Things
Santa Monica Pier is also launching a new Pier Prize Card from September 28 – November 8. Offering guests an opportunity to win prizes for making purchases at participating Pier businesses. For every separate purchase over $10, guests will receive a Pier Prize Card stamp; collect all three stamps and enter to win the weekly raffle. Winners are chosen every Friday with prizes including Santa Monica hotel stays, restaurant gift cards, exclusive merchandise, and much more. Pier Prize Cards are available at participating businesses; for a full list of businesses and prizes, please visit santamonicapier.org/prizecard.
Take a break from exploration and adventure to enjoy a meal, and outdoor fitness class. Or simply take in the fresh air and incredible ocean views from restaurants on the Pier that have expanded their outdoor dining space. The new Pier Deck Park offers large, physically distanced spaces to dine outdoors. Or participate in a fitness class from some of Santa Monica’s favorite fitness studios including Pure Barre and Circuit Works.
What is The San Monica Pier Doing Now
The Santa Monica Pier remains committed to ensuring the health and safety of the community, visitors, and staff. The Pier is open daily with limited operations and capacity. Face coverings are required on the Santa Monica Pier and all guests are encouraged to practice physical distancing. For information on health and safety guidelines as well as details on what to expect when visiting the Pier visit santamonicapier.org.
Santa Monica Shines is the community-partnered outreach effort for Santa Monica’s economic recovery. That provides resources to residents, employees, and businesses throughout the city at SantaMonicaShines.com.
About Santa Monica Pier
A historic landmark and world-renowned cultural institution, the Santa Monica Pier is a public space. It’s approximately the size of a three-block city street. And it features a theme park, an aquarium, a trapeze school, an arcade, eight restaurants, six stores, thirteen vendor carts, fishing, and a 104-year-old merry-go-round. Plus they have 20+ street performers. Add to this year-round free-and-open-to-the-public programming, major branded activations, art installations, and more. It’s easy to see why 10-12 million people visit the Pier each year. It’s a welcoming place for all to celebrate and serves to enrich the lives of Santa Monica residents and visitors. For more information, visit santamonicapier.org.
About The Wild Optimists
The Wild Optimists began when Juliana Moreno Patel & Ariel Rubin. They combined their theatre degrees and writing backgrounds with their lifelong love of gaming to create the Kickstarter sensation Escape Room In A Box. The Werewolf Experiment is the first game in the tabletop Escape Room genre. The winner of Game of the Year at the Mattel Inventor Awards. Since then The Wild Optimists have created immersive gaming experiences for a wide variety of clients. Including Sony, Fox, Universal, the CW, AEG, and vampire pizza. Their goal is to design new ways to play, creating memorable interactive experiences. Example tabletop games, virtual games, theme parks, music festivals, historical sites, marketing activations, and more.
About Santa Monica Shines
Santa Monica Shines is a communication and outreach focused on safe and healthy economic recovery and returns to the business. The partnership of residents and community stakeholders includes the City of Santa Monica, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc., Main Street Business Improvement District, Montana Avenue Merchants Association, Pico Improvement District, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica Pier Corporation, Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism, and 18th Street Arts Center.
To assure the public that businesses are following health protocols and are prepared to engage with customers. Santa Monica Shines offers businesses a free COVID-19 Assurance Program. With resources to navigate the changing business environment and help them implement LA County Department of Public Health Reopening Guidelines. For more information visit SantaMonicaShines.com.