After revealing plans for a bio-activated horror maze in the UK, interactive games company Slingshot, has started a crowdfunding campaign to bring the concept to fruition.

Described as “Crystal Maze meets Portal in the real world”, Hyde will be formed around a matrix of rooms. Each room will comprise four doors with the aim of the game for participants to find their way through the maze of doors to a central point and back out again. Somewhere in the maze is a monster that players have to try to avoid.

As players navigate the maze, new technology capable of measuring biometrics will enable them to activate the world around them using their own body. For example, they can breathe on a door lock to unlock it, hold their breath to switch the lights on and off or even raise their own heartbeat to change the backing musical soundtrack. Guests rigged up with biosensors move through the maze using this technology, which is linked to a central system.

“Imagine a game that can track your emotional state. It’ll be real-life psychological thriller, where what people imagine is far more terrifying than what they see,” said Simon Johnson, co-founder of Slingshot. “It will be a horror of the mind, drawing people to the thing they fear most. We are looking forward to hearing all the ideas the Kickstarter community has about what that might be and to receiving their contributions to its development.”

The £50,000 (US$78,700, €70,300) Kickstarter campaign – which runs until 18 July – will enable the team to build a 25-room Hyde prototype, which depending on funding levels could double to 50.

People who pledge enough money towards the project will be able to test the concept during Q3 of 2015 when a beta version will be set up in Cardiff and Bristol, then in Q1 2016 with a beta test in London. Once fully functional, the Hyde concept is set for London and New York City. The first events are scheduled to open to the public in March 2016, with the experience expected to last 45-60 minutes.

Bio-activated horror maze planned for UK in 2015