Yuewen Group built an adventure house for "The Unusual Adventure of the Daoist Hermit". Is the end of IP a theme park?
Text by | Wang Yuchan
Edited by | Qiao Qian
On September 26th, Tencent Literature (Yuewen Group) collaborated with Universal Studios Singapore to launch an adventure house themed on the online novel Dao Gui Yi Xian at Universal Studios Singapore. 36Kr, as one of the first invited media outlets, conducted an on - site experience and interviewed the Tencent Literature project team and the novel's author, "Huwei's Pen".
The Dao Gui Yi Xian themed adventure house is part of the "Halloween Horror Nights 13" limited - time event at Universal Studios Singapore under Resorts World Sentosa. It was open to the public from September 26th to November 1st. On the opening day, tourists from various countries queued up hundreds of meters long at the entrance of the adventure house.
Photo provided by Tencent Literature
The Halloween event features a total of 4 adventure house IPs. Besides Dao Gui Yi Xian from China, there is also a Thai IP, a Singaporean IP, and the Netflix film and television IP Stranger Things.
The Dao Gui Yi Xian themed adventure house uses the novel's world - view as a clue to connect the game routes. It is equipped with up to 50 live NPC actors (25 roles, with A and B actors rotating), making it the adventure house with the largest number of NPCs among the four in the park.
According to 36Kr's observation, the adventure house uses partition walls to divide the space. As soon as visitors enter, they are greeted with the scene of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital clinic from the beginning of the novel. The project team recreated the consultation room in the novel, using the sound effects of a ventilator, dim shadowless lights, and scares such as "the doctor NPC suddenly emerging from a cabinet".
Next, visitors move on to the "Alchemy Room", which showcases the core scene of the villain, Danyangzi. The project team built a large pneumatic alchemy furnace (which can open, close, rise, fall, and emit smoke), and the walls are hung with prosthetic hands and severed limbs that swing with the pneumatic devices.
Photo provided by Tencent Literature
The person in charge of the project said that in the "Ghost Opera Stage" scene, in order to create a more traditional Chinese - style ghost opera stage, they specifically went to a second - hand goods market in Chengdu and bought an old Chinese - style bed from the Republic of China era. They paired it with red gauze curtains and red candles to recreate the plot of "Bai Lingmiao sharing a bed with two spirits". More than 80% of the props and sculptures in the entire adventure house are hand - carved or artistically processed.
The adventure house also showcases the traditional folk culture of lion dancing in Fengdu City. The project team leader said that the artists designed and processed a new prop based on the traditional Chinese lion head for lion dancing. The NPCs hide under the lion head props and dance, accompanied by the background music of Chinese opera, allowing visitors to feel both the power of culture and the horror effect at the same time.
Ghosts + Mental Illness, the "Fear Intersection" of People Worldwide
Among numerous IPs, why did Tencent Literature choose Dao Gui Yi Xian?
The project team said in an interview that it was not only because of the novel's high - popularity data, but more importantly, they believed that the content of the Dao Gui Yi Xian IP was highly compatible with the adventure house scene.
"As a novel with a traditional Chinese horror style, Dao Gui Yi Xian has a prominent core of Eastern culture. The IP integrates Taoist culture and classical mythological elements, bringing an inherent Eastern mystery, and traditional Chinese horror has a cultural foundation in Southeast Asia." The project leader gave an example, saying that the novel depicts scenes such as the alchemy room and the ghost opera stage, as well as objects like the wedding bed, lion dance, and mahjong, which are both recognizable and understandable to the Southeast Asian audience.
Resorts World Sentosa stated that compared with the direct and bloody horror style in the West, "traditional Chinese horror is better at creating fear through implicit and psychological oppression, which forms a valuable complement."
Photo provided by Tencent Literature
Another reason is that the Dao Gui Yi Xian IP has not been adapted into live - action movies, TV shows, or animations yet. The project team believes that it has no fixed visual impression in the public's mind, so they have more freedom in designing the adventure house. For example, the "schizophrenic" perspective of the protagonist, Li Huowang, and the setting of "Bai Lingmiao sharing a body with two spirits" can all be translated into real - life horror effects.
The author of Dao Gui Yi Xian, "Huwei's Pen", also experienced the adventure house. His evaluation was, "I was a bit scared. It met my expectations quite well, and some details were done very well." The scene he thought was most faithfully recreated was "the little - footed woman performing a ghost opera", and the most impactful scene was "the alchemy furnace steaming with fog and the severed limbs wriggling".
"I felt a very strange feeling. The world in my pen suddenly became a reality. It's a bit emotional. I didn't expect that a novel I casually wrote at that time would become such a big thing." Huwei's Pen said.
This is Tencent Literature's first attempt at overseas offline real - life entertainment adaptation of an IP. In the past, the overseas expansion of online novels was mostly through "text translation" or "animation adaptation", while this time it is a closed - loop of "online content + offline real - life experience + derivative consumption". Visitors can not only experience the adventure house at Universal Studios but also buy IP derivatives under the "Tencent Literature Goodies" brand in the store.
The shelf of Tencent Literature derivatives in the Universal Studios store. Photo by 36Kr
Huwei's Pen believes that the offline entertainment adaptation of Dao Gui Yi Xian provides a new idea for Chinese online novel IPs. "Maybe we can expect a theme park full of Tencent Literature IPs in the future," he said.
His core expectation for this adventure house is that foreign tourists who have no knowledge of traditional Chinese horror can become interested in Chinese culture through this adventure house. "Maybe they can learn about my book through here. Eventually, they can learn about Chinese online literature and even the entire Chinese culture," Huwei's Pen said.
100 Days, 500 Square Meters, an Adventure House Shipped from Overseas
According to the project leader, "All materials, from a single screw to a set of NPC wigs, were purchased in China." Tencent Literature's project team first found a 500 - square - meter factory in Chengdu to recreate the Universal Studios adventure house at a 1:1 scale. They completed a full - scale pre - construction, confirmed the effect, then disassembled it and shipped it to Singapore by sea.
The sea shipment encountered typhoons and congestion on the shipping route, and the materials were delayed for 10 days to reach Singapore. The on - site construction time was very tight. The team managed to complete 95% of the construction in a week through "pre - rehearsal in China + modular construction".
The project team started content planning in mid - May. Within 100 days, the story line of the adventure house was updated more than 20 times, and the floor plan was revised more than 30 times, almost on a daily basis.
There were so many rounds of revisions because for each version of the design, from the initial scene to the lighting, sound effects, trigger methods of the mechanisms, and even the door locks, surveillance camera positions, and the number of fire extinguishers, both Tencent Literature and Universal Studios needed to have multiple rounds of confirmation to ensure that it met the venue standards and the park's principles.
For example, Tencent Literature designed the "Mirror Corridor", where players would encounter a little - girl NPC in the mirror at the corner of the mirror maze, making it difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion; the lid of the "Alchemy Furnace" would keep rising, falling, opening, and closing, emitting smoke. The "mirror material of the Mirror Corridor" and the "smoke concentration of the Alchemy Furnace" all had to meet Universal's safety standards.
Photo provided by Tencent Literature
The person in charge of the Tencent Literature project said that they not only had to synchronize the floor plans, story lines, and NPC movement routes with Universal in each round, but also received more than 10 various inspections within 2 weeks during the construction phase. Finally, the adventure house passed the most stringent UDX safety inspection in just 20 minutes.
In 2024, the global amusement park market reached a scale of $56.4 billion. IMARC Group predicts that by 2033, the market scale will reach $81.2 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.13% from 2025 to 2033.
In recent years, Tencent Literature has been strengthening its layout in offline scenarios by establishing its own trendy toy brand, investing in consumer brands, and collaborating with publishing institutions, physical bookstores, or offline event organizers. In May this year, Tencent Literature also collaborated with the Japanese cultural enterprise CCC Group to open its first limited - time pop - up store at Tsutaya Bookstore in Japan.
"This cooperation is an important beginning. Tencent Literature hopes to promote more IPs of Eastern fantasy, martial arts, science fiction, etc. to the global market through offline immersive experiences (such as theme parks and exhibitions)," the project leader said. "Offline real - life experiences can enable global users to have a deep and immersive close - up contact with the IP in a short time, which is a powerful supplement to online content."