Launching today
The Obscura Society
A new way to explore Atlas Obscura
1 follower
A new way to explore Atlas Obscura
1 follower
The Obscura Society reimagines Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity, as an interactive social world. Instead of scrolling articles, visitors wander a shared space and engage with an AI-powered bartender that answers questions, tells stories and adapts to curiosity in real time. It blends conversational AI, immersive environment design and social exploration into a new way to experience cultural storytelling.
Hi Product Hunt 👋
We’re New Canvas, an award-winning XR studio focused on immersive narrative entertainment. For the past few years, we’ve been asking a question: What if we’ve been thinking about VR storytelling the wrong way? Most immersive experiences today are built as isolated moments. All beautifully crafted, but solitary. You enter, you experience, you leave.
We've always felt that’s missing is the social layer. It is the very human part of that entire experience equation. In film and television, the story doesn’t end when the credits roll, because it continues in conversation. You know, those 'water cooler' moments. In immersive media, that layer largely doesn’t exist.
So we were excited to have the opportunity to partner again with Atlas Obscura and also collab with HTC VIVEVERSE for this flex to build what we call 'Lounges;' Basically, digital, social spaces that extend immersive worlds and give audiences somewhere to gather, linger and talk....Like real humans do IRL.
The Obscura Society is an early proof of that format in that:
- It’s not a game.
- Not a feed.
- Not just a VR environment.
It’s a narrative-adjacent social space that's anchored by a conversational AI bartender named 'Lindsay,' who was designed to spark curiosity and keep the story alive between moments of spectacle, especially if there are no other visitors in the world. We didn't want them to feel alone and, besides, what better way to tap into and serve up Atlas Obscura's rich archive of tens of thousands of travel-related content?
Our thesis continues to be:
The future of immersive entertainment isn’t just better headsets or higher fidelity.
It’s shared presence layered onto story worlds.
We believe that these 'Lounges' are a scalable storytelling format that can support media franchises, cultural institutions and original IP by turning audiences into communities.
We’d love your thoughts on our very first pass at this new experience:
• What makes an immersive world feel alive?
• Where should social layers sit inside XR storytelling?
• What would make you come back?
We're super excited to hear what you think!