Austin-based studio to release golfable version of the cult favorite, Summer 2022

AUSTIN, Texas—The Jim Henson Company has signed a deal with Mighty Coconut—the entertainment studio behind the best-rated multiplayer game on the MetaQuest: Walkabout Mini Golf—to develop a 36-hole VR course set in the world of Jim Henson’s 1986 classic fantasy film LABYRINTH. The course will be available on MetaQuest, Steam, and forthcoming VR platforms Summer of 2022 and will feature family-friendly gameplay with realistic physics, and beloved creatures from the film. Labyrinth is especially suited to VR, allowing the game’s creators to transport fans right into the world of creatures, faeries and goblins so memorably brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.

“The fantastical world of LABYRINTH has intrigued generations of fans who are invited to explore this virtual reality mini golf course that will take players right inside the Goblin Kingdom,” said Melissa Segal, head of Consumer Products for The Jim Henson Company. “People will be able to explore the world Jim Henson created, encounter the creatures from the film, and have friends from all over the world join them in the fun—all around the inclusive game of mini golf!”

The base game of Walkabout Mini Golf includes eight distinct courses, which each include 36 holes. Mighty Coconut is subsequently releasing individual add-on courses as downloadable content (DLC)—currently numbering at three with more in the works. “Walkabout Mini Golf: Labyrinth” will be a DLC course for the popular game, but will ‘level up’ on features and interactivity.

The “Walkabout Mini Golf: Labyrinth” DLC will be vivid, challenging, character-filled, and richly realized course for players where they can escape, explore, and play solo or rendezvous with up to four other players for 18 easy mode and 18 hard mode holes—complete with iconic LABYRINTH creatures, settings, and obstacles. There will also be 18 lost balls to collect and a “fox hunt” scavenger expedition as well as expansive mazes and gardens to discover.

“We’re so thrilled to be working with The Jim Henson Company for our first licensed course… they have been terrific partners, helping us stay true to the original LABYRINTH, while also allowing us to have fun and be inventive as we create what is basically an entire virtual theme park, with a mini-golf course attached,” said Lucas Martell, executive producer and head of Mighty Coconut.

This partnership adds to Mighty Coconut’s robust and growing, virtual mini golf ecosystem—a shared virtual space where fans can spend hours creating memories inside their beloved entertainment places, collecting themed souvenirs and expressing themselves in new ways. The strategy is pioneering a novel approach to what some are calling the “metaverse” by partnering to design expansive themed attractions for intellectual property seeking engaged audiences.

Mighty Coconut is an independent studio based in Austin, Texas and has quickly risen in the virtual reality ecosystem, with Walkabout Mini Golf now  the top-rated multiplayer game on the Meta Quest platform, the 4th best-rated title on that platform altogether, and a gamer favorite—having recently been featured in the Meta Quest Super Bowl campaign.

Enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of players of all ages in over 40 countries, Walkabout Mini Golf has received critical and player praise for its lush environments, true-to-life physics, and curated social experience with a self-paced, intergenerational appeal to advanced and novice players alike. The New York Times called Walkabout Mini Golf “an adorable mini-golf game that is unexpectedly convincing” and the Washington Post’s review heralded the title as “A magnificent collection of challenging holes set in fantasy locations”.

Notably, the game has earned a nearly perfect five-star rating with over 5,500 reviews on Meta Quest—the marketplace leader—and player engagement boasts a 2-Hour Usage Rate for more than 50% of users (around 10 times the standard), meaning they play Walkabout Mini Golf until their battery runs out. The Meta Quest 2 has been named one of “Oprah’s 2021 Favorite Things” and Meta has just passed the 10 million headsets sold benchmark, according to Qualcomm as of November 16, 2021.

Mighty Coconut
Founded in 2014 on the heels of Lucas Martell’s award-winning animated short film THE OCEANMAKER, Mighty Coconut is an Austin-based entertainment studio specializing in immersive virtual and augmented reality games and animation. Led by a creative team of animation and game design industry veterans with a passion for combining stunning visuals and well-crafted mechanics, the studio has found success in VR game development and has the best-rated multiplayer game on the Meta Quest (formerly Oculus) platform: Walkabout Mini Golf, building on previous released games 57° North, Lazer Mazer as well as narrative series KINGS OF ATLANTIS (YouTube Red). Executive producer and head of Mighty Coconut, Lucas Martell is the co-creator of SPIES IN DISGUISE, the Fox/Blue Sky animated feature starring Will Smith and Tom Holland. The original short film PIGEON: IMPOSSIBLE as well as THE OCEANMAKER have been seen more than 30-million times online and screened at over 350 festivals in 63 different countries.

About The Jim Henson Company
The award-winning Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 60 years and is recognized as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics, and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world-famous Muppets, Henson is currently in production on Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio for Netflix and the feature film The Portable Door. Henson’s most recent television credits include the acclaimed reboot Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock and the animated series Harriet the Spy, both for Apple TV+, as well as Duff’s Happy Fun Bake Time for discovery+, Earth to Ned for Disney+, Fraggle Rock: Rock On! for Apple TV+, the Emmy-winning Netflix Original series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Word Party (Netflix) and the Emmy®-nominated Dinosaur Train (PBS). Previous TV productions include Sid the Science Kid (PBS), Splash and Bubbles (PBS), and Julie’s Greenroom (Netflix), as well as Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller, and the sci-fi series Farscape. Feature film credits include The Star(Sony Pictures Animation), Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Disney), and the groundbreaking fantasy classics The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.

With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and post-production facilities. The Company is home to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television, theme park and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company’s Henson Alternative credits include The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (Netflix), the feature film The Happytime Murders and the popular live puppet improvisational show Puppet-Up! – Uncensored.