Meet Gel Blaster Nexus
…the “Video Game in Real Life”
It all started in 2020 on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Colin Guinn, the creator of Gel Blaster, raised around $300,000 for his first product – SURGE, a toy blaster using eco-friendly “Gellets” that fell some-where between paintball and airsoft projectiles.
His two sons, then 13 and 8, were on either end of those spectrums at the time, with the older one enjoying and bonding with Dad over paintball while the younger one was a Nerf enthusiast. Guinn wanted to make something they could both enjoy.
Since going into retail with SURGE, the company has also created a location-based entertainment concept called Nexus. It’s something like paintball meets laser tag, except there’s no messy cleanup, and it has the fun of glow-in-the-dark, with physical projectiles flying at opponents instead of lasers.
“The blasters and vests are all connected through each other running off a dedicated server in the arena,” explained Steve Starobinsky, the senior vice president of trends and new markets on Gel Blaster’s Nexus project. “We’re able to deliver a video-game style blaster experience to a family entertainment center.”
With two types of sensors, Gel Blaster’s vests further gamify the experience by keeping player stats – inspiring the Nexus tagline “Video Game in Real Life.”
“We know that Player 7 shot Player 4, for instance, and how much damage they did based on the modes they used and the health damage they had,” Starobinsky said. The company says it both invented and patented the hit attribution used in Nexus Arena.
If operators prefer, they can turn off the physical projectiles and simply run Gel Blaster as a dedicated laser tag setup – or, more importantly, they can switch between the two between groups. Up to 24 players can take part in the Gel Blaster Nexus experience.
“We de-risk the investment for FEC owners by creating two attractions in one physical space,” he said. “They can maintain every cent of their existing revenue and add this new, sexy attraction. We believe we can capture all of what they have and had with laser tag and add a completely new audience.”
The physical projectiles – the same Gellets used in Gel Blaster’s retail product SURGE – are sent to FECs dehydrated, expanding to a 7.5mm diameter. The eco-friendly hydro gel bursts on contact and evaporates on its own.
The Nexus Arena itself offers a glow-in-the-dark experience that Starobinsky likened to Tron. (Again, it’s a “Video Game in Real Life,” after all.) He also reemphasized the simple cleanup for operators, saying they really only have to vacuum the space a couple times a week. “We’ve run tens of thousands of people through various arenas and have not had any slippage issues, mess issues, smells or anything else.”
The Nexus concept has reportedly been steadily growing, especially as the retail product continues to sell well. “We’ve done a really good job of getting our product out to retailers,” Starobinsky noted, citing that they compete against the biggest in the business – Hasbro’s Nerf – at places like Walmart and Bass Pro Shops. “The retail serves as a billboard for Nexus.”
There must have been a big billboard near their headquarters in Austin, Texas, because in May 2023, Gel Blaster connected with Main Event and in October of that year built a test arena at their site.
In November 2023, they made their IAAPA Expo debut and won a Brass Ring Award for their Gen-Alpha Nexus Blasters – their first smart blasters and smart vests. More development and preorders followed.
By June 2024, they were running gel blasting and laser tag in back-to-back sessions at their launch partner Main Event’s Austin facility.
“We’ve already seen a super trend of more business Monday through Thursday than they’ve had the last quar-ter and the last 12 months,” Starobinsky reported.
“They’ve seen an increase in dwell time and consumer frequency and total revenue. There’s a phenomenon that happens … we call it the time warp phenomenon. In Nexus, time slows down for the consumer, and more sessions emerge for the operator.”
With that success, they also did an install at Main Event Orlando last fall and most recently at their first California store in Montclair.
“We have an amazing relationship with them – they are incredible partners,” he added. “We look forward to expanding our relationship with Main Event nationally.”
The company’s second partner was Montgomery Amusements in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and their third was Golfland in Fairview, Calif., a company they met at IAAPA. They’ve also partnered with Cineplex’s Palladium brand in Canada and have a European launch partnership with The Playground in Prague.
Open to business globally, today, the company is up to 12 open centers, with 117 deposited locations for 2025. Installing as many as four a week, Starobinsky said, “We are excited to meet demand by summer and open up to new customers in Q3.”
As players exit Nexus Arena, opera-tors can also sell them the at-home products, another potential upside for the FECs – and the players who want to practice at home and unlock different guns and other custom items they can deploy at the location. It’s a bridge between home and the location.
The Nexus Arena requires a mini-mum of 1,200 sq. ft. for a 4-on-4 game, plus an additional 300 sq. ft. for a vesting and point-of-sale area. For operators with existing laser tag arenas, the retrofit package ranges from about $30,000 to $75,000, depending on the size and complexity. Each of their arenas is different and customizable to the venue.
For players, a live scoreboard featuring local and global leaderboards flash-es outside the arenas between games. An app players can download pings them once one of their records has been defeated. Features like those draw players in, increase dwell time and bring them back more frequently, Starobinsky said.
With a game library that keeps growing, Gel Blaster continues to set itself up for even more growth into the future. Follow along at www.gelblaster.com/nexus and visit them at Amusement Expo 2025 booth #2348.
