Planet Novak in Fredericksburg, VA If you walk the midway of almost any Family Entertainment Center and ask the General Manager how their cranes are priced, you’ll often get the same answer: "It's a dollar a play." But if you ask them why  it's a dollar a play, things usually get quiet. When it comes to merchandisers, claw machines, and pushers, the "set it and forget it" mentality is the fastest way to bleed out your profit margins or entirely kill a guest's desire to play.

Clint Novak Selfie with Christa & Russ The latest stop on the Novak Roadshow  took me to the beautiful Miramar Beach, Florida, to visit Russ and his team at Rainforest Blacklight Golf & Arcade . Russ operates two locations, but the Miramar Beach site is a fantastic case study in how to grow within a strip mall footprint while maintaining a high-end, immersive feel. The Layout: Beyond the Blacklight The core of the facility is a massive, 18-hole indoor blacklight mini-golf cou

Reclaiming Prime Real Estate with High-Engagement Social Play As I prepare to hit the pavement for the first leg of the Novak Roadshow , I’ve been thinking a lot about the "real estate" inside our facilities. Every square foot has to earn its keep. We all have that one attraction that perhaps was the "star of the show" five years ago but is now seeing its numbers plateau. For this month’s column, I reached out to someone who recently made a bold move to reclaim some prime rea