Crammed arcades are most likely to cause your customers to experience some difficulties. And in some cases; your establishment will NOT make any money than you thought. Designing a layout of your arcade is important than having equipment themselves. Also, your arcade must have a high surface area for the best experience for people who are relying on wheelchairs, scooters, etc.

Your Entrance Must Be Wide And Easy To Navigate

Think about an entrance to your arcade like your typical house, an entrance is a place where people can enter your arcade. Don’t cram your entrance with equipment as a way to generate instant revenue. Instead; your entrance must be simple and sparse. For this instance; you can add a digital screen to display offers, or an artwork what you’ve chosen, or someone via any company has rented a disk space to display their artwork as an alternative to posting advertisements. One machine is enough, but you need to place it behind strong glass that is resistant to bullets, and impact.

If your entrance includes a button for wheelchair users, ensure its easy to reach. You can also use automatic doors for easy entering and exiting.

The Foyer

You can include a TTW ATM machine, a vending machine, a recycle bin for metal, paper, plastic, glass, cardboard,and other items that can be recycled; a coin-operated ride of choice (large enough for adult gamers, not just for children, with a child-friendly format), a through-the-wall counter for ordering food to go (useful for delivery orders via phone, website, or app), a set of candy machines, a sink for washing your hands, and even a drinking fountain!

Your foyer must be large enough with bright lighting. This is important to ensure your visitors are able to see. If your foyer has games to try out playing, include a few games that are relevant to your arcade’s primary theme. You can include a household plant to add a hint of nature to your foyer. The simpler, the easier to manage your foyer. Don’t put ALL of these eggs in just one basket!

Adding A Theme To Your Foyer (Primary Theme)

Adding a primary theme matters! You can’t run an arcade without a primary theme, even if your arcade has multiple themes what you’ve chosen by hand. Primary themes are importnat to keep your arcade relevant. Changing a theme without asking your customers is like making your brand irrelevant, almost like spamming someone’s blog post with comments that aren’t relevant. The more relevant your theme is, the better!

We will address theming your arcade itself later on. We will give you these example themes for your arcade’s foyer:

Equestrian

If your arcade has a primary theme of equestrian sports; you can simply add a coin-operated mechanical horse, or pony for both children (and adults too), a theme of a farm or rodeo, a vending machine that sell canned drinks with relevant brands that support rodeos or any rodeo sporting events, or even organizations who keep equestrian activities active for years to come; recycle bins for recycling materials; and even an old rocking horse what your little infant used to ride since years ago can be used as a display piece behind a glass wall.

Here are the following possibilities,–if you developed a large foyer:

• A theme of a barn on a farm – A theme of a farm is a groundwork for this theme. You can add a rodeo to this theme (optional). You can have a figure of a horse or pony to sit on, and easy to ride with either requireing coins, or a free version of a ride. This is useful if you want to include these simple rides if your arcade is shut, and if you want to have after hours gaming available. This is useful for people who wanted to play some games, and support your arcade as your employees are at home resting for tonight. However; you need to have a working person available to look after this foyer.
• A ride-on mechanical cow (optional) – This is ideal for your arcade’s foyer, and you can add a mechanical cow as an option. Not ALL people just ride horses!
• A bench for sitting (optional – A bench is useful for people who are waiting for a bus to arrive, or if children are waiting for their parents to arrive, and take them home for tonight,–or if you are fulljoying a snack. This is also useful for people who read newspapers, and even if you want to have this foyer serve as a coffee shop!
• Newspaper or magazine rack for selling newspapers or magazines – This is useful if you want to add a news section to your foyer (optional)

You can also add related artwork to your foyer, but don’t be daunted with adding artwork. Always go for either some artwork what you made yourself (recommended), or go for open-source art that is available, and check licenses wisely. Never rely on artwork that is associated with greedy corporations who monopolize intellectual property, you should have other artists promote their artwork on digital screens with a fee,–similar to advertising.

Fantasy

A fantasy theme can be an option for your arcade,–if you chose it as a core theme for your arcade. Fantasy themes are ideal for fans of fantasy-related worlds, characters, and more.

Your Arcade Itself

Okay, this is a fun part to consider when implementing a layout for your arcade. If you own a building, and you are planning a layout, you need to ensure you have ample room for your customers to interact with games, or rides. Don’t just count on children only because, you need to have adult customers who want to fulljoy games and rides,–the same way how children fulljoy.

If you are not sure about an arcade layout, we will provide you an example setup of an arcade with a strategic layout:

The Main Hall

Your main hall may have some arcade machines that can serve as landmarks for people who are blind. You can either have a game, or a ride to be used as a functional landmark. This is useful if you have subarcades in your large building, and you diversify themes per each arcade what you implemented. Your main hall can have the following machines:

The Carousel (For Adult Riders Too)

Place a carousel at the center of your main hallway. This is necessary to ensure you can have people use a carousel as a center point of a building to find a suitable arcade for their gaming preference. Your carousel can have a theme of different animals, or just a traditional carousel with horses. If you are an arcade owner who prefers anyone to ride a carousel (including adults); you should consider a large carousel with quality-built parts, and it can last for a long time. You can always go for “adults first” and keep family friendly format prioritized as a way to keep your audience coming back with a relevant theme. Typically, setting up prices is up to your preference. This is useful if you are running an indoor amusement park, and you want to have arcade games to play as a way to keep lines short.

If you are including a smaller carousel for smaller children (alongside a large carousel for anyone), you need to place it at a specific location that will serve as a conventional arcade. This is useful for testing between consumer types. However; having a carousel only for smaller children doesn’t always mean more money to make. Not all children can ride a carousel for any reason set by parents, teachers, physicians, etc.

If you chose a quality carousel that can last for a long time, you can save more money by only purchasing parts to perform repairs, maintenance, improvements, and more. No person wants to ride on defective rides!

Vending Machines

If you enforce recycling of cans, and you enforce “plastic-free” waste as a way to keep pollutants out of our oceans, land, and air… you can implement recycle bins at a specific place where your vending machines are located. This is useful if your arcade sections are closed up for tonight, or if you need to offset costs of running your arcade’s kitchens. These machines can be located at the following places:

Sides Of Your Main Hall

If you are implementing these machines that are going to repopulate these parts of an arcade, you can set these machines at a desired spot where it receives high traffic, or you can spread them out,–depending on a theme of each arcade, but don’t put all of the eggs in just one basket!

Empty walls are ideal spots for your machines.

Inside A Dedicated Room Where You Can Buy Snacks

You can use a dedicated room for these machines,–if you don’t want to cram up your hallways of your arcade. If you want to get more detail about setting up a dedicated room for a vending machine; we will discuss this via this post later on.

The ATM

Is your entire arcade “cash only” as your business model? An ATM is your best friend! This is also useful if you want to ensure you keep credit card processing fees at bay, or if you want to have full control of cash available. This is a great way to appreciate use of tangible cash what you can keep as you run your arcade.

There are good reasons why you want to choose to have your customers pay with cash instead of debit/credit cards:

• You prefer to have people hand cash to you at the register, and you want to use physical cash to take to your local bank, or if you want to ensure your customers are NOT using credit cards because, they want to ensure they use cash more than swiping cards.
• You want to ensure your cash is present, and you want to rely on safes what your arcade rely on. This is useful for bringing cash to your local bank,–prior to changing shifts,–or if you want to have a buildup of cash to keep your business active,–even if you treat money as a tool!
• You like the feel of currency, and you want to ensure you have an ample stream of cash handed to you when doing business in your arcade.
• Proof of payment.

If You Have A TTW ATM

Use a TTW ATM machine for your arcade, your ATM like this needs a door to go behind a set of controls what a customer uses when making transactions. For ADA requirements, always position these controls that are easy for people on wheelchairs to reach and use. And don’t forget about security when having this ATM installed. If you are caring about use of open-source software; ask for a Linux-based ATM, that way; you can skip having a requirement to install Windows, and pay for licensing associated with Windows.

Setting Up A Landmark For Finding An ATM Faster

Although; setting up a landmark for the blind to find an ATM is kind of tricky, and there’s no universal landmark for finding an ATM. However; you can implement relevant objects that can be used as landmarks for an ATM (TTW only):

Change Machine

A change machine can be used for finding an ATM machine. That makes it easier for customers to get change. This is necessary for people who want to use coins to buy snacks, play games, and even ride rides. Without this machine; your arcade will not receive controlled revenue what you desire. Most arcade machines don’t have bill slots to take printed currency.

Coin Counting Machines to convert to dollar bills

You can expand a landmark for an ATM. That way; if someone has a heavy jar of pennies, they can use this machine to receive dollar bills. Useful for people who pay with cash each day.

Custom Landmarks

If you are making a custom landmark, it must be consistent.

Security Is Extremely Important (Including Safety)

Always have proper security and safety measures when having an ATM like this installed.
You should always have a large enough layout for ease of maintenance and repair. If it includes a doorway for restocking an ATM, always use common sense when setting it up. Bright lighting, cameras, and proper placement of a dedicated area for ATM refulls is necessary to prevent crime. If you are still caring about safety, alarms, and other essentials are needed. Steel doors infused with brass, electric strikes, crash bars, and bullet-resistant measures are necessary.

The inside of an ATM with cash being stored must be lit with LED, and it must have advanced security measures.

ATM users must have an ample room for safety. You can at least have 4 or 8 ATMs in your arcade. This is useful for handling customers who don’t want in long lines. If this is the case, lighting is necessary.

If your primary ATM is also connected to a foyer; you can get more ATM revenue,–without needing to enter the main arcade itself, or if an arcade is undergoing maintenance.

For Free Standing ATMs

If you have a free standing ATM; if must be located at a high-traffic area of your arcade, and it must have security measures implemented. This is useful for arcades that can’t have a TTW ATM installed.

The Arcade Machines

As you pick out which arcade machines what you want to include in your arcade, you pick a relevant setup for your arcade. If you have subarcades, and you want to have each arcade has its own theme and purpose, you can use this strategy to sort out games that are relevant. For this instance; your arcade has pinball machines… you can set up a dedicated arcaded that is dedicated to pinball games from various eras.

See also: Does A Theme For My Arcade Matter?

The more consistent your core theme; the greater your visitors will experience your arcade. Most arcade owners just pick a theme randomly, and change it later as a final decision, upsetting customers. Keeping a same theme as a core, and getting feedback from customers is a must. However; you can have an arcade within an arcade, and set a theme per each arcade (subarcade) to diversify categories, genres, and more. Its kind f like sorting books in a library.

Always stick with a same theme for your customers as a way to keep relevance. If you have a theme of a forest, keep it. Any attempt to paint over themes can result loss of customers.

If you steer clear of these marketing myths, you can keep your theme set as a way to keep your arcade.

Remodeling and other factors can jeopardize your current theme, always plan before renovating and remodeling.

A simple theme is ideal for rental buildings.

A custom theme is ideal for people who own buildings.

If your arcade has a theme of a church, always perform caution when choosing this theme.

Subarcades (arcades within an arcade)

What we just mentioned earlier, your arcade can be divided into subarcades. This is useful if you are implementing a broad theme, or a set of games via previous eras. This method of running an arcade is useful for segmenting your arcade’s revenue performance. You can also use this strategy when you are going to have multiple customers play games what they love to play.

If you have a classics section; you can put classic games in this arcade, if you have rides, you can setup a room for rides,–and if you have a sports section, you can sports-related games.

Food Court (optional)

If you rent out empty sections of an arcade,–dedicated for restaurants that rely on countertop pickups for customers, you can set this place up for any of these restaurants of choice,–depending on your arcade’s theme/preference. For this instance; Jamaican, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Mexican restaurants,–including a pizza restaurant. That is ideal if you prefer to let restaurants do ALL of the heavy lifting for you. That is also useful if you are planning on developing a menu for your restaurant section of your arcade. Adding a delivery option can also help gain your reach of people in either small or large cities.

If you have a built-in restaurant implemented, you can use it as a way to serve gamers who play your games. Using an “over the counter” method is ideal to simplify your food service offered by your arcade. However; you need to ensure your food service meets serious requirememts. If you have a rule that prohibits ptoxic chemicals, and other unnecessary additives, state it within your restaurant plan, and keep it relevant. The more of your meals are “chemical-free”… the better.

You can offer ceramic trays for customers who chose NOT to use foam plates. This is ideal for reducing plastic pollution by 99.9%. If you have gamers who play games, you can set up a “gaming dinner” as a way to simplify your food service for gamers who play arcade games.

If you have other restaurant owners who only use cash as payments, always encourage your customers to use an ATM to have cash available for spending, that way; you can help reduce the burden of fees associated with debit/credit card networks.

Important

Be aware; permits are necessary for this feature, and you need to have your food service areas inspected daily as a way to increase safety. Investing on safety for people is necessary. Always pay your employees with a fair amount. If your training your employees with hands on training, train them thoroughly! A large wage of at least $30 is necessary. Small wages are only intended for simple jobs, or if employees are trying out a job and being trained with each step.

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