When a national childcare and entertainment franchise tests a new attraction, it does not roll it out lightly. Every play concept has to earn its place across centers of different sizes, keep a wide range of ages engaged, and run reliably day after day. So when Kids Quest added MultiBall to its official list of must-have play events for every new center build, it said a great deal about what makes a strong attraction for an indoor playground.
This is the story of how one of the most established names in drop-in childcare found an interactive attraction that children love, parents trust, and operators can manage with ease across many locations.
The Premier Destination for Playtime and Free Time
Since 1992, Kids Quest has delivered on a simple promise: Playtime for Kids, Free Time for You. As an hourly drop-in childcare and entertainment center, it gives parents a safe place to leave their children while they enjoy some free time, and gives children a bright, exciting environment to play in under the care of trained, engagement-focused staff.
Serving families across 20 locations in the United States, Kids Quest caters to a wide age range from 30 months up to 12 years old. Keeping centers fresh and inviting for such a broad audience means constantly seeking out the best equipment and the most engaging experiences available.
The Challenge: Engaging a Wide Age Range in Flexible Spaces
Running a successful indoor playground means serving children with very different developmental needs and energy levels, all in one space. It also means working with the room you have. Kids Quest centers come in many shapes and sizes, and not every location has the footprint for a large traditional gym or a sprawling soft play structure.
The team needed an attraction that could fit flexibly into different layouts while delivering a genuine wow factor. Above all, it had to encourage active, full-body movement rather than passive, screen-based play, staying true to the brand's focus on developmentally beneficial fun.
The Solution: Active Digital Play
MultiBall stood out immediately because it blends movement, technology, and gameplay in a way traditional structures and standard arcade games cannot. Players use real balls and body movement to compete across more than 45 games, turning a single wall into a high-energy, physically active attraction.
For Kids Quest, the space-efficient format was a major advantage. As the team explains, MultiBall introduced a highly engaging, physically active experience in a far more flexible footprint than a traditional gym. It complements centers that already have physical play areas and serves as a powerful, space-saving solution where square footage is limited, making it a fit across the whole portfolio rather than just a few large sites.
Massive Engagement, Backed by the Data
Because Kids Quest operates as a supervised childcare center, children play in a protected environment with attentive staff on hand. Even so, an attraction has to be intuitive enough for children to enjoy on their own. Once they grasp the basics, they navigate the menu easily and move freely between games, which lets staff supervise groups comfortably.
The usage data across their locations shows just how captivating the experience is:
- Children have played over 272,000 matches on their MultiBall systems.
- The systems have logged more than 16,373 hours of active playtime.
- At peak locations, the systems are in active use for up to 5.6 hours every day, 365 days a year.
The variety of games is a big part of why engagement stays high. As the team notes, the range of experiences keeps things fresh and children stay actively involved as they move between games. That same variety has also made MultiBall a highlight for children's birthday parties, where groups can team up and play together.
The Ultimate Parent Pleaser
For a drop-in childcare center, reassuring parents at the check-in desk is essential. MultiBall helps from the moment they walk in. The team noticed how much excitement new guests show when they first see the system, so they position it within clear sightlines at check-in, where it makes an immediate impression.
The deeper reassurance, though, is what the system encourages. The biggest benefit, in the team's own words, is getting children up and moving rather than sitting in front of a screen. Parents love seeing their children active and engaged, which gives them genuine peace of mind while they enjoy their free time.
An Operational Dream for Multi-Site Management
For a business running many locations, downtime is unacceptable and complex maintenance drains staff time. MultiBall has proven to be an operational strength rather than a burden.
Using a single login to the Admin dashboard, the team's technicians can view system health, adjust settings, and push updates to every center at once. In one recent example, a new support technician guided center-level staff through firmware updates across all locations using the dashboard, and reported back on how quick and easy it was to provide that remote support. Day-to-day management, the team reports, is minimal thanks to an excellent record of reliability and uptime.
The Verdict: A Standard for Every Future Build
The partnership has been a clear success. From single test orders to a larger multi-system order, the rollout has run smoothly, with strong communication throughout. Today, Kids Quest operates ten active MultiBall systems across the country, with an eleventh purchased for a brand-new center opening in the Glendale, Arizona area.
Based on the engagement and the operational ease, the conclusion is straightforward, in the team's own words: MultiBall has been added to their list of must-have play events in all new center builds going forward.
Kids Quest proves that an indoor playground can combine the thrill of digital gaming with the healthy benefits of active physical play, all within a supervised childcare setting. For operators weighing up the best equipment for their own venue, it is a compelling example of an attraction that delivers for children, parents, and the business alike.
Bring This Level of Active Engagement to Your Venue
See the full picture and the team's own words on how they use MultiBall across their centers:
Download the full Kids Quest Case Study
Or discover how MultiBall works for indoor playgrounds and family entertainment centers and explore what it could look like in your space.
