INTERNATIONAL: With neon lights running along the wall, pulsating electronic beats, and a glowing red shuttlecock bouncing back and forth, one could have easily mistaken this sports venue for the set of a sci-fi film.

“Shuttle In The Dark,” located at a fitness center inside the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, offers players a chance to play badminton in a futuristic, space-like environment, with a court that glows in the dark with accompanying luminescent equipment like rackets, clothes, and shuttlecocks.

Yen Mai, a professional badminton player, finds the new setting exciting and requires more focus. She said,"With the lighting, somehow we are still able to hit it, and then it requires better focus. And it's exciting, it's different but it's still playing like normal (badminton).”

“Shuttle In The Dark” was initially set up in December 2021 and was the brainchild of a sports management company, which was trying to encourage more people to take up the sport after two years of social restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Irina Inozemtseva, Director of Inic Sport Management said, "Our initial goal was how can we encourage and gain back the interest of people to come back and play. Not only those enthusiasts but then as well, the new people who was not able to or never played badminton before."

Badminton is one of Malaysia's most popular sports, with a thriving community in the Southeast Asian country which has produced some of the world's top-ranked players.

Open to athletes at all levels of the game, “Shuttle in the Dark” charges 180 ringgit ($42.63) per hour to play and rent their neon equipment. Some believe the fees may be too high for the average Malaysian as the regular courts in Malaysia usually charge about 20 ringgit for access.