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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-life_Room_Escape Has anyone gone to one of these? I've been to a couple in the Vancouver area and they've been pretty fun. What they are: If you don't know, Escape Rooms are places you and a team of friends go, get a scenario (like 'secret agent' or 'spy') and get locked into a puzzle room. The rooms are usually themed - I've seen a crime scene, insane asylum, Egyptian pyramid, etc. You have to find clues around the room and solve puzzles to advance, and then eventually escape to win. Usually you're then given a score and have your team name on a leader board if your team is successful. It's kind of a ground-floor market right now because they're only just starting to catch on worldwide, but expect to see a lot more of these in the near future. Where they came from: These places basically came out of Escape the Room Flash games that were a big hit several years back. Eventually someone figured out it would be cool to do this in real life. It caught on across Asia - especially in Japan, China, and Singapore - and now they're gaining popularity in places like the UK and North America. I know New York City has a few springing up. They're especially popular for corporate team-building exercises. Companies will send a group of workers to these places as an activity to see how well they can work together. Why I'm posting this: I have a personal interest in the reactions of goons to these places, because I just finished designing one for a game company. I'm mainly a filmmaker, but this past year I fell into working with an indie game company. That company was contracted out by a water park designer who went to an Escape Room and loved the concept - but thought their company could do a better job. So we spent about a month hashing out everything, planning all the puzzles, and then handed it off to builders. We're just now in the process of filming video segments for briefing players. I created and wrote the narrative of the game, and I co-created all of the puzzle designs and themes with 3 other designers, with team management from a game designer who has previously worked for Ubisoft and was a lead designer on some of the Assassin's Creed games. It was a lot of work but a really fun project. For us, our main issues with going to some of the other ones in our area were that there wasn't enough immersion (you're just told "you're a secret agent" with absolutely no other qualifiers), and that most of the puzzles are all the same (find 50 numbers around the room, use 6 of them in combination locks). They were also pretty small spaces, which we're aiming to change - we want multiple rooms and team-splitting, since these are so popular with corporate crowds. I'll be able to update with more information as we get closer to launching, but I enjoy the concept and I've liked what I've seen from a lot of these so far. What have your experiences been like? Did you enjoy them or what could they do better?
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Sep 19, 2014 20:32
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I haven't been to one, but I like the idea in principle. I'd imagine there are strong safety guidelines because you're locking people in a room for an hour.
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Sep 20, 2014 20:42
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Yeah, I had to write a safety video too, which is currently being animated. Players also sign a waiver. We have to do certain things up to code too, like enough ventilation, panic buttons in the rooms in case of injury, easy access doors, etc.
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Sep 20, 2014 23:13
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A guy I went to college with just opened one up a few blocks away from me. I've been meaning to try it out but haven't gotten enough people together to split the price down to something everyone will chip in for.
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Sep 20, 2014 23:31
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