Escape Rooms

NEW PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

An Escape Room is an interactive game where your team is trapped in a room (or series of rooms) until you can solve a number of puzzles. Typical Escape Rooms have a time limit of around 60 minutes.
They may involve live actors, but often there are multimedia elements, as well as lighting & sound effects and a vast array of props which act as clues (or containers for clues).
They have a great deal in common with immersive theatrical experiences, and are wildly popular world-wide. Rather than just a room full of puzzles to solve, the best (and most engaging) escape rooms have a strong story element, which helps to explain and justify the puzzles.

Designing an Escape Room

What is the story / environment?
Clues should make sense within the story / environment / style of the room.
Frustration is inevitable, but that should not be caused by bad design. Ensure clues are not deliberately obscure. Everyone should be able to solve them, without needing specific knowledge.
Puzzles should be revealed in order, and should make sense within the story / environment.
Each element should have a usage which is clear when the puzzle is solved, and should not just be a case of random luck (e.g. try the key in a number of locks until you find the one that works).
The puzzle / elements in the room should be able to withstand reasonable abuse by players.
Ensure safety is built-in. If there’s a problem in the room, the players must be able to alert someone, who should be paying attention throughout their game.
Have a clear plan for resetting the room correctly between games, and ensure that anything that could be broken is available as a spare (and is costed into the business model) OR that it’s securely fixed and cannot be moved.