How to design an escape room…
Before you read on… if you are an escape room owner, a ‘proper’ engineer, a designer, a creator, a qualified genius - you will likely find lots of things wrong with the following information. I wrote it - not AI, not someone else. I have not spent hours researching, I have written out my ideas in an order that worked for me. You will have very different methods or you may have very similar - the beauty is that the creation processes we use all results in an end product we’re proud of.
My hope is that some of my words at least, are useful to someone, somewhere.
Right… pay attention!
Test it.
Whatever it is, test it on others.
Do NOT be afraid to get things wrong. Be ready to make adjustments. Be prepared to take critical feedback.
There, done.
Ok, there is more to it than that, but I wanted to get that point across early on - because it is very important.
Play games - go visit escape rooms, play their games. Play online escape rooms. Play, play, play, play. Talk to escape room owners and/or managers (like me…or Brad, Joe, Thomas et al). Ask questions, find stuff out. Do your research….
Get familiar with the following: themes, number of puzzles involved in a 1 hour escape room (if that’s your thing), types of locks, types of tech, the number of rooms in one game, the average time it takes to escape, how games end, the ways in which clues are given, how games begin, the briefings that staff give, the team photos… absorb as much as you can - and enjoy!
Now… the way I have designed escape rooms varies and depends very much on what mood I’ve been in.
THEME - decide what sort of game you would like to create. Example: a time travel game or a prison break game. From this point you can then start planning…
If you haven’t done so already, play games that are similar to your theme. What did you like about them? What stuff could you ‘take’ / use, adapt…
Brainstorm - come up with the ‘reason’ for escape. What is the jeopardy of your game? Why are teams trying to escape or what are they tasked with trying to complete within the time limit…? I always ask myself this: why would there be puzzles / locks in the story… for me, I need to make sense of why the puzzles ‘exist’.
Map out your game - maybe on separate A4 paper, make a storyboard of your game. Visualise it. Plan the ‘route’ groups will take as they navigate their way through your design.
Come talk to me. I am not very good at writing all this stuff - I prefer to show people, chat about their ideas and help them organise ideas and prioritise.
Find inspiration from charity… I had the theme, the ‘rough’ layout of my first escape room and I had lots of puzzle ideas. I needed furniture and so I visited various charity shops nearby and started using FB Marketplace - a lot. I often had no clue what I was looking for but found a lot of inspiration from looking at various types of cupboards, desks, chairs, shelving etc. I spent quite a bit of time AND money at St Oswald’s Hospice warehouse in Kingston Park. I highly recommend going or finding somewhere similar. All sorts of furniture, picture frames, mirrors, chairs, shelving units, cupboards, tables… You might not find anything on one trip so be prepared to return because those places thrive on donations so you never know what next week’s visit will bring.
Your game theme and setting will help determine what sort of tech and gadgetry you’ll be using. Be mindful of your own limitations - and also be ready to do some learning. I have learned quite a lot about basic electronics and programming. If you have a puzzle design in mind that involves lights flashing, a buzzer sounding, a mag-lock releasing - then don’t let your existing knowledge hold you back. Use AI to learn. It is what I still do because I learn at MY pace and it has become a hobby now. I’ve managed to build puzzles involving button sequences, mag-locks, all sorts. I really enjoy it because the challenge of learning - particularly building some puzzle - is something I love doing. Am I any good at it? Not particularly but I am not trying to build something for use at NASA. It just needs to be robust enough to withstand kids and their demonic minds!
Test. Re-think. Test again. Take a break. Test. Re-think. Adapt. Repair. Adjust. Test again. Repeat. Do NOT expect EVER to get your game ‘spot on’ straight away. If you think it is perfect from the off then you are completely deluded and you will fail. Put your ego over there near the bin. Design a puzzle, test in your partner, your mum, dad, brother, friends, whoever. You will undoubtedly find that they make you realise that people think differently and will come up with an entirely unique way of solving your puzzle that you would never have thought of.
Test the whole game. Invite friends, family, groups, to come and play-test your game. Observe how they approach each puzzle, how they interact with your design. Listen to their feedback, take advice, swallow pride / ego - you can and WILL get things ‘not quite right’. Since opening my first game - The Detention - I have made numerous changes to it. It has been evolved steadily since I started taking bookings. I think I have changed or tweaked every single puzzle. It is a pain to do and I know it is quite demanding on your limited time but keep an open mind and pay attention to how your game is flowing. Where there are bottlenecks or puzzles you often give hints for - these are the signs you need to make adjustments. Example: I had a puzzle involving 5 relatively simple cipher wheels. They were attached to a door. A door that groups needed to get through. Next to the door is a 5 digit lock. The lock opened when groups figured out the 5 digit code from the cipher wheels. It made sense to me. It did NOT make sense to a lot of groups and I could not understand why groups were struggling. It became apparent that groups were expecting the door to open when they turned the dials on the door - as if there was some clever unlocking mechanism inside the door, linked to the dials. Groups were listening out for the clicks! What exists now is one large dial, and 5 analog clocks with only an hour hand, pointing at a particular number. The puzzle still requires some figuring out but it is a lot better than it was. So, be flexible, be ok with making mistakes and learning from them.
I know some of you may have an idea in your head about a game - brilliant. Here’s something to help you get more focused and perhaps get things moving forward: how does your game end? Now, think backwards. How does your group get to that point? Starting with the ending of your game really does help you ask and answer a lot of questions that may have been really tricky to answer if coming from the other direction.
Like I said earlier - if you would like to get in touch to ask for advice, support etc - I am always available. Contact info below.