The Wall of Fame

Solving one of our escape rooms is by no means easy, even with a few hints. So when somebody does it without any help and in a record amount of time, you know it’s quite an accomplishment! In our lobby, we prominently display our Wall of Fame, where we show off all the groups who have had the brain power to figure out all the puzzles in a room with the fastest times. Some of these people solved the rooms so fast you might mistake the time they had left with how long it actually took them! So far, the fastest group of all time has made it in and out in less than 20 minutes!

Unlike other escape rooms, we make sure to design our rooms so it is possible to complete them without any hints …if you are clever enough!

Picking the Themes

Our escape rooms take you to places and time periods you could only ever see in movies, from a sinking submarine in the 1800’s to a scientist’s lab in a zombie apocalypse! Because of the wide variety of themes, people always ask where these exotic ideas come from. You would think we do hours of research to find crazy themes to do, but the answer is actually much simpler: I just draw from what I’m already interested in!

As a kid, I always loved reading comic books and hearing adventurous stories about explorers, detectives, or even history!. That passion has only been fed by my favorite movies that put those stories on the big screen. I draw from that passion when I create my rooms. I think to myself, “if I were doing an escape room, where would I want to go?” Then I design a room to make that happen! Most of the rooms have been heavily influenced by movies and stories I love, which means stepping into each room is like stepping into those stories!

This has allowed the different escape rooms to be an interesting and memorable experience for everybody. The exotic themes capture your imagination and throw you into a fun story that you won’t forget!

Making the Puzzles

When it comes to escape rooms, an important part of the game is puzzles. You can have a room that makes you feel like you’re in another world, but if you don’t have fun, challenging, and creative puzzles to solve, then all of your decorations and props will be pointless! Immersiveness alone does not make a good escape room.

The best puzzles force you to make observations, put things together, and think in a different way in order to find the solution. The answer is almost never immediately apparent, but if you think about the different possibilities, you can usually find it staring you right in the face! Coming up with engaging riddles and puzzles for people to solve is always a joy, and it’s even more fun to see people figure them out!

Finding a balance between challenging and easy is also important. When you solve a good puzzle, you should think “How did I not get that sooner?”, rather than “How was I ever supposed to get that?” That glorious “Aha!” moment can be the most satisfying feeling after spending so much time and effort trying to figure a puzzle out. That’s the reason escape rooms are so fun, and that’s why it’s important to make escape rooms that are both immersive AND puzzling!

Finding the Props

Finding the right props for an escape room can be challenging, but it is also one of the most enjoyable parts of the job. Searching through online auctions to find just the right piece to make an escape room feel immersive takes time, which makes it that much more rewarding when you finally find the perfect item. Add to that the experience of trying to beat other buyers by bidding the right amount, and you get a thrilling experience!

One of my favorite buys for our rooms was an old copper diver’s helmet. It’s in great condition and looks amazing! We used this to set theme for our 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea room, which takes place in a submarine deep in the ocean. The helmet is such a cool addition to the room and people love it!

More recently, we got a sarcophagus from Chicago. This thing is massive and looks like it came straight from Egypt! It even opens up to allow access inside, which will make it especially useful as we prepare our Knight at the Museum room. We’ve been getting a lot of Egyptian props for this room, but the sarcophagus is going to be a real show stopper! Keeping an eye out for these kinds of props online requires persistence and patience, but it always pays off!