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Escape room

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This article is about the physical puzzle games. For a fictional film based on them, see Escape Room (film). For the video game genre, see Escape the room. For other uses, see Escape Room (disambiguation).
A puzzle being solved in a Captivate Escape room, Singapore, circa 2011

An escape room, also known as an escape game, is a game in which a team of players cooperatively discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to progress and accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time.[1] The goal is often to escape from the site of the game.

Escape rooms became popular in North America, Europe and East Asia in the 2010s. Permanent escape rooms in fixed locations were first opened in Asia[2] and followed later in Hungary, Serbia, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and South America.[3]

Definition

Escape rooms are inspired by "escape-the-room"–style video games. This is also the likely source of their name.[4] It is also referred to as Room Escape, Escape Game, Exit Game, Live Escape, to name a few.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Stories and themes

Escape rooms usually have a story line or theme (depending on the style of the game).[5] Common themes and story lines often found in escape rooms include:

  • Airplane
  • Bomb Defusing
  • Carnival
  • Detective/Police/Crime
  • Dream
  • Heist / Thieves
  • Historical
  • Horror
  • Library
  • Medical / Asylum
  • Military
  • Magic
  • Music
  • Office
  • Pirate
  • Prison
  • Science
  • Serial Killer
  • Sherlock
  • Space
  • Spy
  • Supernatural
  • Tomb / ancient civilization
  • Vampire
  • Western
  • Zombie

According to a 2018 survey polling escape room enthusiasts, the most popular themes reported were Tombs, Space and Historical. The least popular were Horror, Office and Zombie.[6]

History

Different attractions contained elements similar to modern escape rooms and could thus be seen as precursors to the idea, including haunted houses, scavenger hunts, entertainment center 5 Wits or interactive theater (such as Sleep No More, inaugurated in 2003).

Players solve a puzzle at the original 5 Wits in downtown Boston, circa 2006

The earliest concept to resemble a modern escape room was True Dungeon, which premiered at GenCon Indy in July 2003.[7][8]  Created by Jeff Martin (True Adventures LLC), True Dungeon had many of the same elements that people associate with escape rooms today; a live-action team-based game where players explored a physical space and cooperatively solved mental and physical puzzles to accomplish a goal in a limited amount of time. True Dungeon "focuses on problem solving, teamwork, and tactics while providing exciting sets and interactive props".[9]

Four years later, Real Escape Game (REG) in Japan was developed by 35-year-old Takao Kato,[10] of the Kyoto publishing company, SCRAP Co., in 2007. It is based in Kyoto, Japan and produces a free magazine by the same name. Beyond Japan, Captivate Escape Rooms appeared in Australia and Singapore from 2011,[11] the market growing to over 60 games by 2015.[1] Kazuya Iwata, a friend of Kato, brought Real Escape Game to San Francisco in 2012.[12] The following year, Seattle-based Puzzle Break founded by Nate Martin became the first American-based escape room company.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Japanese games were primarily composed of logical puzzles, such as mathematical sequences or colour-coding, just like the video games that inspired them.

Parapark, a Hungarian franchise that later operated in 20 locations in Europe and Australia, was founded in 2011 in Budapest.[21] The founder, Attila Gyurkovics, claims he had no information about the Japanese escape games and based the game on Mihály Csíkszentmihályi's flow theory and his job experience as personality trainer.[22] As opposed to the Japanese precursors, in the games of Parapark players mainly had to find hidden keys or reach seemingly unattainable ones in order to advance.

In 2012 a Swiss physics professor created a scientific escape game for his students. The game was later offered to the public under the name of AdventureRooms and distributed as a franchise in twenty countries. The Adventure Rooms introduced scientific puzzles (e.g. hidden infrared or polarized codes) to the genre.[23][24]

As of September 2017, there were over 8,000 escape room venues worldwide.[25] These can be particularly lucrative for the operators, as the upfront investment has been as low as US$7,000, while a party of 4-8 customers pay around US$25–30 per person for one hour[26] to play, potentially generating annual revenue upwards of several hundred thousand dollars.[27] As the industry has grown, start up costs have increased dramatically and so have the competition. Customers now expect higher production values and often games can cost over $50,000 to create. The UK has seen the market grow by over the past 5 years by 93%, 148%, 409% and 43%[28]

The format of a room or area containing puzzles or challenges has featured in multiple TV game shows over the years, including Now Get Out of That,[29] The Adventure Game,[30] The Crystal Maze,[30] Fort Boyard and Knightmare.[31] A similar experience can be found in interactive fiction software, and escape the room video games.

Reception

A player studying a clue

The South China Morning Post described escape rooms as a hit among "highly stressed students and overworked young professionals."[32] Sometimes the excitement becomes a bit much, though, and players get so invested that they tear down equipment or decorations inside their "fake" prisons.[33]

The use of Hong Kong room "escapes" as distractions from the living conditions of the real city of Hong Kong has been reviewed by local journalists.[34][35]

Evolution

Early games consisted mainly of puzzles that were solved with paper and pencil. As Escape Rooms progressed physical locks were introduced that could be opened by finding combinations, hidden keys and codes using objects found in the rooms. These ideas have evolved to include automation technology, immersive decoration[36] and more elaborate storylines to enhance the visitor experience, make puzzles more interactive, and to create an experience that is more theatrical and atmospheric.

Safety

The first known fatal accident to occur in an escape room was the death of five 15-year-old girls in a fire in Koszalin, Poland, on 4 January 2019. The fire was caused by a leaky gas container inside a heater and resulted in the death of the five victims from carbon monoxide poisoning and injuries to one employee, who was treated for burns. According to the state firefighting service, the chief failure that led to the deaths was the lack of an effective evacuation route. Shortly after the accident, authorities ordered safety checks in escape rooms across Poland and 13 more such establishments were shut down for safety flaws as a result.[37][38]

References

  1. ^ a b "Peeking Behind the Locked Door: A Survey of Escape Room Facilities" (PDF). White Paper. Retrieved 2015-05-24.
  2. ^ "The unbelievably lucrative business of escape rooms". MarketWatch. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  3. ^ Raspopina, Sasha (2015-07-23). "Great escapes: the strange rise of live-action quest games in Russia". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  4. ^ Penttilä, Katriina (14 August 2018). "History of Escape Games : examined through real-life-and digital precursors and the production of Spygame". Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via www.utupub.fi. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ "Escape game style - UK Escape Game Wiki".
  6. ^ "2018 Escape Room Enthusiast Survey". thecodex.ca. 2018-09-22.
  7. ^ Sjoberg, Lore (2008-08-13). "True Dungeon Lures Would-Be Dragon Slayers". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  8. ^ "True Dungeon: True Dungeon Timeline: 2003 Info (1/7)". new.truedungeon.com. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  9. ^ "True Dungeon - Real Dungeon. Real Props. Real Cool". web.archive.org. 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2019-08-22.
  10. ^ Corkill, Edan (2009-12-20). "Real Escape Game brings its creator's wonderment to life". The Japan Times Online. Japan Times. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  11. ^ Marinho, Natalie (2012-01-31). "The Real Escape Game in Singapore". recognitionpattern. Archived from the original on 2012-07-24. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  12. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (21 June 2014). "Real-life 'escape rooms' are new US gaming trend". CNBC. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  13. ^ "IQ Escape center opens new game, partners with school". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  14. ^ "What Running An Escape Room Taught Me About People". Cracked.com. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  15. ^ Group, Sinclair Broadcast. "What in the world is an Escape Room, and how do you survive it??". Seattle Refined. Retrieved 2018-10-30. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ "Geek of the Week: There's no escaping it — Puzzle Break's Nate Martin created his dream startup". GeekWire. 2018-06-22. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  17. ^ "Escape Room Blogs, Conferences, Groups, and Podcasts". Xola University. 2018-05-21. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  18. ^ Content, Sponsored (2018-03-30). "Can You Escape This Room in 60 Minutes?". Long Island News from the Long Island Press. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  19. ^ "Puzzle Break: Country's first escape room located in Seattle". KING. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
  20. ^ Galbraith, Susan. "What in the world is an Escape Room, and how do you survive it??". KOMO. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  21. ^ Bence, Gyulai (2011-09-09). "ParaPark: tökéletes élmény egy romkocsma pincéjében". Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  22. ^ Kummer, Krisztián (March 2013). "Room escape games the latest craze in Budapest". Budapest Business Journal.
  23. ^ Hess, Stéphane (September 10, 2013). "Physik: Kriminelle Energie erwünscht" (PDF). "BILDUNG SCHWEIZ" (Education Switzerland). pp. 24–25. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  24. ^ Tremaine, Fergus (March 21, 2018). "How an enquiry landed me in the centre of a powerhouse brand". Linkedin. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  25. ^ "By the numbers: UK vs the rest of the world | Exit Games UK". exitgames.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  26. ^ "For $28, this Alpharetta business will lock you inside a room". myajc. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
  27. ^ French, Sally; Shaw, Jessica Marmor (July 20, 2015). "The unbelievably lucrative business of escape rooms". MarketWatch. Retrieved June 19, 2016.
  28. ^ Escapes, Logic; Escapes, Logicr (August 20, 2018). "Analysis of the UK market – 2018". Logicescapesme. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
  29. ^ "Now Get Out of That". Labyrinth Games. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  30. ^ a b "Prigionieri in una scatola?". Io Gioco (in Italian). No. supplement to The Games Machine n. 346. 2017. p. 20.
  31. ^ "Origins - UK Escape Game Wiki". www.escaperoomuk.com.
  32. ^ "Real-life escape games offer respite from daily stresses". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  33. ^ "Rooms with a different kind of view|People|chinadaily.com.cn". usa.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  34. ^ "Real-life escape games offer respite from daily stresses｜". South China Morning Post. 2013-02-13. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  35. ^ "Hong Kong Thrill Seekers think their way to freedom｜". CBC News. 2013-02-22. Retrieved 2013-02-22.
  36. ^ "Immersion - UK Escape Game Wiki". www.escaperoomuk.com. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  37. ^ "Escape room fire kills five teenagers in Poland". BBC News. 2019-01-04.
  38. ^ "Man charged after 5 girls killed in escape room fire in Poland". Global News. 2019-01-06.
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