Escape Room Unconference in Toronto, Ontario,

Canada - 60 Escape room owners, designers, and

enthusiasts with the intention to better understand the
industry and promote the community (Scott Nicholson)
Escape Convention held in Stuttgart, Germany in 2015
Rarely concerns raised about accessibility. (
Gained visibility
Generally require someone to step up as a team leader Guides people to work on different areas TB Sitcom (Big Bang Theory), Talk Show (Conan) and
or overseer. game show (Race to Escape)
Compartmentalisation Facebook page has over 1500 members
Social media has brought enthusiasts and owners
Objects to find Correlation skills
together

Word
Competitive escape rooms
Visual Incporporate various puzzles that appeal to different
ways of thinking Score based escape rooms
Maths
Large scale escape event
Use of time pressure
What skills are applied in playing a game?
Mental and physical challenges
To simulate an experience of being trapped may
require the use of stairs, ladders, crawl ways or trap Immersive experience
doors. Rarely need to be physically fit or particularly dextrous: Engrossing and engaging activity that makes them
Challenge players more mentally than physically loose track of time and outside concerns.
What is their appeal? More than a lock on a box
Suspension of disbelief allows them to become
Can require more than 1 person to solve. absorbed
Played in a team of people, in a room filled with
challenges and may be made inaccessible.

Searching
Puzzles work in concert with each other.
Teams should be composed of different people with What is an escape room?
Observation and Discernment different skills. Tend to be designed to ensure that every member of a
team contributes in a meaningful way.
Correlation Connected to the theme and understandable by the
Players need to complete a series of challenges to win.
players based off the information available within the
Began focused on difficult logic puzzles, and evolved
room.
Memorization into fully immersive environments with high quality
Can be tracked back to (and share elements with) Live
props and effects.
Grown in popularity in the past few years. Action Role Playing and Alternative Reality Games.
Escape Rooms Uses a number of names: Escape Game, Live Escape,
Math Puzzle room, Live Action Game, Adventure
Experiential at their core and appeal to players looking Room/Games Challenge to overcome
At its core,
for an
a non-traditional
escape room puzzle
game. uses a simple loop. Solution (may be concealed)
Words Could be more information for another puzzle, or a
Require a diverse set of skills and knowledge and chain of puzzles leading to one huge final prize.
Reward for overcoming the challenge
therefore appeal to team building activities.
Pattern Recognition Easier for players to solve.
Encourage players to think creatively and engage in Linear Path
Compartmentalisation critical thinking. Puzzles must be done in order

Multiple approaches to knowledge Built in structure for a guided experience.

Can be used across all levels
Critical thinking
Escape Rooms in Education
Develop skills in team working
you transform an unpleasant situation
Creative problem solving
Can be themed with almost any topic
Purchased kits
Connected Learning has devised the BreakoutEDU
Open sourced Kits
kit targeted at students in younger grades to their
final years of secondary education.
Imported into NZ mid 2016: Angela Lee
Students can design their own puzzle paths
Engage in teacher guided inquiry to figure out how
to convey their educational message, and the
complications of designing for other people.
Experiential method
If the experience itself is not the educational message,
Multiple didactic methods to debrief the experience.
then there are other methods one can use to deliver
educational meaning or context.
How they solved the puzzles
What aspects proved difficult Educational discourse
First generation: For some rooms, no theme is
attached at the main goal is escaping
Socratic discourse amongst the educator, designer
Second and
generation: Immersive elemenets: Quality of
players
the sets and props used were elevated. Electronic
and technical components were used to bring about
autmation and trggered events.
Narrative was added to the immersion, implementing
a story to help involve the players more
Debate to what the third generation of rooms will
hold: More complicated/expensive arifacts? More
immersion, including sound, smell, taste, rouch?
Use of actors for more social interaction be
employed, or something entirely different?
Differ with challenges but encourage students to think
differently, unconventionally, and from a new
Why Escape Rooms? Can create a bottle neck effect.
perspective.
Wiemker, M., Elumir, E., & Clare, A. Complex design and and how they are played Open Path
(2015). Escape Room Games: "Can Game Design require equally complex deconstruction. Can be worked on in any order.
Normally, however the final puzzle to escape the room
cannot be worked on until all the other puzzles are
into a pleasant one? Is the puzzle integrated into the storyline?
complete.
Tends to be more difficult for players to solve as there
Are the clues to the puzzle logical? is not a clear indication on where to start.
Conducive to large groups of players because it gives
Can the puzzle be solved using only the information everyone a chance to be involved and decreases the
within the room? likely-hood for bottle necks
A series of linear path puzzles which can be done in
Does the puzzle add to the atmosphere of the room? parallel.
Cognitive Multi linear path Multiple paths can intersect or paths can have different
Mental ending points
Makes use of the players thinking skills and logic.
Timed effect
Puzzles All paths could be open to the players from the start of
Deduce, correlate, decipher clues
the game, or they can be revealed over the course of Solution of other puzzles
the game.
Taks or twitch puzzles: Require manipulation of real Monitors the game from either within the room, or via
world artifacts to overcome the challenge. camera.
Physical
Used to eat up time or provide a challenge for people
who do not like mental challenges. Introduces the game
Game Master By voice: using an intercom, walkie-talking, telephone,
video
The answer is derived from solving previous puzzles Provides Hints In person: either always present or is summoned by a
Meta Puzzles
and putting elements from each together. call button
Components should be designed for different skills so Flow is important Mental state a player can be in while playing the game. Pen and paper: Slipped underneath the door
everybody on the team is engaged.
Difficulty of a room increases by limiting the hints, or by
modifying how the hints are given.
Happens when people are challenged and entertained
Between frustration and boredom
Set number of hints or unlimited hints?
Fully engaged in the task at hand and focused soley on
it. Idea from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Lose track of time and feelings of self-consciousnessEarned hits or purchased hints?
during the game
The Future of Escape Rooms Hints available on request if the game master deems it
Players get an merging awareness of action while being
in the current moment necessary to progress.
When experiencing flow designers need to be aware
that: No hints
Need to have agency over the solution
Motivations of the design can be further examined If done right, players will be rewarded intrinsically by
being engaged in the challenge
Worth looking into all aspects examined here in more
detail
Need more research
Design of rooms can be better deconstructed
More research and critique is needed as more escape
rooms get built

How are they used by corporations for training and

educators for learning would be an area of interest
Can they be merged with other, existing forms of
entertainment? Theme parts and interactive theatre? Need an equally valid look into the players and what
motivates them

Part of gamings future