(And why it should matter to you, too)
Let’s be honest, the escape room industry has blown up over the last decade. They are almost everywhere these days and if you are reading this, you’ve likely played a fair few.
You’ve probably stopped a ticking bomb from going off somewhere, stopped a virus from escaping a lab, solved a mystery in a world Sir Author Conan Doyle would be proud of or searched for buried treasure in a lost tomb.
Don’t get me wrong, these can be stunning themes in an escape room but even as I was typing that last paragraph I just felt a sense of… deja vu. It’s too familiar and I’ve seen those words in too many room descriptions…. And that’s the problem.
In an industry thats grown as much as this has it does feel like it’s hitting a peak and it makes me wonder wether the recycling of themes and puzzles has something to do with that. It feels like the magic of surprise is getting lost somewhere.
So What Makes An Escape Room Truly Unique?
It’s not going to be just a different shade of paint or a new clever puzzle that’s going to make your room unique. When I put my first room together, I could’t wait to tell people we were the only lift shaft escape room in the UK (As far as I know!) but this isn’t enough.
A unique theme is great if it is truly unique but I’ve seen the word ‘unique’ on themes that are abundant, so the effect wears off rather quickly. However, we were still given that ‘unique’ stamp of approval by our players.
THE WHERE, HOW AND WHY
Let’s start with the WHERE…
I don’t think I would be the only person to say your premises is really important when it comes to an entertainment venue such as ours. That being said, even the premises stop being unique after a while.
As I write this my business has been in operation for little over two years and in that time I’ve nurtured an ethos when creating experiences – always create to the space – as in, never have your idea before you find a venue.
Our first room was, and still is, the top half of a vertical shipping container – it already screams unique. And so we set out to create a game that worked in that space. We certainly couldn’t create a pirate ship! It was industrial, small (It really is! 2.1 meters by 2.1 meters!) and plain (Which pretty much worked in our favour).
A lift! I shouted out loud while mulling over ideas. Nothing clicked though – I’ve seen lift escape rooms and I could find a coherent storyline that felt good enough. But then, from that, was born The Lift Shaft. Ever since then I’ve never looked at a shop front or a large multi roomed complex to run my games. What gets me excited is finding that totally different space that could hold an experience – because from that, often, comes something just a bit different.
So maybe more experiences in this totally different kinds of spaces will spice up the experience a little.
The HOW…
What do I mean by the how and why do I think it’s important?
How is exactly what is sounds like. How did you do it? Did you buy a ready made room and install it? Is build everything yourself? Was your vision built by someone else?
Each of those has it’s merits… but I would put a lot of money on knowing which one you would say allowed for a more unique creation.
Buying a ready made escape room puts you on the back foot from the start. You’re buying a room that is almost certainly being used elsewhere so your uniqueness is already evaporated. Although this doesn’t seem to be happening as much these days as decent build companies usually take president.
Now, I’m not saying everyone has to do what we did but it certainly helped gives us that unique twist… That being we hand built everything and recycled as much as we could. OK, so the second part of that was what we focused on. Anything from street finds, car boot sales or family and friends clearing out could be a puzzle or task and much like our venues, paved the way for unique puzzles.
So, look at the things you’re going to throw out – can it be a puzzle? If yes, you’re likely onto a winner and saving some landfill space at the same time.
WHY does this matter?
You might read that and think…. Well, that’s obvious! But I think there are a few things that some people forget.
Consider what you want your players to actually feel and when. For me, aside from the obvious, I want my players to be wowed from the moment they walk into the room. A gasp from the monochrome vision overload of Comic Chaos, the apprehension of stepping into a small delicate lift shaft or the rush or walking into a basement rock bar – it’s an amazing feeling to have people say you’re unique before the game has even started.
That is what I think the industry should strive for – making people believe you’re unique before the game has even started.
There is a lot more I want to write about this but I’m going to split it up so it’s not too much in one go so stay tuned!