I've been in this business for a bit over four years now, operating as a B2B provider with one key partner (a chain of bowling alleys). Our main point of difference to the typical business in this space is that we don't operate our own rooms. We instead build turn-key games that can be replicated and shipped to site, and we've done a lot of R&D to entirely automate the game-master job. Our rooms track players' progress and introduce easier and easier hints over time, and eventually bypass puzzles (with justifiable story reasons) so everyone sees all the interesting parts.
ER enthusiasts typically seem to prefer losing to having a puzzle spoiled by a clue, and as a result, often hate our rooms. First timers, who make up >99.5% of our customers, absolutely love it. It's a weird position to not focus on repeat business, but in such a supply-limited market there doesn't seem to be any shortage of new customers. It's also a pleasant market to operate in because virtually all the other operators are our friends - everyone refers customers to other venues because they can't replay your rooms anyway. There's hardly any of the cut-throat business practices you might see in other fields.
I went to an escape room in eastern Europe recently. The escape room was a lot of fun, we booked two rooms that were mostly science focussed (one was about Nicola Tesla and the other was a lab where you needed to find the cure against a zombie invasion).
I talked to the owner a bit, and he said that their room was also part of a franchise. They sent the floor plan of the room to the game provider and received the full instructions for setting up the room, as well as a shipment of all the electronics and other stuff needed for the puzzles.
Of course every "instance" of such a room is unique in some way. But all in all it seems to be a good concept - a company with some smart people comes up with interesting puzzles, and escape rooms all over the world implement those ideas in an actual building.
I played a Tesla room as well, in Serbia (Novi Sad to be exact). It was a ton of fun, and they explained that a lot of the escape rooms actually originate from that area of the world.
I have no idea if this is accurate or not, but it definitely was one of the best ER experiences I've had so far.
Among the operators you know, how much emphasis is there on story writing? In my experience, the most enjoyable games (in Japan) are the ones with rich stories that tie in well with the puzzles. However, I get the impression that outside Japan the rooms are more focused on gimmicks.
What would you say is the distribution of emphasis on 1) story, 2) the individual puzzles, 3) gimmicks/“wow” factor, 4) the room itself (i.e. decor)?
Are there any particular trends you’ve noticed in terms of themes or gimmicks?
I think your impression may well be correct, although I've not tried any Japanese rooms myself, only read reviews of them.
For the operators I know, most focus on 2) and 4). Most believe the puzzles are the core hook and must be well designed. Then they believe the puzzles have to fit the room theme. If a story can be squeezed in too, then they try, but it's rarely the driver. And gimmicks and wow factor aren't usually high on the list, but some operators (arguably us) do find these make customers want to play when they hear about them, so they're certainly not ignored.
Out of curiosity, how exactly does this aspect work?
> Our rooms track players' progress and introduce easier and easier hints over time, and eventually bypass puzzles (with justifiable story reasons) so everyone sees all the interesting parts.
How do you justify bypassing puzzles and introducing hints while not breaking immersion?
Just a quick guess for a possible explanation - a computer in the room is trying to crack the password(in a visible way, matrix-style flying text on screen), but it will take 20 minutes to do so. You are encouraged to find it yourself somewhere in the room and progress quicker - but if you fail, the computer "succeeds" at decoding and prints the password.
Yes, that's a good example. Basically in all our games there's some form of unseen protagonist/antagonist (e.g. a ghost, outside help via radio/TV/emails, an AI system, etc) and it helps the players over time.
We try to do things like detect partial solutions that might indicate the players are close to a full solution, because the worst thing is to bypass a puzzle when the players are actively engaged with it and having fun. On the other hand, if we know there's more interesting gameplay to come, and the players are spending ages on a particular puzzle, we want them to progress. This is the part where some enthusiasts disagree with our approach - some of them would rather fail than be pushed through. Fortunately, the bulk of our players would rather be given increasingly easy hints until they "solve" things themselves.
> in such a supply-limited market there doesn't seem to be any shortage of new customers.
The article (can't quote because paywall) specifically mentioned the highly competitive nature of the space as making it difficult for new entrants. Higher startup costs were specifically mentioned but I imagine that extends to marketing/customer mind share.
You seem to be describing a more collegiate atmosphere than the article does around competition. Do you think this is because of your position as a more established player or do you think the article overemphasized that (or quoted someone who wanted that message to get out there)?
I see three classes of operators in the space. A) Mum and Dad small business owners who are making enough to survive and enjoy the work, but aren't making enough to expand. B) Get rich quick operators who think it's a booming market with low starting costs, and mostly buy franchises or designs from other groups. C) Empire builders who try to franchise or sell their designs to others (mostly people in B.)
The groups in A are all friendly and collegiate. The groups in B are less so. We see group A continuing happily, but not really growing or turning significant profits - one of my friends in this group described it as "I bought myself a fun job".
We've seen a fair few groups in B fold. As the article suggests, you can't start with a mere $7000 now - customer expectations are higher, and there are enough review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor) that anyone with a low quality game will be called out pretty quickly.
Groups in C (include Nate Martin from the article) all seem to be doing well, but it's a hard slog to get sufficiently well known to become a primary supplier to others. My company is kind of in C, but we partnered early with a key chain in our geography and there's both good and bad to that choice. Not personally operating our rooms certainly has some drawbacks, but being able to build multiple copies of a room simultaneously has enormous cost savings too.
My wife and I think they are fun and we know folks who've done 50+ and drive to different cities to do them. I spent a lot of time looking into the feasibility of starting my own, but the real estate cost here is too high and you need to be ready to run a brick and mortar business for a few years which is a huge leap from just freelancing.
People say they are fads, maybe, but they are essentially just another "something to do" with a group of friends or co-workers that isn't "going to a bar". If you like it, you do another one, maybe with different friends, etc. The problem is in smaller cities there are only a few rooms and you finish them all and have nothing new to do, so then they either need to reinvest to redo their rooms or they bleed and die, meanwhile in big metros 100s are popping up and shutting down constantly, and the quality spectrum is incredibly wide.
If you like point and click adventure games or hidden object style games, this is for you, gets you out of the house. If you are a game designer, they seem super fun to want to try and design and you get to hack at cool tech to build fun surprises and then delight in seeing real people be amazed by it daily, or alternatively frustrated or ripping your room apart at the hinges. Either way, seems like it'd be fun and profitable to do if you were in the right location. Even if you sold out only on weekends that's like 4 rooms * 8 slots * 4 people * $25 = $3200 * 2 days = $6400 a weekend in revenue.
Alternatively, when you go to an escape room, try to figure out how the puzzles were implemented. I am guessing lots of custom Arduino. For example, one puzzle required entering a specific price into a cash register to get the cash register drawer to open. How would that be done?
You are correct that a lot of rooms are using off the shelf Arduinos, often with buttons/reed switches/RFID tags for inputs, hooked up to a relay + maglock for the output.
Some of the higher end rooms will pay a little extra for PLCs such as the ones from AutomationDirect.
Another somewhat common controller are the BooBox controllers which come from the haunt industry. A lot of haunters got into escape rooms as a way to supplement income the rest of the year.
My son birthday was in a escape room. The children loved it. The monitors know exactly how to nudge the children according their age. They escaped in the last second and laughed a lot.
Sounds a bit like how we might all still enjoy solving puzzles even after the AIs take over. (I don't think the AIs will take over, but I also don't think we'll stop solving puzzles if they do.)
I live in the Boston metro. There’s a place called Boda Borg that is sort of like Escape the Room, but much more fun in my opinion. There’s about 30 puzzles, and each one has three rooms. You can buy two hours or unlimited time. Once you solve each room, you are able to go to the next. If you get it wrong or run out of time after about 4 minutes, you just get a buzzer, leave, wait in line and do it all over again. We just went for a team out for our startup (https://tettra.co) and it was a great activity. Highly recommend it if you have one near you.
Is there anyone here who is greatly familiar with the overall scene/industry in the U.S.? I’m heavily into the scene in Tokyo and I’d love to compare notes. Based on articles like this one, I sense there are a lot of differences, but I’d also like to hear more anecdotes/perspectives from the consumer side.
How good is your Japanese? There are a ton of games in Tokyo, but if you can't read/speak Japanese your choices will be limited. In any case, ideally you should go with people you know, since communication will be important.
First off, there are four general types of escape games in Japan:
1) Room-type (single team trapped in a room/series of rooms)
2) Hall-type (multiple teams at separate tables in a conference room/hall)
3) Stadium-type (large areas like convention centers/stadiums, sometimes with no limit to team size)
4) Field-type (no team size limit and no time limit; play area ranges from in-store to city-wide)
In general, room-types are the best experience for beginners, since they are more immersive, you don't have the distraction of other teams, you're free to talk/make noise without fear of spoiling other teams, and you have the staff's full attention. I get the impression that the majority of games outside Japan are room-type, while hall-type and field-type are much more common in Japan.
If you just want to get the feel for what kind of puzzles you'll have to solve, field-types are low-investment, and are less stressful since you can solve them at your own pace.
Most of the games I would usually recommend for beginners aren't running, but out of the ones that are (that I've already played), I would suggest these if your Japanese is fine:
- 時空研究所からの脱出 (room-type)
- 下北沢謎解き街歩き (field-type)
- ある牢獄からの脱出1&2 (room-type; highly recommend going with a full group you know)
- マグノリア銀行からの脱出 (hall-type)
- のび太の宝島からの脱出 (hall-type; better if you like Doraemon)
These are also okay for beginners but may be better if it's not your first time:
- 2099年からの脱出 (room-type; this is a sequel of sorts to 時空研究所からの脱出)
- 不思議な晩餐会へようこそ (hall-type; the tables use projection mapping to advance the story)
- Escape from the Red Room (room-type; also can be played in English)
- The Mummy Escape Game (room-type)
- ある都市伝説からの脱出 (room-type; it's an escape game + haunted house, so only if you like horror)
- アイドルは100万回死ぬ2 (room-type; this one's a "time-loop game" where instead of solving puzzles you're trying to figure out how to successfully break the time loop, but very fun even for those who aren't good at puzzle-solving)
- Any of the Detective Conan games (hall-type)
- ドラキュラ城からの脱出 (hall-type)
- 監獄アルバトロスからの脱出 (room-type)
All of the suggestions above are SCRAP-produced games, since I feel they're entertaining even for beginners, especially if you're not sure whether you'll like escape games in the first place.
If you can't read/speak Japanese:
- Escape from the Red Room (mentioned above)
- Mystery Mail Box Global Edition (field-type)
- Tokyo Metro: The Underground Mysteries (field-type; the play area is city-wide, taking you to various Metro stations; not currently running but they've run one every year, generally starting in October)
- Any of the Escape Hunt Tokyo (recently rebranded as Nazobako)-produced games (room-type)
Thank you so much for a very thorough answer. To be honest, my Japanese is ok, but probably not good enough for this type of game. Nevertheless I am now considering making a team of people who would work well in such an environment as room-type, since we'd all be beginners. Thanks again.
I think I watched too many 1960s horror movies. I can't stop thinking about the twenty-tonne block of concrete, or the ruby laser aimed between my legs on the band-saw table as the villain goes to feed his kitty..
There are these weird fad-based franchises that pop up often and slowly die over time. Edible Arrangements (fruit arranged like flowers), Froyo frozen yogurt shops, Curves for women fitness centers, and more. You can go to a medium to large size strip mall and see them.
My guess is that it's mostly advertising in franchise lifestyle places (like magazines) combined with the fact that it's selling a relatively low-cost service and works more by appointment than an open storefront. Sort of a cheap version of a business retreat or clown showing up at your birthday party.
Interestingly, a company as big as Square Enix has one, their "Trials of Bahamut" escape room in various cities.
Oh, and they aren't really new per se, it's just dinner mystery theatre without the dinner. Places have been doing that for decades.
Not sure if "weird, fad-based franchise" is the correct term here. It's more of just a basic trend cycle in effect.
Froyo places are far from dead, it's just that after the initial uptrend with a place on every corner, it has solidified as a market of a few chain stores. I'm expecting the same to happen with escape rooms.
Also, not sure if low-cost is right either, escape rooms are usually around 30e per hour per person at least here where I am from.
and finally, your last sentence feels like a weird sort of "oh its just x but with y" handwaving that you could use on any sort of new activity.
If you've been to a mystery dinner theater, it's the same general principle, a group of people get together to solve a mystery. One is escaping a room, the other is questioning actors to solve a crime. It's just the escape rooms get rid of the actors and dinner parts and focus more on props.
As for low cost, I meant to start one. Service-based, low amount of employees, not much need for location if you focus on appointments, etc.
Just to clarify, “Trials of Bahamut” is produced by the Japan-based company SCRAP. Although they do a lot of original games, they also do a lot of collaborations with major franchises, including the Bahamut game (Final Fantasy) and the Zelda game from last year. (They’re also currently running a Pacific Rim game.)
They’re much smaller than Square Enix, but they’re the most popular escape game producer in Japan. And escape games are currently booming here, so they’ve managed to work with a lot of big franchises.
>My guess is that it's mostly advertising in franchise lifestyle places (like magazines) combined with the fact that it's selling a relatively low-cost service and works more by appointment than an open storefront. Sort of a cheap version of a business retreat or clown showing up at your birthday party.
well, you've gotta rent the building, so if you don't have it full all the time, that's a pretty hefty cost, at least around here. The days of $1/sqft industrial space are long gone
Sure, but _comparably_ less cost to the business of the building plus full time staff (like you would need in retail or dining).
The other more recent innovation is "roomless" escape rooms. Basically, they'll show up at your office or house with a trunk full of stuff, set it up let you work your way through it, collect a check and leave.
My understanding is that botulism needs an air-free environment to grow. Also, low acidity. Some fruit is quite acidic, and some fruit-fresh stuff is also acid. Probably quite low botulism risk.
Pretend http://facebook.com/l.php?u= to the WSJ URL and it should work. There's an extension (Bypass Paywalls) for firefox and chrome that does the same thing for a number of sites.
I find escape rooms extremely boring. I had experienced two in my life and I just couldn't get it. First of all, the escape room is not real - you can always just walk out and then you also know that the riddles were created to entertain average person, so there is nothing special about solving them. About two hours of pretending I enjoy it, so I wouldn't upset work mates that thought it will be great team bonding exercise.
> First of all, the escape room is not real - you can always just walk out and then you also know that the riddles were created to entertain average person, so there is nothing special about solving them.
Well, yes. It's a game you play with other people. Have you never encountered a game before? Did you know that when you play chess, you are not actually commanding real knights and bishops to fight each other?
> Did you know that when you play chess, you are not actually commanding real knights and bishops to fight each other?
You reminded me of a game called "Battle Chess", in which bishops hold glaives, the rook is a stone golem, pawns carry short swords. And yes, they do battle to the death in accordance to the rules in chess.
I played it years ago, and found that the death scene was different for each thing attacked. It was quite entertaining :)
If you don't enjoy puzzles/riddles and you don't want to hang out with your work mates you will probably have a bad time doing an escape room. I'm not sure anyone is going into an escape room thinking they are actually stuck in there. Instead you go in thinking of it as a game where you want to get out as fast as possible.
Yeah it’s like, I was told there would be zombies at this haunted house and it turns out that it was just normal people in costumes and we were in no danger of having our brains feasted on by the undead at all. I would like a refund.
My mom took me to such place when I was a child and my experience was exactly like you describe. We didn't get a refund. Maybe this is just personality thing.
I know you've been downvoted, but I do agree to some extent.
I did an escape room last week, while it was quite fun... the things you had to do to get out weren't exactly inventive. It was more luck than anything else, as you couldn't work out what to do. There wasn't really any logic to it, no connections between challenges just a load of unrelated tasks that lead to the door opening.
That said I'd still recommend it though, at least give it a try!
I think CTFs are like escape rooms but without the fake connection between the challenges. Still as fun to solve with friends, but there isn't that "fake" feeling that would ruin it, like it does ruin escape rooms for me.
If you play a video game does it ruin it for you that someone wrote the puzzles and you can turn it off at any time? Maybe you just don’t like puzzles.
"the riddles were created to entertain average person" perhaps indicates an inappropriate difficulty level; we've had bad experiences in some rooms that were really fun for others simply because of the lack of difficulty, but have had a great time in rooms that are rated as very difficult. The reviews and choice of rooms are important, picking a challenge that's far too hard or far too easy won't give good results.
I've been to one escape room. We could just walk out, but that would be forfeiting your money, and then you'd get to sit in the lobby waiting for your friends, because you couldn't get back in. Not even a restroom visit was allowed. Also, I was with a definitely above-average IQ group, and we did not make it out in time...
ER enthusiasts typically seem to prefer losing to having a puzzle spoiled by a clue, and as a result, often hate our rooms. First timers, who make up >99.5% of our customers, absolutely love it. It's a weird position to not focus on repeat business, but in such a supply-limited market there doesn't seem to be any shortage of new customers. It's also a pleasant market to operate in because virtually all the other operators are our friends - everyone refers customers to other venues because they can't replay your rooms anyway. There's hardly any of the cut-throat business practices you might see in other fields.
AMA if you're interested!