It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything related to my opinions on escape room design. This weekend I had an interesting juxtaposition of experiences which helps to explain why I don’t like making blanket statements about the quality of rooms or choosing favorites.
On Friday night I chatted with Matt, one of the owners at Challenge Accepted, an escape room in Bloomingdale, IL. Matt is always building clever new props and gadgets for his rooms, and talking to him really gives me an appreciation for how escape rooms are truly a form of artistic expression. At one point, Matt shared how much time, energy, and money he spent custom building a few fake knife props to give them a metallic luster but a plastic texture. Really amazing stuff. I played two of Challenge Accepted’s 20 minute rooms back to back (Jack the Ripper & Hansel and Gretel) and both rooms had exceptional moments facilitated by Matt’s customized wizardry.
Fast forward to Saturday night and I’m at Encrypted Escape in Green Bay, WI. I played through the “Insert Coin” 80’s arcade room, and the room knocked my socks off with the clever central conceit of the room, which combined arcade challenges with logic and puzzles for a totally unique experience. One of the puzzle solutions in the room seemed to violate the laws of physics, and it wasn’t until I was driving home that I realized how the entire room had been designed carefully to make that one puzzle work.
Those two experiences this weekend summarize for me why I don’t think it’s possible to boil down a good escape room recipe to a formula. One business uses tech wizardry to add surprises to its games. The other found ways to trick my perception using recognizable elements. Both were wonderful games.
I find it similar to comparing different forms of art. Assuming a room without locks and keys is superior to one with them is like saying that watercolor is better than charcoal. Saying a challenge with multiple rooms is better than a one-room experience is like saying sculpture is better than photography. I might have preferences for what kinds of elements tend to make great escape room experiences, but I also have experienced rooms that go against all my preferences and still win a fond place in my heart.
I suppose this comparison is obvious after even a little bit of thought- every escape room made with at least a little bit of passion and soul has many elements which individually would qualify as works of art, like Matt’s knives I mentioned earlier. When interacting with these pieces as components of a puzzle, it’s easy to ignore the artistry involved, but all the best escape rooms have plenty of unique details lovingly crafted for the player’s benefit.
Comparing escape rooms to exhibits at an art museum helps explain why I dislike ranking escape rooms to any degree of precision. I can tell you which escape rooms I did had the most effective scares, or the most mind-wracking puzzles, or the most sophisticated tech, or the most rooms to explore, and I can even tell you how those factors fit together to make a cohesive experience, but I prefer not to split hairs between greats. Who is better, Van Gogh or Monet?
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