TERPECA Literacy

It’s almost time for another year’s TERPECA results! Soon we’ll have a brand new list of the world’s top escape room games.

In case you need a refresher, TERPECA is the Top Escape Rooms Project – a democratized evaluation process for determining the world’s best escape rooms. Players who have solved over 200 rooms contribute to nominations, and players with over 50 rooms completed can help rank their favorites to determine winners among the finalists.

The TERPECA team deserves massive credit for always looking to tune the model to make the finalists and winners as unbiased as possible. Even from the start, there’s tremendous value in knowing that any TERPECA-nominated room was among the top handful from someone who has played hundreds. Everyone has different criteria for how they choose their top rooms, but even a single nomination is a huge endorsement.

Moving from nominees to finalists is a tough task. The TERPECA methodology leans on collecting as much information as possible from players who have played multiple rooms from the finalist list and using their relative rankings to evaluate which rooms are truly the best of the best. This is far and away the best project for fairly defining a winner – there is no perfect approach, but this is as reasonable and fair as we’re going to see.

My advice to someone looking for escape room recommendations in an area- start with the TERPECA nominee list. It’s still an extremely exclusive list and it affords more options than the handful that get selected for the final prizes. You may even like some of the nominee rooms more than finalists.

When you’re dealing with splitting hairs to narrow down the best of the best into the best of the best of the best, trends start to emerge for what generally dictates relative rankings. If you have a pool of great rooms that provide flawless experiences, what creates distinction that garners a few extra nudges toward the top of the raters’ lists?

I’ve noticed a few themes. Narrative (especially actor participation) and unbelievable set pieces are the greatest differentiators. I also see a few other interesting themes emerge- intense horror games, ones with threat of danger, pain, and injury, also do well. Each of those elements affords a unique hook that can garner even a few incremental higher rankings among an extremely strong pool. It makes sense if you think about it- there’s a certain point at which games achieve exactly what they were designed to, and at that point, differentiation becomes difficult. Any additional hook that games offer becomes incrementally more important.

The rise of the “dangerous” horror room is also interesting to me. These rooms benefit from another factor when it comes to relative rating – players know what they’re signing up for. Anyone who hates these rooms will stay away, screened out by the disclaimers, meaning that the TERPECA rankings aren’t going to be busted by a player or two who plays the game and hates the concept.

This mechanism also presents a fun thought challenge for game designers- what other kinds of hooks are there that haven’t been fully realized yet? It could be a fun in-game mechanism, out-of-game tie-in, lobby experience, or any other touch that makes a game unique. Elements that stand out in my mind include great plot twists, end-of-game surprises, and dynamic use of space.

I look forward to seeing what this year’s TERPECA slate looks like, and what new themes emerge in 2025!