How to Get Through the Quest Room in the Opinion of the People Who Made Them
Escape games can be stressful, frustrating and challenging, or they can be fun, inspiring and … still challenging. These tips won’t ruin quests by making them too easy. But they can save your next team-building event from hours of futility and failure.
You cannot make quests boring if you are very good at them. Ben Enos and Mark Flint, the leading creators of the multi-city quest company The Escape Game , know exactly how the quest works. But even after playing over 200 quests around the world, they still love to play new ones. This is what they do – and don’t do – when they play in the room.
How to find a good escape room
Mark says there is a wide range of quality escape rooms, and the difference matters much more than the choice of, say, a movie theater. There are four ways to find good rooms:
Read reviews
Do a TripAdvisor search, and Ben and Mark first check room reviews. The site contains lists of the best rooms in different countries ( for example, the USA ) and cities ( for example, Paris ).
Read the websites and forums of quest enthusiasts. Try the Escape Authority Forums , the Escape Rooms subreddit, and the Escape Room Enthusiasts Facebook group. The various rooms have reputations, so check out several forums as well as blogs like Codex , Escape Tips and Room Escape Artist , and take note of which rooms keep getting titles and praise.
Look at the photo
Photos are a great way to define the “build quality” of a room, Ben says. You will also get an intuitive idea of whether you are having fun in the room. “The photographs help eliminate some of the games,” says Mark. A room doesn’t have to be pretty to be fun, but you do have to be able to tell if it’s thoughtfully designed. “There is a big difference in time and attention costs,” he says. Look for rooms with a clear theme or storyline.
Most room reviewers try not to spoil the room with their photographs, but if you’re careful, check out the photographs on the room’s official website. They may be more idealized, but they will keep the secrets of the room a secret.
Know what you want
Mark and Ben design their games to please everyone – “nine-year-old girl at her birthday party, a group of lawyers from New York, a bachelorette party from here in Nashville.” So don’t worry about choosing a room that requires special knowledge.
However, you should look for rooms with themes that excite you and a level of difficulty that seems appropriate. (The Escape Game rates its games on a 10-point difficulty scale, but most games score between 7 and 9. Check the difficulty on the enthusiast sites.)
Come again
Most brands are of the same quality, high or low. “It’s rare to find a really awesome game and a really bad one,” Ben says. So if you enjoyed your first trip to a certain brand’s game, you probably enjoy the second.
He and Mark are trying to diversify their games so that all the games do not feel monotonous: each themed room has a different structure, different types of puzzles, new surprises. Some chains can be more predictable; One mall chain, Mark says, tends to build all of its puzzles as L-shaped rooms with a hidden room. It won’t disappoint you if you play a game or two, but if you return often enough, you’ll start to notice predictability.
How to solve a room
Mark and Ben agree with the advice in this video by Mark Robert and have more to add. They all revolve around teamwork, because no one can solve a quest on their own in one hour.
Talk, talk, talk
“Teams that communicate tend to succeed,” Ben says. This communication begins as soon as you enter the room: when you all scatter in search of clues, call when you come across something interesting. Mark and Ben saw many teams fail because someone got a clue and didn’t bother to tell the group.
Talk about what you have and what you think it can do. “I have an X that needs a Y.” But be prepared for alternative ideas. Mark says the worst is someone who puts themselves in the lead and then chases the wrong decision.
If you know some, but not all, of your teammates, don’t stick close to the people you know. When Ben and his wife play with strangers, the two of them split into different sub-teams so that together they can share information between everyone.
Use your strengths
Quests are designed to reward a variety of problem-solving abilities. ( The main page of the Escape Game features roles like Aunt Phoebe Problem Solver and Grandpa Ron Evidence Collector.) You may already know your skills – math, memory games, anagrams, search hard under rugs – or you can think of them on the fly.
Don’t do anything alone
However, if you bump into a wall – and sometimes even an advanced room solver will do it – then pass your clues on to someone else. It’s easy to fall into the trap, especially if you’ve built a certain story around a clue and are convinced that this math puzzle is actually a Morse code puzzle.
And “trust but verify,” the designers say. You might think you’ve gone through all the pockets of this coat, but let someone else double-check.
How to rally in your darkest hour
Energy can drop after half an hour on a quest, especially if you get stuck. Mark recommends cheering. Take inventory aloud, discuss the status of each, get them to talk again. This is a good time to propose a team reorganization.
And know when to take a hint. Literally: in most quests, you can ask the support staff for specific clues. They watch you complete the room, so they know what you need to do next. You will feel much better if you end up with one or two tips than if you fail because you were too proud to get some help.