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E.g. Walking around, your curiosity leads you to a secret room, one in which no one has set foot in over a century. First of all, let’s make it clear, it’s not going to be as easy as it seems, just scatter a puzzle here and a puzzle there, and you are done. No, no, my friends, it takes much more than that, it’s more like taking your creativity to the next level while doing it with a whole lot of love. I’m not gonna lie, it requires a lot of time and energy, but trust me, it’s worth every second of it. First, you should complete the room yourself. Testing by yourself has some limitations, but if you, the designer, is not able to complete the room even with all your prior knowledge of the puzzles, then no one else will be able to. In this kind of testing, you will be able to find mistakes in your clues and props or mistakes in the overall structure of the game that make it impossible to complete. Mix Up You Puzzle Types: I’ll give you a few ideas below on different types of puzzles that you can use. Just make sure to mix up the types of puzzles. Otherwise, the game will be repetitive.
The biggest challenge, though, is that there typically isn’t a finish line. Most designers start with a puzzle. The first puzzle leads to another puzzle. That one leads to another. Then another. Then another. After a while, the team gets frustrated. There is never a light at the end of the tunnel. I guess you’re thinking “well I am not a novelist, how could I make this kind of story?” Don’t worry my friend, I am sure you can do it, just unleash your hidden creativity and follow these few steps: Atmosphere makes all the difference! This is true for any DIY escape rooms you build as well as other at home escape rooms. In this way, lead the tester through all the content in your game, providing hints as needed and disregarding any time limit you might have put on the game. Write down all the hints you needed to give and the total time the tester spent.
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Making your first home escape room is time and energy-consuming, but in the end the reward is unparalleled. If you really love this kind of games and want to make a special night for the people you love, just go for it! 4. Make it more special You can make additional thematic decorations for the room. Just make sure that the decorations do not interfere with the game or misguide the player because they look like they contain information. Keep it simple and avoid decorations that repeat concepts, symbols, shapes, or words that appear in your game. Along the same lines, think about the lighting. For the president’s office example, daylight might be the most suitable, but if your setting is an ancient Egyptian tomb, then dim lights and candles would be more appropriate. This escape room is perfect for the whole family to play. Players can let their imagination take hold as they embark on an exciting adventure together, all from the comfort of their own home.
Consider that the puzzle we just created takes away the document (hides it in a safe) and instead gives the players a post-it note with the code for the safe. We can make the puzzle longer by continuing this line of thinking and also removing the post-it note with the code and giving the players something else instead. There are 18 puzzles that need to be completed to escape the museum; for a challenge try setting a 90-minute timer to complete the game in, otherwise choose to work through the puzzles at your own pace. My first escape game was a real blast. It took me almost a month of thinking, searching, creating, buying some stuff, and setting all of it up in my living room, but when it came down to the actual playing, I felt like the Superman of the Game Masters. Actually, it was a surprise party for my escape room crew, and btw, I’ve played many escape games with them. Creating the challenges of your escape room is the most fun part and where you get to be creative. However, it can also be frustrating so we will give you the best tips on how to get started. Start from the end Mirror code: You can easily write something on a mirror and it’ll be revealed when someone blows steam onto it. Simply dip your finger in soap and then write your message, then leave a clue: “breathe deep into the mirror and all will be revealed.”First, making an escape room is a lot of fun. It’s not too different from playing one if you think about it. When you play an escape room you try to piece together the different clues to come up with the answers that the authors decided. When you make an escape room you try to piece together stories and puzzles to create a fun experience for your players. The puzzles within this game all solved cleanly, and pulled from Japanese culture and puzzle design. If you want something truly customized for your group, you can always DIY (Do It Yourself). This takes some time, effort, and practice. However, if you do it well, you can use the activity over and over again with different groups. The following are the steps that we took when we created the My Rich Uncle activity.
Ok, you already have the story, but how can you create puzzles when you have zero experience? Well, it is challenging and time-consuming, but for me, it was the most fun part of the process. Believe me, there is a ton, a million ways to invent puzzles, some of them you can conjure up just by using things you already have in your drawers.Don’t forget to prepare hints for some of the challenges that might prove problematic. When they ask for a hint, do not elaborate on the topic, but prepare short hints like riddles (you can even come up with some rhymes as we did in our ready-to-play Houdini secret room game). By drawing a flow chart you can also see whether your game is mostly linear or non-linear. Linear games are ones where the tasks are like pearls on a string and non-linear games are the ones that contain branches that allow players to work on more than one task in parallel. In the example above there are two branches that join at “Decode the combination” since two clues are needed to do the task and those two clues can be obtained in parallel. The good news is that we will give you a complete rundown of the process so you know exactly what to expect and where you are in the process at any given time. So I knew that my storyline had to be connected to Italy, Milan. That’s the first thing you need to do when creating an escape room. In my case, the storyline was finding the hidden treasure in the mysterious castle of Milan, but you can come up with a bunch of different themes. For example, if your gift is a Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle Game board game, your theme can be the storyline of the game. If you bought a new pair of Jordans for your kid, the theme can be the Space Jam movie and so on… Just think of something that your kids, family, or friends are going to love, and make a great short story out of it.
It has to be a short story.Nobody wants long and boring stories. Anything that takes more than 2 minutes to read is a long story. Just keep it around 200 words and you’re good to go. Short stories mean more pressure, though, because each paragraph, sentence, and word is more important than they would be in a longer one. Access to a pre-made playlist, video introduction and video ending are also included to fully immerse all the players in the game.
Want to Create the Entire Activity from Scratch in True DIY Fashion?
The plot is the second big decision. Almost all escape rooms have a plot and the challenge of completing the game is explained to the players in the form of a challenge within the plot. The plot is what motivates the players to complete the game and without a plot, an escape room would just be a thematic set of puzzles with to purpose. Set a Goal for the Group: The best stories have an ending. Make sure to set the goal for the group. Let them know what the end game is. Set milestones along the way. This way, they know that they are getting close to the end. We tell the participants in the My Rich Uncle Event that the end goal is to get all six digits of the combination. So, if one team has four digits, they know that they are closing in. The energy of the group increases.
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