The Ultimate Escape Room Experience

Part 3: The Game and Puzzle

You’ve made it to part 3 of 5 in our Escape Room Series. We have covered expectations and building the perfect team. But now, we are really diving into the meat and potatoes of escape rooms. The Puzzles!

I’m in my escape game, now what?

So if you are a first-time player, stepping into your first escape room can be super daunting. What do you do? What can you touch? How does this all work? 

Well, the first bit of advice I can give you is to pay close attention to both your game guide and any introductory videos that you are shown. Often these interactions will set base rules for the room and interaction with it, and game guides love to hide clues about the room in their intros for new players in order to help them out (though note, not EVERY game guide does this, and even if they are giving you subtle hinting, there is really no penalty for missing these hints). 

Types of Puzzles

As for the exact puzzles in a room, these will vary from room to room and company to company. However classic ones you can usually expect are things like item counts (3-4 items listed that can then be counted in the room, thus giving you a unique three-four digit code), hunt and search (think large numbers written across walls or keys hidden under tables or in easily accessible places), black-light puzzles (often you are given a black-light flashlight, or something turns on a black-light in space/room. We highly suggest familiarizing yourself with a black-light before entering your first room), finding numbers of different colors to put in locks with various color dials, or puzzles that often involve putting items in precise spots (if you start getting a lot of similar-looking items with no apparent use, look for places they fit into… though sometimes these may not reveal themselves until late game). You will find once you have a dozen or so games under your belt, you will begin to recognize certain puzzle processes. However, the ones that will really stick with you post games are the new twists on old puzzles you find or ones that use previous knowledge of games to misdirect you in your current one. 

Regardless, there is (for most escape rooms) a logical line that leads from puzzle to solution to lock. Sometimes this can be as obvious as things sitting next to each other at the beginning of the game, to things like color coordination or the puzzle flat out saying it goes to a lock (A great example of intuitive puzzle design would be having a locked door with large numbers written on either side of it, those numbers being the combination to the door’s lock). These puzzles can either be very linear (one puzzle that leads to the next in a line from beginning to end) or they can be non-linear (having several different puzzle lines that eventually bottleneck at certain points). With non-linear puzzle paths, always remember that you will still need to solve all the puzzles, but that multiple people can be working on multiple different things at once.  As for what is not part of a puzzle, things that are bolted or glued into place often don’t need moving or interaction with (most companies have a minimal force rule – ie most require very little strength to solve from beginning to end).

Additionally, anything that looks to be a natural part of the scenery often are not used (Think serial codes on desk chairs/trash cans, measurements on wooden slats used to build something, etc), and when they are used there will be a clear connection to them being part of a puzzle. Often holding hands between several points can complete an electrical current and open something. 

Additionally, don’t be afraid to do things that seem silly in normal everyday life. Other times touching symbols in a specific order can magically cause a bookshelf to open. We have even experienced tracing a chess piece across a map in a specific order as a puzzle (it opened something nearby afterward). We don’t expect these things in day-to-day life, but in an escape room, they are totally valid. So don’t let that voice in your head going… this is silly… stop you from escaping a room. (Do however note that each of these has a grounded point in the puzzle progression that said they should be done, standing in the middle of the room and clucking like a chicken is likely to have little effect in the room unless a puzzle has specifically told you to do so).

Whew, we know that was a lot of information! Check out part 4 as we continue talking about the actual experience of an escape room!