Things never quite change all the way. They just take different forms at different times. For example, back in the 90’s, there was a huge push for children’s play areas. This was a big cultural deal and so several famous venues for children’s entertainment appeared, each a little bit different than the other. Many had food or playgrounds, some had areas for birthday parties and other festivities, it was just a popular trend that got bigger as time went on. But, eventually, as with all things, the trend shrunk after money dried up and most of these places went away. They went away but the memory of them didn’t from the minds of the children who had visited them. And, as with all things, these play areas didn’t quite vanish entirely, they just changed form. Nowadays and with good reason, there has been a resurgence of these types of areas for adults, a reaction, as you might have guessed, to the nostalgia for those magical places that existed when many of these adults were kids. There are several versions of this resurgence in different areas but the most popular, by far, is the escape game or escape room. These have exploded in popularity over the past couple years and have spread across the nation as a fun and active alternative to more traditional gaming spaces. But what is an escape room and how is it different than many other pay to play, location specific gaming areas? Let’s take a closer look at the escape game or escape room party space, and see what makes them tick.
What is an Escape Room?
First and foremost, the escape game or an escape room is based around one single idea. Escape a room before the time runs out. It doesn’t need to involve just one room or even one building, however. The escape room can have many different sizes, shapes, variations and puzzles depending on the theme and the location of the building or buildings that the game is located within. In fact, the only consistent part of the escape room set is that it involves one or more locked rooms, puzzles to solve said locks and typically a time limit within which the puzzles need to be solved. In this way, the escape game is something like a more active version of more traditional role playing games. The level of difficulty inherent in the puzzles varies widely across specific escape rooms as well and can be adjusted for younger children or those who might get easily flustered. The amount of variety within the escape rooms themselves is one of the reasons for their widespread locations and success.
Themes of Different Escape Rooms
There are plenty of different themed escape rooms as well, as many as it takes to accommodate the specific personalities and tastes of every player. One very popular theme is the medieval themed escape room where the rooms in question will often simulate dungeons and caverns. They might have a dragon speak to the players, telling them to escape if they want to live or find her gold or they might involve some sort of quest the party members must go on. For those with less niche tastes, there are many basic varieties, including the corporate escape room or broader, more mystery styled types. One might have a murder mystery to solve or a crime that needs to be cracked by solving the puzzles. There are many escape rooms that take the mystery or detective route, with varying levels of fright or intensity depending on the audience in question. Still others have more whimsical or fun themes, including space, gardens or the beach. One of the more popular types of escape rooms is the aquatic themed one where players have to find buried treasure or outsmart pirates on a ship. There really is no limit to the types of escape rooms that can exist, it just depends on what is available in your area. Play is important, after all, and it is good that so many people are finally seeing the benefits of play after so many years of thinking that games are kid stuff.