What is an Escape Room?

Escape rooms, the sixty-minute immersive experience for any age geared for collaborative efforts and quick-paced problem solving, are rapidly generating worldwide popularity. You may have already tested your intellect with a few rooms whether successful or failing to escape with one remaining clue. However, for those who have yet to accept the quest and attempt an escape room or want to learn more about the origin and purpose of escape rooms, we can help familiarize you.

Escape Rooms: The Concept

Simply put, escape rooms conform to a singular mission: escape the room. Before the festivities develop into a full range of clues, mysteries, and critical thinking activities, you and your group have the option to select the theme of your choice before booking. The escape room company’s website, like EscapeWorks, will display the various themes available, such as a virus outbreak, an Egyptian tomb, or a casino heist. On their website, most companies provide the level of intensity and suggested group size along with the time slots available for booking. Upon entering, the escape room you choose should feel immersive in its theme and allow you to feel as though you are somewhere entirely new and distant from the waiting room you just left. If you completed all the rooms currently offered, keep an eye out for seasonal rooms, such as those geared towards Halloween and Christmas available for a limited time only!

How Does it Work?

First, you need to organize your team and make sure your headcount does not exceed the maximum set by the escape room company. Once you arrive for your booked room, an escape room game guide will usher your group into the themed room and set the scene with an opening line like, “There has been a murder and you are all suspects!” or “The wizard is looking for his final ingredient needed to complete his potion and you are our last chance in stopping him!” After your room guide completes the inaugural remarks and provides your team with the first set of clues, he or she will exit the room, close the door, and the countdown will begin reducing your sixty-minute allotment. You and your team will then need to work together by scouring the room for hidden clues, secret codes, or number combinations. The answers could be found in anything from the hem on a pair of curtains to a poster on the wall, so splitting up in smaller groups can be helpful. Keep in mind that escape rooms are meant to be challenging and only a small percentage of participants will successfully complete the escape room in time. If you are going for the first time, consider a room with a lower intensity and higher chance of achievement. All rooms will be packed with clues and fun riddles, however each room targets an intensity level. That way, once you complete the easier rooms, you can move up to the more challenging ones!

Is There Only One Way Out?

“Is the room really locked?” Not usually. These days, escape rooms have moved away from locking their customers in rooms. EscapeWorks, like most safety-conscious escape rooms, provide participants with an independent means of leaving the room without assistance or permission from anyone else.In addition, all of EscapeWorks’ rooms are equipped with continual video and sound surveillance. Our game masters are always close by and carefully watching, ready to provide any assistance you may need. Also, if the full hour passes before your group successfully completing, a game guide will be there to open the doors and, if you’d like, show you the remaining clues and answers your team was unable to solve.

What Else Do I Need to Know or Do Before Coming?

• Wear comfortable clothing! In your sixty-minute time slot, you might find yourself crawling, ducking, and tiptoeing to look over shelves which might be uncomfortable for you to do in constrictive clothing or high heels.
• You can book an escape room with a smaller group but may need to share the room with another small team so that everyone can experience the fun. You might find that they will be your best chance at escaping the room in time, and you could walk away having made more friends! Most of our customers enjoy meeting up with fellow escape room fans and find the experience more enjoyable with other groups. Of course, if you’d prefer to be on your own, any of our rooms can be booked privately.
• If all participants are under the age of fifteen, at least one parent or responsible ticketed adult needs to be present.

Life Before Escape Rooms: The History of Suspenseful and Challenging Entertainment

Before the phenomenon brought modern-day escape rooms to almost every state in America and many countries abroad, the concept of escaping and problem-solving for recreational purposes is nothing new. Murder mystery parties and clue-riddled games alike stood as immersive encounters for any competitive individual or team ready for the challenge. Even prior to the invention of television and computer screens, suspenseful activities like hedge mazes and corn mazes were modern forms of entertainment as people entered through one side of the maze in attempt to escape on the other side.

The Knack for Adrenaline and Simulation

For the same reason that scary movies, roller coasters, skydiving, swimming with sharks, and haunted houses exist, humans love the element of suspense or surprise to a certain extent. When adrenaline activates in your body, increased neurological activity energizes your heartrate and metabolism, supplying charged endorphins available to apply to the stressful task at hand. “Well, what if I don’t like scary movies or roller coasters?” The interesting aspect about adrenaline is that its effect is not confined to jump scares and intense roller coaster drops but can be experienced at any time! Have you noticed how any avid reader loves escaping reality by travelling to a new atmosphere that provides a change of pace scenery, all without getting up from the couch? It’s our innate desire as people to enjoy experiencing new surroundings, thrills, and challenges through various methods whether we are actively travelling or engaging otherwise.

The concept of role-playing and simulation dates to Ancient Greek theatre. Dressing up and pretending to impersonate someone or something else is a great example of escaping reality by immersing yourself elsewhere through simple play. Children mimic this concept daily as they use their imagination to pretend to be famous chefs teaching a cooking class or princes and princesses who live in a castle far away. In this instance, participating in a physical escape room and feeling tangible objects as clues solidifies the role-playing as you become the characters necessary to overcome the challenge.

Merging Reality with an Immersive Experience

Increasing your sensory responses, visualization can maximize your adrenaline experience at hand. With the physical representation of a new reality in front of your eyes through a television or computer screen, players were met with a middle ground of immersion and seeing reality off-screen. Created by Toshimitsu Takagi and introduced in 2004, the video game “Crimson Room” drew in millions of computer game players. Its concept is considered to have sparked the Japanese movement in 2007 to bring the video game to life through launching the first escape room. Within the last decade, escape rooms rocketed in business and interest and moved from Asia to Europe and by 2012, San Francisco opened their first escape room. Since then, escape rooms can be found in most cities, allowing friends and family to go on several occasions and test their abilities in differently themed rooms. The hype for escape rooms has grown exponentially to the point that even Hollywood made a thriller film based off the concept!

EscapeWorks Denver: Your Next Date Night, Work Outing, or Family Event

Does your boss want to see which department from the office works best with one other or curious to see how employees work while under a little pressure? Are you and your significant other looking for a revamp date that goes beyond the go-to dinner and a movie? Is this weekend your choice for family fun, but you want something new to do? EscapeWorks Denver is ready to help with all of those! With several, uniquely crafted themes to decide from, we cater to all ages and intensity levels. Our rooms were brilliantly executed by our skilled engineers and craftsman to not only simulate the scenario, but to immerse you fully in the situation. Even in our speakeasy room, we carefully designed each element for you to feel whisked away to the prohibition, even to the point you might forget about the law’s abolishment!

Easy to locate in the heart of Denver, there are many restaurant options for you to take your team to afterwards, whether it’s to celebrate your escape or to drown your sorrows in comfort food. At EscapeWorks Denver, we will work with you to book all school field trips, office outings, birthday parties, and more.

Book your room today to see for yourself why escape rooms are trending globally.