Exit the Game Advent Calendar 2023 Day 1: The Silent Storm

[@thamesandkosmosgamesuk]

Holding our breath there for a moment but glad you got there in the end. The Brands are very good at red herrings!

[@drgareth]

Haha - yes! :) Thanks so much for watching, and I think you can see the moment I realize what's going on! I'd personally say it's unusual to have a deliberate red herring in an Exit game, but I can't really argue with the experts! ;) Really looking forward to trying the other days!

[@lynngordon2795]

Just finished day one. It’s a great feeling when you realize that you’ve put the clues together correctly to get the right code for the next day. Now I’m going to watch how much faster you always arrive at the answer.

[@drgareth]

It's an amazing feeling, isn't it? Speed-wise, I don't know if I was faster than many people today since it took me a while to get round to the correct solution, but fingers crossed for the other days! :)

[@SongoftheLute]

Fantastic, this is such a favourite part of my advent is joining you for these puzzles! so excited! thanks for making these videos for 2023🎁🎁🎁🎄

[@drgareth]

That's lovely to hear! Thank you for commenting, and it's great to have you watching along with the solves!

[@Cadentotaldrama]

Hello, new subscriber here! I’ve been doing this calendar as my first of the exit series this year(I have done many normal Exit games in the past but this is the first advent calendar) And I am absolutely loving it! It will be fun to solve it along with you throughout the upcoming month, although I am a day behind you up in the states so I typically will be late- This puzzle actually was one of the easier ones for me as I made the connection pretty fast but I realize how the colored strings could easily have been overlooked. Good luck as the calendar goes on!

[@drgareth]

Hello, and thanks so much for watching - and your various comments, which are also much appreciated! I definitely had a slow start with this puzzle but I think I have been doing okay since, so it will be interesting to see how your experience compares with mine!

[@RebeccaAdeney]

Good start to this Exit advent calendar!

[@ms_hansel]

Hooray! It's Exit Advent Calendar season again! This year, I got the calendar for our family to do along with you. Had to wait until we'd solved day 1 to watch your video. Looking forward to all the great puzzles ahead!

[@drgareth]

That's awesome - I hope you enjoyed the first day's puzzle, and thank you so much for continuing to watch! I really appreciate it! :)

[@nicoles7126]

Love these videos! Thank you. We did our day 1 yesterday and I couldn't wait to compare our process to yours! I was so sad for you when you disregarded the colored thread on the keys! 😂 Notably, my hubby related the key length to the "big to small" clue instead of the value of the numbers "big to small". Fortunately they both work! Can't wait to solve the rest with you!

[@drgareth]

Ah, I never even thought of key length! And of course I could have sorted by how full the jars were once I had the correct numbers too - which is also the same answer! Very clever. Thank you so much for watching!

[@nicoles7126]

​@@drgarethwe tried organized by jar fullness first thing! That was my daughter's idea. She's 7 BTW and loves these.

[@aliciastraub3477]

Yippee! I had so much fun watching you solve last years Calendar that I purchased one for myself for this year! I'll look forward to watching your solves after I do mine on my own!

[@drgareth]

That's wonderful that I inspired you to get the calendar, and I hope you enjoy this new calendar as much as I'm sure I will! :) They're a real success and I'm so glad they're continuing to produce them!

[@aliciastraub3477]

Maybe one day you and Laura will publish one?

[@LauraPuzzles]

@@aliciastraub3477 what a fun idea! 🤩 I can't imagine trying to compete with the EXIT games tho, they're so good!

[@aliciastraub3477]

@@LauraPuzzles I have full faith in your abilities! Go for it!

[@eeshapopat4067]

I’ve been waiting for this. I got this one in October for my bday and completed this during month of November. I had so much fun. Can’t wait to see you solve this

[@drgareth]

Oh that's great to hear! Did you solve one per day? Maybe I should have solved during November too, so I could get ahead on the videos! :)

[@eeshapopat4067]

@@drgareth I did one per day unless I missed a day I caught up on the next day. And although the box said beginner it was a little difficult for me to solve.

[@karenhamilton3638]

We are absolutely loving our calendar, it's so much fun, but just done day 2 and ended up having the same problem nothing in the box. Took it apart.Maybe it's the same for a few but apart from the family arguments to try and get it out, we are loving it ❤️ ♥️

[@drgareth]

Sorry to hear about day 2, but glad that you're otherwise enjoying it! These calendars are so fun, and I'm really looking forward to solving the remainder of it!

[@caitlinwolle8063]

It’s still November in Florida so I’ll be a day behind but I’m looking forward to all your escape calendars!

[@drgareth]

Thanks so much (in advance! :) ) for watching, and I hope you enjoy them! I'm really looking forward to working my way through the three calendars I'm solving this year, and I hope you enjoy them too! :)

[@waterp2076]

YEAH

[@JenniferFugere-yu3hg]

I apparently got a horrific bootleg version. So disappointing!!!! No story, no puzzles, the decoder has no back, we opened door 1. It had a flower and 1 clue card that makes no sense. No pictures in the little compartments. I was really looking forward to doing this with my son. My heart hurts. It looks like so much fun. 😭😭😭 Plus, I waited a month for it to come in. 4 days into December.

[@drgareth]

Oh dear, this sounds like a disaster! I would return it to wherever you bought it, and/or speak to Kosmos Games customer service. It's an odd thing to bootleg since it is so complex, but you're not the first person to mention missing the story, hints and decoder so that does seem to be a packaging issue. Was it shrink-wrapped when you received it?

[@JenniferFugere-yu3hg]

@@drgareth in lots of bubble wrap. The printing on the few pages that did come is fuzzy and some is illegible. In hindsight....it didn't come from anywhere reputable. I didn't realize that this is an actual company with clearly quality puzzles. I really enjoyed watching your video although it made me that much more disappointed in my error. I'm not thinking I will have success in returning it to where it came from. 42.00 down the drain. Lesson learned-hopefully next year I can get the real version.

[@drgareth]

@@JenniferFugere-yu3hgWow it sounds like you've been very unlucky, and depending on where you are you maybe paid pretty much (or more than) the full retail price anyway! Maybe Kosmos would be interested to hear about counterfeit versions of their products, so you might still want to get in touch with them? You can email '[e-mail]' and let them know, even if you aren't in a territory that they cover.

[@DevilboyScooby]

Fascinating how different brains work! I immediately thought 'ball colours', whereas yours jumped to key shapes 🤔 maybe yours is trained to look for the most complicated solutions first? 😂

[@drgareth]

I think that's often true! I've found in real-life escape rooms I do best when with people who don't solve puzzles, because they try the things that I dismiss out of hand as not sufficiently motivated - like arbitrarily picking up bank notes and adding them up to get a safe code. (Why?!) :)