The secret economics of Escape Rooms

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

🎉 Unlock AI for $10 per month → ntn.so/PhilEdwards ✨ AI Meeting Summaries template → ntn.so/AIMeetingSummaries

[@DerekLMcAllister]

@PhilEdwardsInc Does this help for summarizing others’ KZbin videos?

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

@@DerekLMcAllister you could probably figure out a workflow for that.

[@sherlockedadventures]

Victor from Sherlocked here. This is the most spectacularly comprehensive video about our industry made in the 12+ years of its existence! It's a joy to have been part of it! While I'm blushing at the inclusion of Amsterdam as a hub for quality escape rooms, I want to say that it's actually the entire country of The Netherlands that deserves that credit. The Dome, which has been crowned the nr 1 escape room in the world a mind-boggling 3 times, is still rightfully riding high. Its successor to that crown, Molly's Game is also an inspiring feat of imagination. We made The Alchemist with an ambition of hitting that top 3 in the world as well and I know of a couple of other makers in The Netherlands who are working spectacularly hard on their respective masterpieces. Beautiful things ahead!

[@frunch65]

Shout out Netherlands!

[@mikesweeney2324]

How often do you have to hear Victor von Doom comparisons?

[@sherlockedadventures]

@@mikesweeney2324 They used to be rare, but since the RDJ announcement, there's been a noticeable uptick ;)

[@mikesweeney2324]

@@sherlockedadventures He's my favorite character, so I was mostly just jealous! I'll definitely visit your establishment if we're ever back in Amsterdam!

[@NoOriginalNameXD]

The queen in utrecht is also fantastic!

[@loganpressley8806]

This is Logan from Escapism. Funny enough I just got home from dealing with a door being ripped off the hinge and then came back to find my first spot in the video being me talking about the destructiveness of players :). Hopefully we will reduce our breakage as our more premium rooms get released. Nice job with the video!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

ahhhh man. thanks for being part of it and god speed on the hinges!

[@DavidSpira]

😱

[@TheCriminalViolin]

I assume it was you that specifically said "people are destructive gremlins!" I laughed so much at that statement. Add some animosity into it as a insult and it becomes even more hilarious and epic. I love it. I have to assume it was you, considering it came in the same sequence as you mentioning ripping a steel door off it's hinges, and I was preoccupied listening while I was mixing the dough for Banana Bread lol.

[@DakotaZ162]

​@@TheCriminalViolinhe's at 12:29, you're quoting Nate Martin not Logan

[@TheCriminalViolin]

@@DakotaZ162 Gotcha. As I said, I was away from my computer making Banana Bread, so I was only listening.

[@DavidSpira]

David from Room Escape Artist here. Thank you Phil. It was a pleasure speaking to you about the industry that I love so much.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thank you for doing it!!

[@fabmediastudios3512]

Too cool! I should look at putting my artistic skill into designing ER’s.

[@victormilton]

@@fabmediastudios3512Please do! More artistic escape rooms made by passionate people is the best thing that can happen to our industry! And don’t worry about all the $ amounts you see in the video - amazing games can be made with low out of pocket cost, as long as you’re able to invest a lot of time, care and energy 🙏

[@robw1263]

David, what if someone put an escape room in an expanding travel trailer and it would go from city to city every 30 days. Existing escape rooms could tie in using a side door...

[@DavidSpira]

@ people have built some pretty good games into trailers since ~2017. It can work pretty well. However the time spent moving the game around and setting it up tends to suck a lot more time and resources.

[@caleblatreille8224]

It's no coincidence that escape rooms are exploding at the same time we're seeing concert ticket prices skyrocket (esp. at upper tier, ie. Beyonce/Swift), film box offices going down, physical music and film sales basically don't exist, etc. that was predicted by a lot of musicians about ten years ago: media is now free, so EXPERIENCES are becoming the premium entertainment economic product of the era.

[@edwindungdung1998]

I just wanna mention how awesome it is to see people get better microphones now. It really makes listening to interviews that much nicer.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

very true!

[@Martcapt]

How high are you? "I booked an escape room to take a nap" high.

[@wenwengirl]

They're escaping the outside, not the inside

[@AVeryGreedyBee]

honestly, the only way id like to do an escape room

[@cupbowlspoonforkknif]

Oh my goodness this may actually be genius. I've been lamenting the fact that there's nowhere for my kid to nap while we're traveling without a hotel. Car naps are not ideal. I would pay a lot for a quiet dark room for 1-2 hours. Because a well rested child makes your life so much better. I would easily pay $50. Maybe a struggling escape room could try this for extra revenue.

[@Martcapt]

@cupbowlspoonforkknif "lock your child in our escape rooms, you'll finally have the rest you deserve" eheh

[@Alex-kr7zr]

@@cupbowlspoonforkknifsounds like you should buy a black out tent

[@drctrs]

Unlike with restaurant business though, people don’t frequent the same escape rooms, even if they liked the experience. It’s a one-time experience for absolute majority of people. There’s no sense to go there twice. It’s like re-watching a movie. Most people don’t do that. The novelty factor is a big problem for this business.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

yeah i cut this out, but jason in boston and brian in nc both saw their relatively transient populations as an advantage for that reason

[@tearsintherain6311]

Ltv is low

[@ryanfirster]

Some places change out the rooms once a year or so on a rotation - so they have 2 experiences active while they work out a third, when that opens they close one of the previous 2 and repeat the cycle.

[@tauntingeveryone7208]

I think it depends. I have visited escape rooms that I did not solve in time before. It is like playing a video game and wanting to retry a level that you did not beat. There is also the experience of trying to speed run an escape room. I do agree most people who complete their escape room usually do not go back to the same room which is why most escape room businesses have multiple rooms.

[@PhotonBeast]

One solution would be to revamp the room(s) every so often, but as any video game developer can tell you, constantly making new content/novelty escalation is itself a pretty cursed problem. I suppose maybe having some rotating rooms with the same set of games for the transient players, and then some rooms where you're building new experiences for regular players/building ones on demand for them. That might help reduce the overall scope... though it still feels like a tough situation and obviously adds overhead with the need for continual game development.

[@cientjepientje]

Francine from Sherlocked here - Thank you Phil for taking the time to talk to us and others in the industry, and create such a well researched, elaborate and well edited video! And I love your final note about every one of us mentioning another creator. One of the things I love most about this industry is the friendliness among competitors, the willingness to support and help each other, and the celebration of beauty and skill. Thank you for giving that a spot in the video too!

[@fonkbadonk5370]

I hope this doesn't sound dumb, but I'd like to express what an exceptionally gorgeous face you have. Especially in motion. Actually wonderful, bright and aesthetic. And to top it off, you also seem to be a cool and friendly person, and have one of THE most polished looking rooms (at least from what we were shown here, I sadly haven't been there yet). Keep on being awesome on so many levels!

[@acepokemontrainer1]

My first escape room experience was years ago, it was literally just a plain room, wooden boxes, locks, keys, number puzzles on walls, codes under props, etc. My second escape room was recently in Paris-there were 3-4 rooms, moving walls, smart (switchable) glass, lasers, rumbling/vibrating floors, sweeping soundtracks and blaring sound effects, smoke, filmed videos on screens, super cool technological puzzles. It's crazy how far it's come.

[@mayario]

which one?

[@willb.383]

One element not discussed about enough with the evolution of escape rooms is how participants get better and better at puzzles the more they do them. It’s not just that participants want new experiences, they also want a challenge and if they perceive that a puzzle they are doing is too similar then their experience will diminish. That was an early motivation to evolving the form just as was bringing a heightened, more immersive experience.

[@MartijnPennings]

I would guess there's a market for both newbies and experienced players. A lot of people will do a couple of escape rooms in their lifetime; a relatively simple one will give them a nice experience, so they probably will look at the cost of the tickets and the availability of a time slot more than how challenging or immersive it is. The experienced players will be looking for that extra special one and will be willing to spend extra time and money on it.

[@gamemastertrix]

I’m a manager at Escapology Columbia, which has more games (12 currently available) than the vast majority of escape rooms in the US. This video is incredible and 100% accurate. I wanted to give some additional info regarding the cost of putting in a new game for a franchise. Once Escapology corporate releases a new game, we can choose to order it if it’s something that we want for our own venue. The most recent “high tech” licensed games like Batman, Star Trek, Murder on the Orient Express, and Scooby Doo all cost between $50-110k to purchase and install. Non-licensed games (which still have many “magic” or electronic components) range broadly between $15-75k. I also wanted to add that because our games are not very big, our reset time on any one of the 12 games can not exceed 12 minutes or we risk falling behind. With that being said, a seasoned employee can do most of them in 2-5 minutes. You do have to be a little bit crazy to work in escape rooms though 😎

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

appreciate the info - and the reset time! crazy fast!

[@Sparkle_Wizard]

It’s important to remember that the escape rooms also boomed in popularity from online flash games on websites like Newgrounds that evolved into real life escape rooms

[@RadikaRules]

God, that reminds me there was a whole series of them about Jigsaw from the Saw movies putting some famous character or person through one of them

[@GabrielWehrle]

Was looking for this comment! I haven't seen anyone mention this before, but flash games were my first introduction to escape rooms when I was a kid.

[@claytonfs]

I came looking or this comment. The idea that escape room simulators evolved from physical escape rooms is backwards. The idea didn't start ten years ago, it was more like 20.

[@matthewhornbostel9889]

Yes, and the notion of an escape room game digitally was born from constraints of small developers trying to boil down games like Myst/Riven, and the puzzle subgenre of graphic adventure games, to their simplest form. Making a puzzle game but instead of some intricate worlds, just everything condensed down to one digital room. I think someone actually ought to consider licensing the Myst IP in the specific context of escape rooms... there's an insane depth of lore and visual creativity in that series, and a Myst escape room setup would be weirdly a full circle kind of thing, as it takes the trend of expansive setting reduced to minimal scope and then getting increasingly lavish and big again, and sort of returning to the roots of the entire category which would be fascinatingly satisfying to see. Incidentally if anyone's curious both Myst and Riven now have gorgeous 2020s era full VR remakes.

[@GabrielWehrle]

@@matthewhornbostel9889 Haha, a Myst escape room would be seriously cool!

[@BrianVinciguerra]

Brian from Cracked It Escape Games. Thanks for a great interview and a very insightful production. I even learned a few things! Nice to see so many of my industry friends stepped forward to contribute. Well done!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thank you for being part of it!

[@hiyabara]

I think a very interesting market to look at is the Chinese escape game market. They have rooms set in freezing temperatures, dressing up in themed costumes, NPC chasing you down corridors while being separated from your teammates, flowing down a river

[@heyBe56]

I'm one of the Escape Simulator devs. So cool that you've mentioned it. ❤

[@drillerdev4624]

I have to say, I have seen the game mentioned sometime, but never checked it. After seeing the rave reviews, I'm gonna try to convince my S.O. to try it as a weekday activity that we can do at home

[@heyBe56]

​@@drillerdev4624hope you have fun!

[@mrclint7377]

Never heard of the game before. Now I have to try it on my VR headset

[@flippingunicorn4023]

my friends and i love escape sim!!

[@KomradZX1989]

Great video! Me and my girlfriend love playing escape room simulator together! We both use power wheelchairs so a lot of escape rooms just aren’t made for us but that video game definitely scratches that escape room itch we both have 😂 Love the video! Have a great day!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

I forwarded your comment onto Boris!

[@KomradZX1989]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Sweet. Yeah that game is super cool and a great virtual substitute for real escape rooms. I’m used to most of the world not really being made with me in mind so quirky sim games are the only way I can try my hand at heavy machinery or racing or farming or in this case, escaping a room 😝✌️

[@poppey40]

@@PhilEdwardsIncI’m the girlfriend in question. Since we live in different states, video games are truly how we hang out and interact freely together like he said. Great video.

[@eugenetswong]

Komrad, how could they be improved for you?

[@snackplaylove]

As a wobbly person I REALLY appreciate any escape room that has a usable chair inside as part of the theme. Bonus points if I look like a hero for finding the key hidden in the arm of the chair 😂 VR escape rooms like Exit Condition One are great for at home play too.

[@tauntingeveryone7208]

I love escape rooms. The first multi room escape room that I did was in Boulder Colorado. Honestly I would be okay with dropping a couple of hundred on an escape room. However, I am one of those weirdos that prefers the puzzle aspect over the story aspect of an escape room. After doing a lot of escape rooms with friends and randos, one of the biggest things that I learn is that in order to succeed you need to make roles either implicitly or explicitly. You do not want people to be hovering over one puzzle or everyone looking for more puzzles. You also need someone to lead people while also moving all the solved puzzles out of the way. It is important to move solved puzzles out of the way because people can get distracted or confused by them easily. Personally I like being the leader because it allows me to put my military leadership skills in practice. Escape rooms remind me a lot of these combat/environment obstacle course that I had to solve in the military. Usually there was some kind of goal like moving from point a to point B but there were hazards that made you have to think outside the box such as not being able to verbally communicate due to the enemy finding you. Those obstacle courses use a lot of the same skills I use in escape rooms. I have to think creatively and allow others to experience their ideas but also keep people moving. I have to get rid of irreverent items while focusing on the goal. Lastly, one of the things that I think makes a good escape room is when there are multiple ways to solve a puzzle or an escape room has multiple ways to get to the end goal. During Gencon two years ago, my friends and I did a pop-up escape room at Gencon with some other board game enthusiasts. It was some kind of the masque of the red death theme escape room. The best part of the room was that there was a music puzzle that could be solved using some clues around the room but if you knew the melody you could solve it. One of my friends is a big music nerd and knew the song and was able to finish it which solved the puzzle. To this day this has been one of my favorite moments in an escape room because it is nice when you can bring your own knowledge into solving a puzzle while the puzzle is still being able to be solved if you do not have that knowledge. It feels like finding a shortcut in a video game.

[@DrexelGregory]

In Vegas, a company licensed It, Blair Witch, and Saw and made huge escape rooms. They have a whole warehouse for two It games. They also do the pipelining thing and have actors. That’s the most immersive set of games I’ve ever done. The Escape Game chain is nice too

[@BrianVinciguerra]

The Saw experience much like Escape the Movies, or 5 Wits relies heavily on throughput using the pipelining that was discussed in the video. It does tend to make you feel rushed.

[@maiastephanie2986]

easily the most immersive “escape room” that i’ve been to was nearly every experience in Boda Borg. So much fun!!

[@salina3192]

Apart from irl escape rooms and games, there are also audio escape rooms such as "escape this podcast" that provide a unique experience that often only works in audio. The makers are as passionate as the 'irl game' designers, it is super fun to think along from your home/commute/wherever and it's free 😉

[@Xatzimi]

I think you could have talked about how video games were almost certainly the basis for escape rooms. Lots of old flash games were escape-the-room, and even bigger budget games often have similar puzzle elements. In Japan, they specialise in elaborate escape rooms are themed to franchises which have such elements. SCRAP even brought a Zero Escape themed escape room in LA all the way back in 2019 (Zero Escape being a sci-fi psych thriller visual novel focussed around characters in a life-and-death escape room scenario). But many horror games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill emphasise puzzles. Or something family-friendly like Professor Layton or Myst way back when. I think the game design language from video games helps inform escape room design, and furthermore creates the sense that an escape room is basically like a video game in real life, a physical counterpart to VR. I think the horror themes being most successful might have something to do with the popularity of aforementioned horror games, but also both share the element of suspense which heightens the experience. More to your video's theme, though, escape rooms are a uniquely cooperative industry. Restaurants are a decent comparison, as you made, but eating is a necessity, so there's more competition. Escape games are novel one-and-done experiences. Players rarely return to a room unless they failed, and making different rooms is not as simple as changing a menu. Room designers want to make their experience as good as their peers, but because of the novelty, their good experience results in business for their peers, as happy, successful players seek other places. It's no wonder everyone is a fan of each others' work. Plus, of course, the creators are largely artists at their core

[@ErikVeland]

Came here to say just that. Escape the Room was a viral flash game in 2001. And that was just a simplification of earlier puzzle games like 7th Guest. I chuckle at the full circle of Escape Room video games being created today.

[@heyBe56]

He did mention video game influence at 24:35

[@AmandaDavis6130]

I did an escape room with my family and the puzzles really reminded me of playing the Myst series growing up.

[@laurensweyn]

Whaat there's Zero Escape themed rooms? I have to try one of those. Also based Ever17 pfp

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

@@heyBe56 Yeah, but mentioning games like Myst, not like Escape the Room

[@brockmckelvey7327]

Ah, so that's why Phil had to skip a week for this upload: he had to spend extra time making his Avatar *just right*

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

haha yes, and making him dance for me.

[@tijmen24nl]

Another well made video! As someone that works in the Netherlands at one of the more established locations, the point of rooms here being amazing really hit home! (Although saying Amsterdam in place of the Netherlands Belgium region kinda hurts, of the top 50 of escapetalk there are only 2 in Amsterdam) I find it so fun to see the whole field shift and change at this quick of a pace. For example, more locations are now adding actors in their games because it adds a lot of personal touch. But other rooms going in an totally other direction, with even better, Disney level set design for example. But one thing is certain, owners are not getting rich here since almost alle the money being made is going right back in the rooms that are being built. Sidenote to anyone that wants to play the top rated games in the world, go take a look at the TERPECA awards! It was shown but not explained in the video, definitely worth a look!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Yeah, agreed, that was dumb writing I did saying Amsterdam....hopefully the visuals clarified, but apologies.

[@commercialcritic4676]

Amazing Video!

[@ghostmaya5724]

i got to work at an escape "game" at pioneer village in toronto, which is called that because it's a whole horror experience that you aren't locked in a room and instead trying to lift a curse. you get to explore the whole village with actors who interact with you and jumpscare you (i did the jumpscares 😂) and it was a TON of fun to do.. it really does feel like a marriage between interactive theatre/improv and haunted house/puzzles ive always been a lover of puzzle games, especially ones like Fireproof's The Room series which the first game came out in 2013 iirc and is essentially an escape room, which i have been obsessed with for over a decade. so i was VERY excited once irl escape rooms became a thing. thanks for shedding some light on this wonderful industry!!

[@ericfielding2540]

I had heard little about escape rooms before. Your video presents the subject with great energy and tight editing, which makes it very enjoyable.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

appreciate it!

[@Urutsini]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the growth of audio escape rooms, such as Escape This Podcast. They still work really well and they have their own feel and challenges. I feel they are one answer to keeping budgets low.

[@ElectariumTunic]

For me, a European, the modern escape rooms came from "quest rooms" that have existed since at least the mid-1990s. Much of their inspiration seems to have come from Fort Boyard; an "quest room" game show that has aired continuously in several European countries since 1990. I remember a school trip to Boda Borg (Sävsjö) around the year 2000, which is a 3-story apartment building filled with quest rooms. The only clear difference from escape rooms, in the modern sense, seems to be escape rooms have longer time slots and fewer physical requirements.

[@cameronmastoras2292]

Totally agree, and having done boda borg in boston a ton when i lived there 2015-2018, the boda borg concept trumps the traditional escape by a mile

[@WaitintheWings]

Such a GOOD video. We have a 5 Wits near me that I've been meaning to go to and I think this video might finally make me do it lol

[@vuke6931]

I manage NERD Escapes in North Carolina, it's great seeing you deep dive into my industry, particularly as a long-time viewer. There is so much innovation and love in the world of escape rooms. On the note of origins, I can completely agree about the nature of the origin of escape rooms. What I see of escape rooms is it is one of the few things in the world that went from a digital format to physical... and not the other way around. Text based computer adventures, like The Colossal Cave, are fundamentally escape rooms. You are in a limited space, with item or code based puzzles unlocking new areas until completion. They evolved into point and click games like Myst, and eventually people started making them in real life. My own first experience of an escape room was a flash game!

[@Geeksmithing]

I believe the industry definitely owes much of its success to the proliferation and accessibility of the Arduino, Raspberry Pi & the Maker movement. Great work as usual Phil!

[@DavidSpira]

I very much agree.

[@ProbstStyle]

Meh, Arduinos are toys and not proper for high tech escape rooms. Generally you see them in bad businesses with unreliable tech. Better games use proper automation.

[@Geeksmithing]

@@ProbstStyle regardless of what came since, the availability and widespread adoption of Arduino and similar dev boards really opened up that whole industry which was stuck with some ancient tech such as 555 timers and BASIC stamp which was no where near as user friendly and accessible.

[@DavidSpira]

@@ProbstStyle I've seen the inner-workings of a lot of games. There are plenty of amazing games running on Arduino. The best tool is the one that you know how to use well.

[@jimurrata6785]

Thank you Phil for the consistently engaging and esoteric videos. Your production values started off good and continue to get better!

[@BenanaBoy]

If you ever do a follow up to this video, you have to include more interviews from folks in the global south. Particularly in Malaysia, the stuff they're doing there with escape rooms is insane! From memory I believe they have the highest amount of escape rooms per capita in the world (I might be a little off with that but they have a lot)

[@sharkdavid]

Just did my 2nd escape room last weekend so this video coming out is fortuitous. I agree with the sentiments at the end, I think there's a new art for here. There's so much creative space here: high-end bespoke escape rooms, historically aligned escape rooms, educational escape rooms, series escape rooms, ER with elaborate perfomances, and so on. My takeaway is " every time [...] someone realizes the magic of the escape room, the industry as a whole benefits."

[@codykodina8428]

What I love about your videos is the number of people you talk to; it's nice to hear from different perspectives and sources. Thanks Phil!

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

Well escape room designers/people were very generous with their time which made it easy!

[@GURU-1701]

Great video. I love escape rooms, I even proposed to my wife in an escape room built into a 600 year prison in an old castle wall.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

dang!!!!

[@ColorMeMozart]

I love escape rooms and this video gave me such a deeper appreciation for what goes into them. Thank you for such a wonderful and insightful video Phil.

[@anthonygladman6558]

"Yes, TGI Friday's exists..." Um yyyyyeah they're bankrupt now.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

til!

[@yesterdaydream]

I had to look it up. I guess some are still operating

[@jerkchickenblog]

they are still operating yeah

[@LlamaMan321]

First time stumbling across your channel. Holy smokes; I had no idea I needed to know about Escape Rooms. Thank you, Phil; your channel possesses captivating storytelling, beautiful cinematography, and a soothing tone. You've got a subscriber; can't wait to check out your other videos!

[@XxXBigFischXxX]

I remember there being dozens of “escape the room” flash games back in the early to mid 2000s. Not just adventure games, but quite literally “escape the room” type stuff.

[@tempest_dawn]

it was a common format in text and point-and-click adventure games before flash too

[@davidsalamon2783]

Overture Facile

[@TriWaZe]

Crimson Room was really the OG. Then there was so many copy cats, many werent that good

[@darthparallax5207]

Dungeons and Dragons was in like the 60s or 70s. I don't think the puzzles in Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit were nearly complicated enough to count, except the implication that locations only Gandalf saw would have counted: Isengard, Dol Guldur, Underdark of Moria, and Barad-Dur. There might be even older stories than Tolkien but the specifics of dungeon-crawling is more niche than dragon-slaying or princess-rescuing I'm not sure if Arthurian Legend has actual examples of this. The clearest example would be when Dungeons & Dragons starts riffing on Lord of the Rings hard enough to make very clear examples of large Dungeons with multiple layers of clues. Oh. Hang on. There is an older book that has a huge prison escape theme: The Count of Monte Cristo. Looking for the history of prisons is probably a good place to look for escapist fantasy entertainment responding to prisons. I dont think the Spanish Succession or Thirty Years War were as famous for prisons as the French Revolution though, so I still kind of think Count of Monte Cristo is arguably the most famous fantasy entertainment experience of a complicated prison escape. (100s of years older a story than Shawshank Redemption)

[@verygoodfreelancer]

easiest interactive experience to make in flash lol

[@KevimationYT]

It’s amazing to see a bunch of my friends all in one video. Great video. Keep up the great work.

[@matthewbruna7710]

Pop-up escape rooms are an interesting take on the model. Going off of my one experience: they design one room per year, and then tour it through a convention circuit (Anime/gaming/furry ect). They've got to get creative and design VERYA portable experiences that can easily be built by hanging posters on walls, and deploying puzzles on skirted plastic tables. Shout-out to 'Fuzzy Logic' for the year they built a passionate parody of yugioh&pokemon, speaking dumb nostalgia to a very narrow audience -- and still forking out for microelectronics even at very low entry costs

[@MDaggatt]

Nate Martin makes incredible escape rooms! I've been going to his rooms in Seattle for years and every single one is incredible.

[@s90210h]

Very interesting video! So glad you made it because I was not intrigued enough to try one

[@WalterBurton]

Fascinating, the fuzzy line between theater and games, smudged by art, and how that plays into grant writing. Very cool.

[@materialtraces]

I think the oldest escape room-like thing I know of is BodaBorg in Sweden, they have been around since the 90s. They in turn was heavily influenced by a game show called Fångarna på fortet or Fort boyard.

[@DavidSpira]

Boda Borg is absolutely on the immersive gaming spectrum, and it certainly predates escape rooms, but I've seen no evidence that it had any real impact on the early development of the form. But it is a great place.

[@dalmationblack]

(I'll shout out that they have a US location in Boston as well, which is very much worth visiting)

[@jakegabriszeski4866]

​@@dalmationblack I looove Boda Boston! (I've also had the honor of writing their music for the last 2 years starting with Wumplefrümp)

[@jeremyarcus-goldberg9543]

Yes! An important mention for this topic because of their business model to entice players to return to the location to try and win more rooms or revisit their favorites!

[@straitJacketFashion]

As a British boy of the 90s, all I’m thinking is Crystal Maze and Jonathan Creek.

[@alastairaitchison6787]

And for British boys of the 1980s, there was "The Adventure Game": kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHiQfKejbtNqbdU

[@DavidSpira]

The Crystal Maze and The Adventure Game absolutely influenced the development of early escape rooms in the UK. There is a Crystal Maze experience in London.

[@loganpressley8806]

@@DavidSpira Funny enough it feels like we are coming full circle. Challenge arcades largely predate escape rooms and are now feel like a new frontier that escape rooms are starting to push into. As an escape room owner, I discovered Crystal Maze by doing research into potentially opening a challenge arcade in the next couple of years.

[@DavidSpira]

@@loganpressley8806 they are absolutely a frontier. I think that it is a frontier that is higher risk/ higher reward, and the market will saturate far faster.

[@WalterBurton]

Imagine how addictive it must be for some of these owners and their employees, tinkering with sensors and other devices. Imagine how tempting it must be for some to regularly blow their budgets on cool stuff.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i think they often do too

[@Promoboy]

In 2017 i was thisclose to signing a lease and opening up an escape room in my area. I felt like you had to be the first in an area for it to thrive and survive. One day before signing the lease, someone else opened a room, followed by several more in the next few weeks and our area was saturated. I definitely was looking at $15,000 at the most start up cost at the time with a 3 year window of opportunity. I'm so happy that others are surviving and thriving and bringing more live actors and tech to the arena.

[@unicornconservationco]

I love the stories of the crazy players. Our escape room was in Hawaii and I think as a general culture, we have very polite people. Our most memorable was a very drunk player stealing our vial of vampire blood and sheepishly returning it the next day (looking very hungover.)

[@jademonas]

12:35 "someone ripped out a safe out of the wall, the drywall came along too" HOW??

[@MrCai01]

Hadn't realised i was an escape room luddite before now - i really dislike any games reliant on electronics or the game master to be paying attention. Instead i love the act of searching and decoding of clues to obtain a number of letter password to operate a physical lock. Damn you and your batteries! Nice work Phil, as always

[@TheGlassesPush]

Thank you for this thoughtful glimpse into this medium that I love so dearly.

[@RosemariePinto]

I am the co-owner of Mythos Escapes and the mom of the owner of Escape-topia, both in south Florida. My oldest son designed and built both locations - Escape-topia for his brother, my second son, in 2016. The first thing he did was the story behind the lobby. And each room was built as an immersive experience, well before others caught onto this idea. So the minute you walk into the lobby, your experience starts. Escape-topia's lobby is a 1940s hotel. Mythos Escapes is an Edwardian theater. Staff is in costume and in character. It's been a wild ride!

[@smappdooda]

As a magician who makes escape rooms for other people, it's nice to see something like this to help educate others.

[@klankungen7794]

In Sweden there is a company that have remade entire apartment buildings into dosens of smaller escape rooms most being a bit quicker like 15 minute rooms and varying in dificulty, basically like a mini amusement park where you don't need to be outdoor. Only the most complex escape rooms are above their most complex rooms. It was however made in 1993 so it is about 10 years older than the consept of modern escape rooms.

[@ananas22anne]

yeah amsterdam is a REALLY special place for escape rooms. i did a lot of escape rooms in germany and when i was in amsterdam, i went to the catacombs escape room with my friends and we were blown away! it was situated in the basement of a real church, it felt sooooo magical / posessed. just great!

[@natalialedezma2985]

recently had my 7 year anniversary with my boyfriend and we decided to celebrate it by going to an escape room here in Panama. It was one of our best dates ever! So fun and it really made me feel like were a team ❤️

[@sonicpsycho13]

My wife and I have done about 10 escape rooms. iEscape Rooms in Carolina Beach was decibel the best one I've seen. It had multiple rooms, varied puzzles (cryptography, scavenger hunting, puzzle building, etc), and was nonlinear. It was nice to see a room that had several puzzles that different people could work on at the same time, because so many I've seen are completely linear. We failed after the hour, and probably would have solved it with an extra 30 minutes. We were hamstring by the fact that it was just the 2 of us.

[@KristenPimley]

Wonderful video! One of the best escape rooms I've ever done was in Shanghai: 2 hours, 8+ rooms, high production value and physical challenges (slides, climbing ladders, crawling through tubes, lifting "corpses" to the ceiling, etc.). I live in Seoul, and there are insanely high production value escape rooms EVERYWHERE (that may or may not infringe on copyright). Regardless, escape rooms in Asia are really changing the game, and many are offered in English as well. It would be a bit difficul, but I'd love to see a follow up video on more global escape room experiences!

[@video123film]

Boda Borg is an interesting riff on escape rooms. Instead of one experience per ticket, they have something like 30 different “quests” that are each a set of 2-4 rooms. You have to successfully complete the first room of a quest to move to the next room and so on, otherwise you’re kicked out of the room and can start over at room 1 or go to a different quest. Tickets give you several hours to explore as many quests as you’d like and there is a lot of replayability because you can’t complete all of the quests in one visit and the group of friends you go with can change the experience. They have one US location in the Boston metro and others around the world. I think this kind of business model is able to get both one-time players like tourist and also repeat players in the local community.

[@KentHeckel]

Escape Rooms are my most favorite thing. Loved this BTS

[@Haematite]

Wonderful deep dive into the topic. My first Room experience in 2017 was an Egyptian themed escape the tomb. UV invisible ink, substitution cypher, polystyrene Anubis statues, very indiana jones. My latest had 10 different sized and colored Rabbit plushy toys with rfid inside each, hidden around a magicians sanctum. 10N!4 combo lock hutch, and for us number 3 was in a hat in the small steamer trunk which itself was a chinese puzzle box. 😂

[@joshuaolmsted2865]

Stunning video Phil. Keep up the great work!!

[@donpinnochio]

Hi Phil. Kristian here from Escape Room by Midgaard Event. Great video and insight into our escape room business

[@SalemCobalt]

OMG, I know SO MANY of the amazing escape room experts / owners showcased in this video! 🎉😍🥰👏

[@AlgebraAce]

"TGI Friday's exists but there's other restaurants" funny timing on that one

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

i didn't know til this published. i believe zombie fridays will live on...

[@BOABModels]

Fantastically researched video, as always Phil. There's a TV show in the UK called Taskmaster which I think must have been partially inspired by Escape rooms. They get comedians to solve puzzles or complete tasks. They now have a live experience in London which I've heard is very escape room adjacent.

[@hannahbrown2728]

Taskmaster has been so long running I think it might be the inverse, but the similarities are very much there.

[@BOABModels]

@@hannahbrown2728 9 years on TV but I know Alex Horne was doing it at Edinburgh before that, though I don't know when it started.

[@hannahbrown2728]

@@BOABModels I, wow, somehow added so much more age to that show then I originally thought. Oh god the last 9 years have felt like an eternity then and I picked up on it in like 2020. I guess from across the pond I assumed the joke of "BBC makes 6 episodes a year" a little to literally lol. Alex Horne seems like the kinda guy to draw inspiration from escape rooms as much as anything else. The boys unhinged

[@BOABModels]

@@hannahbrown2728 in fairness, they have done 18 series as they do two a year. Alex Horne is a workaholic - I saw him and his band the Horne Section in London last year. Another thing he finds time for!

[@BOABModels]

@@hannahbrown2728 yeah, they have done 18 series by doing two a year. Horne must be a workaholic as he's also sold the format around the world and done other stuff - I saw him and his band, the Horne Section, in London last year.

[@1.4142]

Escape rooms are big in China too. Did a few of them in 2014. And the cultural references make it harder.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

wish i coulda delved into the chinese scene - david said it was big for dating!

[@DavidSpira]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Indeed it is. Both platonic and romantic.

[@weirdofromhalo]

Not anymore. The real scene is with murder mystery LARPing now. People Make Games did a video on it.

[@1.4142]

​@@weirdofromhalo True. Watched a movie 剧本杀 but forgot the name

[@nkrat1093]

My friends and I love escape rooms. We've gone twice a year for the last 8 years (minus 2020-2021, for obvious reasons). There's just something about working collaboratively to solve physical puzzles that's just so fun, especially when the puzzles area are designed to fit the story/theme! Although, we've nearly exhausted all of the rooms in our area and I have no idea what we're going to do once we've done them all.

[@davidlr97]

I’m glad you mentioned Myst, I was thinking all through the video that I feel like Myst was one of the original escape rooms (even though it was virtual), and some of the earlier PC point and click adventure games like Monkey Island are probably in that path of lineage as well

[@kitjenson]

A few years back I was contracted to build a simple video game that was shown on a two-way mirror and controlled via sink knobs in a separate room. Very cool concept. Loads more tech involved then one might think. It was a fun project.

[@TJ-vh2ps]

What a great video! I was mildly curious about escape rooms before but now I’m very interested in them.

[@polatrite]

Instantly subscribed after watching this video. Excellent production quality as well as great material on an interesting industry!

[@crescentfreshsongs]

I host at a traditional low-tech escape room (that is, the most technologically advanced gimmicks we use in our rooms are maglocks and pneumatic tubes), and it really is amazing to learn all that goes into it. It's not a high paying or long-term sustainable job by any means, you deal with some wild groups, resets can be draining when you host four or more games in a day, but it's incredibly satisfying if you're at all inclined toward puzzles and/or entertaining.

[@scottmccarthy1274]

I did the first 5 wits room in 2004 or 2005 in Boston with their original Tomb. It was amazing and just changed what I thought we could do for entertainment. It was originally a college project and it was amazing. I have been doing escape rooms regularly for a long time now.

[@katiegoode]

First in UK was HintHunt in Aug 2012. Before that though I believe Hungary in EU, and before that, apparently 2007 in Japan with Scrap inc. ClueQuest was 1st I played and that was 2013 with a few sequenced rooms (but one setup).

[@XxXenosxX]

I love when you upload videos, there always seems to be something new to learn!

[@ritokazoriv]

I love this 13:25

[@LukeThomas00000]

Glad you’re back!

[@ThatBadGamer1]

Thanks Phil. I love the quality of your videos.

[@HippoOnABicycle]

I could see escape rooms scaling up to escape houses, or even escape villages. You could have a village with multiple mysteries to be solved, like a real-life open world video game, allowing the visitors to pick and choose what they want to do. The concept can definitely be expanded upon.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

this was the dream of one of my interviewees!

[@Freepepsi42]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Escape rooms trigger a real life Westworld?

[@wyw876]

Disney seems like they were a decade too early with their Star Wars LARP "hotel" Experience, alas.

[@johndpaul]

Javi, I visited Portsmouth Escape 6 years ago! I've only been to about 7 or 8 over the years but yours was one of mine.

[@haruko83]

Thanks for supporting our business! ❤

[@Sundji]

I just got a job at an escape room and the GM is getting actors and otherwise investing a lot into the space. I'm glad to be part of a team that values the escape room industry for its artistic potential.

[@boines]

my family been doing "escape rooms" for over 20 yrs on every halloween and kids and adults love it. scary theme with keys, secret doors, word puzzles, etc. We use cheap as f items bc they break etc. Glad to see ppl are making money bc we just pass candy when 1 finishes without help crying etc.

[@MsHojat]

VR seems like a big thing for escape rooms. Sure it could potentially be a gimmick in a real-life room (although this might be difficult to do, and potentially costly to cover breakage), but perhaps more importantly I think it is an important/highly-useful device for video game escape rooms. There's so many huge differences between a normal video game and a VR one, and those differences are even more important for escape rooms. The biggest would be the immersion of atmosphere, ease of looking around, and complex manipulation of objects via motion controls. While it might not be quite as nice as a real life escape room, the costs would be so much lower, and there's more possibilities for things to be done as well. Like not only could you have super-expensive and/or impractical stuff like flames, projectiles, water flooding, huge rooms with sprawling staircases, but you could do flat out _impossible_ stuff like low gravity, incorporeal walls/objects, non-euclidean geometry, portals, giant monsters, getting superpowers, etc.. I can only assume there's already been some sort of VR escape rooms being made, but I haven't looked into it. I assume some crappy ones were made in VR Chat, but as far as I know VR Chat has rather limited capabilities.

[@atcopley]

I remember visiting a 5 Wits escape room in Boston in 2008 called Tomb which was an Egyptian themed multiple room experience that was very immersive. The final room even had some crazy ending that mechanically was quite a feat! I don’t want to spoil it but it was incredible. A quick google on their website says this has been around since 2004!

[@timspoor]

Great video, very entertaining. I love the escape room scene in the Netherlands, indeed almost all of them are of very high quality

[@PrinceRavioli]

Played my first ever escape room at Trapology shortly after they opened in 2015. In the 9 years since it has become an obsession - I’ve spoken with or know of many of the people in this video though also found myself learning more than a little new info about an industry I thought I knew well! Hat tip to Room Escape Artist - last year I flew to SF just for Palace Games’ The Attraction, on their rec. Absolutely worth it and hands down the best experience I’ve ever had in this space. I suspect people like me are who the premium game makers are targeting and though I’ve done too many rooms to say I’m still spoiled for choice, knowing there are new rooms out there makes every trip just a bit more exciting.

[@PrinceRavioli]

I’m sure David mentioned them, but the Boxaroo team in Boston and the evolution into the closely related Level 99 team is I think the most likely long term future for the non ultra premium rooms. Not a dig - I love Level 99. More like the European approach a la Boda Borg so not totally new and yet just different enough. And I also love recommendation culture. A room manager or owner who can give me a genuine recommendation is strangely common yet always reassuring.

[@MichaelJLambie]

I think another theater// adventure experience I loved was Sleep No More

[@Mr539forgotten]

"We're consciously dodging bachelor parties." Interesting, fun true story for y'all. My best man took me to escape rooms for part of my bachelor's. I'd never heard of them before, we hit up two joints completely sober and did like 5 escape rooms back to back. It was honestly the coolest thing ever, best bachelor's party ever.

[@K3NnY_G]

Thanks for having something to share with us today. Half an hour I can just shut off has so much value to me on days like today.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

that's nice for me to hear and i hope the day smooths out or improves!

[@K3NnY_G]

@@PhilEdwardsInc Thanks Phil, keep doing you; you're awesome.

[@NabilTouchie]

Alastair is an absolute genius! His channel is full of great ideas!

[@jerkchickenblog]

which channel is that?

[@arothmanmusic]

This was a fascinating video! As a theater guy and puzzle video game fan, I love escape rooms but have been to far too few. It was cool to see how much is going on in the industry. (also, I swear I thought Francine Boon was Katherine Heigl at first...)

[@excalipoor]

Being in nyc, my group used to visit an escape room every other week. Played so many. But covid kinda slowed us down. I always wonder the economics of escape room is like. Thank you for the info. I’m heading for an escape room next week in Brooklyn. 👍 they have an axe throwing place over there too. lol.

[@1GoodWoman]

Hi. Among other things things I am an aspiring mystery writer in Weymouth MA. Not sure why you showed up on my feed but yes, you made my day…in a very good way! I think my son went to one of the early rooms here and I will check. Love this!!!! Who wants a script or story writer?

[@EtienneDeguine]

Great video! love adventure games but had no idea there was such a thriving industry. Makes me want to try it, thanks for the info

[@kanishagrover8590]

As a 5 wits employee in 2014 and 2015, I can confirm they had 3-4 locations at that time and they were doing crazy over the top cinematic multi-room escape room experiences for years before I joined the company

[@tommutchler2939]

Always happy to see a fellow Skylab fan - and love that couch.

[@developingtank]

I left America around the time that these started popping off. I had no idea this industry had grown so much. Cool and very interesting video. 🖖

[@jerkchickenblog]

i left in 2000 and soon had the idea to start a similar business locally but couldn't get my partner to go in, so we didn't do it... but i also didn't know how much this had taken off, being away from america