It was a rare event when, in 1982, a series of ‘escape room’ video games could turn into its own adventure, marking the great revolution, from a point-and-click video game to an incredible physical adventure game in which players could physically experience an entirely new concept of recreation. How wonderful is that?
History and description
The escape room game was developed in 2007 by 35-year-old Takao Kato, of the Kyoto Publishing Company in Kyoto, Japan. The game was exported and became extremely popular in many Asian countries, especially Taiwan, Singapore, and the mainland of China. In 2012, the physical escape room appeared in San Francisco and opened the new age of spatial adventure games in U.S.
Based on the concept of his earlier video games, Kato created the physical version of the game, where a group of 2 to 6 people are typically locked in a room, and must use their brains and critical thinking skills to solve a series of puzzles and escape within 60 minutes. Players can book a particular room they want to play; anything from a prison cell to a haunted room, ancient tomb, medical laboratory, or any other innovative ideas the developer can come up with.
Unlike many other games, the physical escape room requires participating teams to promote the necessary teamwork and open-mindedness to be able to play and complete the game successfully. Not only does it require teamwork, but also problem solving, communication skills, and even a good basic knowledge of math, physics, science, history, chemistry and geography would be helpful. The game sometimes leads players to experience intense emotions, including joy, anger and frustration while the game is being played. The combination of all these factors produces a most unique atmospheric adventure for participants, where they find themselves not only in the game, but in a real escape.
Why is it so attractive?
While the game was invented in Japan in 2007 and has only become popular here in the U.S. since 2014, it is still relatively new to the American entertainment industry. According to the Google Trends, the current Interest over Time rate (IoT) of the keyword “Escape Room” in America is fairly high, increasing gradually from 2014 to 2016. It seems to have remained constant in those couple of years without any major declines. This data tells us that the game is generating a lot of interest among people over this two-year period.
It’s very challenging
Everyone who loves challenging puzzles should try it out. As mentioned earlier, the escape room demands many skills from players to win a game. They have to use nothing but their wits and their brainpower to solve all the riddles to reach the final destination. However, the riddles are sometimes very difficult and people have to wait until the end, when an instructor unlocks the door to give them answers they couldn’t figure out during the game.
It’s highly interactive
While there are many aspects of a good video game, people always seek the one that has human interactions between a player and the game’s characters. It means the player can use the main character to interact with the objects and communicate with other characters during a gameplay. The more interaction, the more interesting the game is.
Growing beyond a video game, the real-life escape room presents a higher-level interactive form. Players can physically interact with the real objects and directly talk to their teammates to figure out the solutions to escape. During the game, players are going to feel joy, fear, and frustration. This is the perfect combination to make this physical adventure game so much fun and interesting.
It’s a great team-building exercise
Teamwork is the key to escape room success. Without teamwork, you won’t be able to win these games. Breaking codes, finding keys, solving riddles, and decrypting combinations within a time limit are not simple tasks for a single individual, but require contributions from all team members. Team members should learn how to work and communicate effectively, so they can help each other in order to complete the tasks.
It’s generating memories
The escape room generates delightful memories. You will definitely have a good time with your friends and families, regardless of whether you win the game or not. Again, this game is a great team builder that creates a big chance for participants to get to know each other, understand more about the personalities, and most importantly, connect people with people.
Understanding the history, the original concept, and the attractiveness of the game can help you determine the way to recreate a better concept of the game. The escape room game is all about practicing teamwork and generating life memories. These two things are at the very core of creating the good escape room game, so they must go hand in hand. The more people who walk together through the game, the more life memories are generated. If you can create an escape room that allows a good human interaction and a good foundation for generating life memories, there is no doubt that people will come and play your game over and over again.
At Anidea, we have the capabilities to help you achieve these goals. Please check out our page for escape room services.