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.

Embracing the concept of the Escape Game room and taking advantage of our capabilities in product design, Anidea was inspired by the evolution of the escape game room in the entertainment industry.  We promptly formed a new division creating escape game electronics and props to fulfill our clients’ needs.

Why has Anidea Chosen the Escape Game?

Background Experience

Anidea has been an expert in entertainment industry electronics for many years and we have all the resources and abilities to design and install all of our clients’ needs. From building props to designing full turnkey escape game puzzles, Anidea has a great advantage with our expertise in electronic design capabilities.

In the past, we had a chance to work on many projects in the entertainment industry, such as snow machines, fog machines, bubble machines, and special effect lighting controllers. As a result, our clients greatly appreciated our major contribution to the success of their projects.

It’s well-suited to our capabilities

The escape game room market is growing faster each year and it requires more involvement of creative people and better technology. We are doing a lot of designing of electronic puzzles to constructing metal props. To quote our chief product designer, Gabriel Goldstein, “We are born engineers and by nature like puzzles. We can build anything we put our minds to.”

It’s fun

Solving puzzles is hard. Creating puzzles is even harder, but putting puzzles together that match  the theme of the game room is the most challenging. Therefore, creating puzzles that meet requirements takes a lot of time, brainpower, and a flair for creativity. Even though it is a trying process, it is fun to see the final product, and to watch how people solve your riddles.

What we do for your escape room

At our new Division of  Escape Room Electronics, we have a wide variety of capabilities to tackle  customer challenges:

• Electronic Puzzle Designs: We can turn any kind of puzzle to be electrical, whether we use RFID, laser, sensor, etc. We can pretty much accomplish it with any system to replicate as puzzles are solved autonomously.

• Puzzle Construction: Build and design puzzles from raw materials, like wood or metal or plastic.

• Automation: Automate most any kind of puzzles. We can also make automated lights and sounds for the puzzles.

• Light/Optic Sensors: The latest trend! Using lasers either within the puzzle or as a part of puzzle, as additional flare, as an access control.

• RFID Detector: Create a system that detects the presence of tagged objects using the RFID. We can create a large network of sensors throughout the entire game, not just in isolated areas.

• Sequence Detector: The puzzles are revolved around the players solving puzzles by performing certain tasks in a sequence.

• State Detector: Puzzles that detect when everything is together in their solved states/positions.

• Access Control: Automation of padlock, keypad wire/wireless, etc.

Overall, there is no doubt that the escape game room is definitely growing bigger in the coming years. The game is truly a valuable ‘asset’ for people who have a strong passion for creating cool things, just like Anidea. We are the best choice for your escape room props and puzzle designs.  Please check out our new page for more information about our new division.