[INTERVIEW] Puzzle Master Gives Inside Scoop on Creating Escape Rooms

By: Janis Adams

It's a Puzzle to Make a Puzzle

Creating escape rooms is no easy task, as our very own puzzle creator Jess Gwinn can attest to. She started piecing out her first puzzle for the event of her husband’s birthday. The parts and portions of her life came together. Teacher. Explorer. Author. Researcher. Poetess….  All of when gathered led Jess on her journey of creating puzzles for escape games.

The first beginnings of that puzzle came in fits and starts. Steps ahead and then steps back. Adding, subtracting, reconfiguring. Similar to solving a puzzle, she came to realize the creation of one.

Puzzling Spaces

Jess explains that creating escape games starts with the space. “You can have the most insane puzzle but without the right space it becomes impossible.” 

Furthermore, she went on to tell, “escapism is not about actually leaving the room, it is about the time in the room and being transported, then interacting with the place and time of the story set in the room.”

With that being said, after the space was allocated for Ripper of London (Trap Door Escape Red Bank), the challenge became designing the game itself. In other words, the real challenge for Jess is reimagining the room to create the terrorizing murder mystery.  

Streamlining Creating Escape Rooms

As she put it, “The more space, the more props, the more characters, the more the story had to be developed and then streamlined.”

Streamlined? One might question. The harder the better, the more complex, the greater the challenge. One might assume. 

But. . . That isn’t the way with creating an immersive puzzle story. 

The flow of the story has to challenge the player but not be impossible for them to solve.  Ripper of London is a multilinear puzzle concept, which affords the player more levels of interaction with the puzzle, and thus more intensity when the puzzle is solved. 

This is the conundrum for the puzzle creator.

The Conundrum

According to Ms. Gwinn, “It is profoundly more difficult to make a doable puzzle than a difficult one. Puzzles are meant to have the potential to be solved, not to make every player fail, while still maintaining a consistent level of difficulty.”

The story needs to be believable and developed on a multi-level platform so that the players buy into the concept and become a living part of the puzzle.

What This Means for Ripper of London Escape Room

Ripper of London is a period piece, meaning it does not take place in the here and now. The moment that players step into the space, theming needs to be consistent and specific down to the smallest detail. These details of the storyline ensure there is a purpose to the room. And, purpose is important when creating escape rooms because players need motivation to complete the game.

Make it nail-biting. Keep them guessing. Make every second count – as time is running out. These are all challenges for the puzzle creator.

Make It Fun

“Knowing not everyone will escape the room is also one of the challenges for a puzzle creator,” she explained. “The puzzle needs to be fashioned in a way that, win or lose, it is fun till that last second.”

Creating compelling teasers to the game help create the depth of the game before the player ever walks in the door. The anticipation is a needed element that fuels the experience. But, Ms. Gwinn explains the creator has to use great wisdom in the smallest of details that are “leaked” to the player so that the game and the room seem compelling and immersive before entry.

In Conclusion

The journey- which is all in the mind- starts before the puzzlers ever strap on the seatbelts in their car to head to a Trap Door location.

For the puzzle creator, if you can convince the people playing the game that what  you have written is actually real, then you have solved the puzzle of puzzling. And that is just what Jess Gwinn has done with her latest puzzles in  Ripper of London. This is exactly why the games at Trap Door continue to be the best in the world!

Follow for the Latest Info!

Related Content

Mentioned Experiences

Ripper of London, Jack the Ripper Escape Room, NJ Escape Rooms, New Red Bank Escape Room

In this Murder Mystery Escape Room, you take on the identity of city inspectors. As you investigate, you and your team are tasked with tracking down the notoriously nefarious Jack the Ripper. 

$45 Per Player

Ripper of London is a 60 minute murder mystery escape room experience where you work a crime scene to track down the killer Jack The Ripper.

Trap Door Escape Company

Trap Door Escape Room has 4 locations: 3180 Route 611 in Bartonsville, PA in the Poconos; 60 White St. in Red Bank, NJ; 34A Speedwell Ave. in Morristown, NJ: and 77 Wind Creek Blvd in Bethlehem, PA. The Red Bank location was the first of the 4 locations, opening in the fall of 2015. Morristown followed in the summer of 2017, and Bartonsville opened during the holiday season of 2018. Wind Creek is currently undergoing construction and will be opening in September 2022.

History

The idea came to Tone Purzycki back in 2011 after he wrote a screenplay that developed into a live-streaming game. The game revolved around an actor trapped in a situation and the audience had to solve puzzles to figure out where he was trapped. The “Find Me Event” had more than 1,000 people playing over the course of several hours. After the success of several other streaming events, the idea of an escape room was born.

Location

Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the DeadWitch Huntand The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure ZF5 Tornado EscapeFear the BogeymanMad Hatter’s Tea PartyWe’re All Mad Here, and Prisoner Z. In Red Bank we currently have Everest – our first 2 story escape room. Ripper of London is also available at this location. Our pirate themed games will soon be open at Wind Creek.

Trap Door Escape Room also offers team buildingstreaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366