How I Planned my Next Escape Adventure with Morty: The Escape Room App
By: James Butler
We got bit by the escape room bug hard. Some weekends my girlfriend and I would do 2-3 games— just our little team of two. After we finished our second room at Trap Door Escape Red Bank, we started questioning how many games we did in the past year. So, naturally we began looking at all the receipts. From booking confirmation emails to pictures taken after we escaped (or not quite escaped), we were checking everything. Little did we know that there’s an app for that – an escape room app.
How I Found this Escape Room App
When going through all our receipts became too tedious, I took to the internet. I knew there had to be a better way to keep track of our games. I found groups on social media and was amazed at the detailed spreadsheets or notebooks some escape enthusiasts diligently maintained.
Meanwhile, with the number of games we played adding up, my partner and I were getting rooms mixed up. Questions like “which was the game with that cool sugar skulls puzzle” and “which room did that Games Master crack us up in” became frequently asked.
Little did we know the answer for keeping track of all our games was right on the cell phones that we weren’t allowed to use in games. Of course when it comes to keeping track of escape rooms there’s an app for that – it’s called Morty! Necessity really is the mother of invention.
Downloading this App for Escape Room Enthusiasts
Morty is free to download on the Apple App Store. Within minutes you can look up a map of the escape rooms in your area (or areas you plan on visiting) and create a profile.
How this Escape Room App Works
Users of this app can keep track of what games they’ve played (or want to play), rate escape rooms, choose to “follow” other users in the application, and find fellow players to form teams to tackle rooms (such as larger experiences with multiple rooms). After speeding through creating my escape room profile on Morty, it was time to start logging in the escape rooms that we had already completed.
Track Your Games with Ease
I may be able to figure out a cryptogram, but remembering dates often escapes me. (See what I did there?) While our Everest experience at Trap Door Red Bank was unforgettable, I struggled to remember when we played it. However with Morty, the date wasn’t important and I could just find Trap Door Red Bank on the map and mark that I had played that game.
Once a user marks a game as played they can add many details about the experience. Below are some example prompts:
- Who did you play with?
- Did you escape, and, if so, how long did it take you?
- Private notes about your experience?
You Can Easily Leave Reviews on the Escape Room App
The Morty App also includes a Review section that you can either make available to everyone on the app, other Morty users that you follow, or you can keep it to yourself if you want to keep track but don’t want to give anyone any spoilers.
Why This is Beneficial
While the Disliked, Liked, or Loved Overall Ratings are helpful at a glance, the real depth of the app comes in the Rating Breakdown. Even though we love true immersive environments and difficult puzzles, other teams might look for different experiences. For example, they might be in search of games that they can enjoy with their families and friends. Conversely, they might be a business looking for the perfect team building exercise for their employees.
Breaking Down the Rating Breakdown on Morty
Different kinds of escape room players might love (or struggle with) different parts of some escape rooms. Therefore, the Rating Breakdown lets users dive into questions about their experience including:
- How was the atmosphere?
- How were you treated by the GM and staff?
- Was it scary?
- How physically active was the experience?
- Easy to find? Parking?
Why We Love Morty
Our humble little team of two has found the escape room app reviews more helpful than some of the online or social media reviews when looking for a new room to play. We are enthusiasts that love a good story in an escape room so that we can truly escape for an hour and enjoy working together through clever puzzles.
Morty User Reviews
Morty users tend to be experienced players that have played a wide variety of different rooms. With that being said, when a Morty user says a room is difficult for their group of 3 or 4, we know we’re going to have to really put on our thinking caps and hustle or recruit some more players.
The Morty Ratings section is in Beta, but it has already helped us find our next few rooms to play (we’re looking to finally cross Witch Hunt off our list this month.)
More Great Features on the Escape Room App
A picture truly is worth a thousand words. Another great feature is the ability to add your team’s picture when you mark an escape room as played. It’s nice to have a picture included with the details when you make your personal notes or review an escape room. Especially when you’re holding a prop from the room like a giant circus sledgehammer!
Mapping Your Next Escape
Okay, so say you’re an escape room nerd like us and you’re scrolling to find your next escape. Usually for us that is right after we finish an escape room. On Morty you can pull up a map of an area, and find an escape room.
Once you find an escape room, you can look at other Morty users’ reviews (and any spoilers are clearly marked,) and even click to book a room once you found the right one for your next adventure. This escape room app has enhanced our escape room experiences. We now have 71 games marked played that we can go back and leave reviews.
Follow Me on Morty!
Most of the games we played were private escape games with just the two of us, but our last two were our first public rooms. Seeing so many great reviews of some really large, immersive escape rooms we haven’t tried yet has us looking to find a few more enthusiasts ready to laugh and to try some escapes within New Jersey.
My bio (Taller226) even includes a call out to other enthusiasts looking to follow us on the Morty app and join forces for an escape.
You’ll come across a lot of text in escape rooms-posters, journals, emails, books, and notes. Your first read through of any text should be a simple scan. Are there random letters or words underlined? Does the page have strange capitalization or repeated misspellings? Maybe there is a clue hiding in that text. Also keep in mind an incorrect spelling of “to/too” or “for” may be pointing you towards a number not just bad grammar.
Related Content
Mentioned Experiences
Spice it up with the FIESTA Package!
Days before the celebration, a fire took all the family photos needed to complete the Ofrenda. Luckily, each member of the family was buried with a portrait.
Brave the Storm!
Journey to the Top of the World as a Search and Rescue team on a mission to find a Missing Research Team.
You are Constables for The Sheriff of Salem and are tasked with finding evidence of Witchcraft before the town hanging.
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
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.
Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the Dead, Witch Hunt, and The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure Z, F5 Tornado Escape, Fear the Bogeyman, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, We’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 building, streaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366