What Do We Mean by Escape in "Escape Rooms"?
By: Kristina Malmstrom
Picturing escape rooms can be a challenge, especially if you’ve never experienced one. But don’t worry; we’ll walk you through it!
You walk through a heavy, red curtain and find yourself behind the scenes of a carnival. Wood chips shift under your feet as you take in the trailers and rehearsal stage. You hear amusement rides and crowds in the distance.
Immediately the ringmaster, Xunder, appears on stage, welcoming you and introducing the other Oddities in his troupe. Their rehearsal that follows lets you in on the wicked happenings going on behind the scenes. You’ll spend the next two hours uncovering this evil plot: exploring the trailers and tents, investigating the fairgrounds, and trying to piece together the puzzle before it’s too late.
What Are Escape Rooms?
This is just one example of an escape room (specifically featured, The Greatest Freakshow). Escape rooms started as a simple game where one is trying to escape the room in which they are trapped. While this style of game does still exist, the concept of escape rooms has also evolved over time.
What started as an escape the room game has grown into escape room immersion that lets you escape reality.
Escape Rooms: A Definition
Escape rooms are games where you are placed in a specific environment, usually themed such as outer space or pyramids. You then have a certain amount of time to either escape the location or complete an objective in order to win. They often involve players searching for keys and other objects or codes that can be used to solve puzzles and challenges, which lead to more clues and hints.
They also usually involve a light form of role playing, where the players may be scientists searching for a cure or spies infiltrating enemies’ quarters. Or they could be adapting to a themed environment, such as seventeenth century witch trials. The one component all escape rooms have is that their immersion where players lose themselves during their quest.
Escape Room Immersion
All escape rooms are trying to sell escapism, which is not a reference to escaping the room! Escapism is the act of losing yourself in an activity so that you forget reality. It can be used as a way to de-stress and take your mind off the real world for a while.
The escapism offered is just part of what catapulted escape room popularity and caused so many people to love them. Everyone loves entertainment that can distract them for a while.
Escape rooms can often be classified as an entertainment similar to movies, television, gaming, live action roleplay, books, and any other activities where participants are meant to focus on a fictional or alternate reality over the one they are currently living. Escape rooms typically are able to do more with their immersion.
They have the ability to create detailed sets and environments that are consistent with their situation. Zombie escape rooms have post-apocalyptic sets, medieval rooms feature swords and stone walls. These captivating sets help to distract players and immerse them in the new fictional reality.
Why Escape Rooms are Popular
Granted, escape rooms are popular for many reasons, escapism is certainly part of what makes them so enjoyable. People love entertainment that distracts them from their life, which escape rooms excel at. In addition to their immersive nature, the puzzles help to captivate audiences by stimulating different regions of the brain and making them think deeply helps keep their focus on the game.
Plus, many people turn competitive and can only concentrate on the game in front of them. The puzzles are the most important part of escape rooms, as they are the entertainment that people are there for. In this respect, they can make or break the room as well. Puzzles that are too easy or too complicated can easily break immersion for players. Escape rooms have to maintain a balance in order to keep players entertained and engaged.
One final important component to remember about escape rooms is that they are not all the same company. They also do not offer identical products between them. There are still many escape rooms that have not evolved from the original format, where players were ‘locked’ in a specific room and had to find the necessary objects to free themselves.
This was innovative and new several years ago, but not anymore. The amount that certain companies have evolved has created multiple levels of varieties between their games and structures. The evolution of escape rooms overall has led to more complex and detailed stories, multiple rooms per experience, and new challenges and innovative puzzles. This cannot be said for all escape rooms, and it’s important not to judge the entire industry off one example.
The experience described at the start of the article is just one example of Trap Door Escape Room’s games. Here, at Trap Door Escape Room, we put a lot of effort into creating games that have intriguing stories and captivating sets.
This makes it easy to be immersed in the experience from the very beginning. Our sets range from a post-apocalyptic cityscape, to a seventeenth century home of a witch, to the bedrooms of children. All of these share a high level of attention to detail, intricate props, and ambient music that help keep players lost within the fictional world. These types of details help keep players invested and focused on the gameplay. This lets themselves be submerged in whatever story is being told for that particular game.
The Story
Along those lines, another staple of Trap Door Escape Room is that we always include a story in which you can lose yourself. Whether it’s confronting deep-rooted fears of children or uncovering a sinister subplot of a leading manufacturer, there are always plenty of a surprises to keep audiences engaged with the content.
While the puzzles are the primary focal point, the stories aid in keeping players’ attention even if they are having trouble with a particular puzzle. At this point, we even deliver hints that are all within the realm of the game, such as from a scientist or character you met during the briefing, who tries to help you as you go on your journey.
The Mission
We also focus on never having the only goal you’re trying to accomplish be escaping a room. We always start our games with a mission or an objective to complete: rescuing children from the Bogeyman, finding evidence of a woman accused of witchcraft, or finding the cure to the zombie virus.
Our games tend to be fairly dynamic, as well, with new details emerging about the case you’re working on so that you’re uncovering more than just the immediate, starting story of the game. This helps keep audiences involved as new details emerge, creating a more captivating experience compared to more stagnant games.
Overall, Trap Door Escape Room’s mission is to provide an escape from reality. Players find themselves immersed in stories and puzzles that allow them to unplug and disconnect, focusing only on what’s directly in front of them. Whether for stress relief or fun, all of our players are certain to have an amazing time playing at our rooms.
Locations
Looking for your next adventure? Try any of our three locations listed below!
Bartonsville, PA
The Poconos Escape Room by Trap Door is all about the impact of humanity, from a Zombie Virus Outbreak to Extreme Weather, we have brought this upon ourselves. Bartonsville is currently hosting 7 unique escape room experiences. Check out our Poconos Page Here to find the best fit for you and your crew!
Also of note at this location is F5 Tornado! In 2021, this game won the title of Best Immersive Experience in the world. In F5 Tornado Escape, you’ll have to seek shelter from an approaching tornado. This game is great for families with children, and features a range of mental and physical puzzles and obstacles.
Red Bank, NJ
Everest takes place on, you guessed it, Mount Everest. After a previous climate research team went missing, your mission is to follow their footsteps and figure out what happened. In 2021, hardly a year after opening, Everest boasts a bronze win for the Player’s Choice Award for Best In-Person Escape Room.
Morristown, NJ
Our Escape Room in Morristown, NJ is pure magic! Super Powered Oddities to Witchcraft, it all combines for a conjuring of spectacle unlike anything you have ever seen. We are currently hosting three fantastical games in Morristown. Check out our Morristown Page Here to choose the best adventure for you!
For family-friendly, light-hearted fun, check out The Greatest Freakshow. As the newest members of Xunder’s oddity troupe, it’s up to you to save the circus from the spell of an evil mermaid. This escape room even features musical elements for a fun and engaging experience to play with children.
Witch Hunt, on the other hand, is a touch more mature. During the Salem Witch Trials, you have to prove whether a woman accused of witchcraft is guilty or innocent. This creepy game is spell-binding but dark in nature.
Finally, Day of the Dead is a great mid-ground. This game is a rich Latin-American celebration of life and death. With more challenging puzzles but a much lower fear factor than other games, Day of the Dead is the perfect family friendly challenge for Holiday Family Time. Be sure to enquire about the fiesta package for adult groups!
Related Content
Mentioned Experiences
Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.
$60 Per Player
You have 120 minutes to escape the theme at $60 per person plus tax. This is the largest escape room in the country, spanning upwards of over 4,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups are welcome, as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All bookings for this asylum escape room are private.
You are Constables for The Sheriff of Salem and are tasked with finding evidence of Witchcraft before the town hanging.
$39.99 Per Player
You have 60 minutes to escape, at $39.99 per person plus tax. At a minimum of 1,000 square feet of playing space, this theme is sure to provide a thrilling adventure. Witch Hunt is three times larger than the average escape room experience. Most importantly, however, all bookings are private.
Journey to the Top of the World as a Search and Rescue team on a mission to find a Missing Research Team.
$39.99 Per Player
You have 60 minutes to escape this theme at $39.99 per person, plus tax. At a minimum of 1,000 square feet of playing space, this theme is sure to provide a thrilling adventure. Everest is three times larger than the average escape room experience. All bookings are private.
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 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