The Spark of Resistance escape game in Portland, Oregon has become my gold standard for room escapes. The more distance I have from playing it, the more I am in awe of what they created.
So I was delighted to learn from Chris Dickson of the Exit Games UK blog that the folks behind Spark of Resistance gave a talk on their design process.
If you’re thinking about designing an escape game, you should consider reading my Escape Room Design Basics post.
If you’re actually serious about building an escape game, then you need to watch this video. It runs a little over an hour, and the audio is subpar, but this truly is a masters class in room escape design.
I’m not aware of any other teams who have made exit games being as large as the Spark of Resistance team, or having nearly as much experience with puzzles and live-action adventures, and the brilliance of their room goes to show what knowledge, experience, passion and talent can do even on (I suspect) a relatively tight budget. (I met Mink and Dave of the team in London about a month ago and they are as lovely as you might hope they could be.)