Here’s What We Have in Store for You in 2022

Welcome to 2022. We’re planning travels and events… and we’re optimistic about the year ahead.

Lisa and David in a strange room decorated beautifully by lots of tiny, random objects. A text bubble from Lisa reads, "Greetings from Meow Wolf!"

New Feature: Best of the Month

We’re introducing a new feature tomorrow, the last day of January, where we highlight our favorite REA posts from the month. This will include reviews (in person, online, and tabletop), design tips, news, commentary, podcast episodes… whatever we wrote about.

You can help us decide what to highlight by supporting us on Patreon and joining the conversation in our secret (and super fun!) Discord channel. We’ll be chatting there about what to include. (We’re currently also chatting about mystery-flavored candy. Now we all know why there are white “mystery” airheads.)

Escape Immerse Explore: New Mexico

Earlier this month we announced tickets for our 7th escape room tour, taking place in New Mexico in June.

Saturday, June 4 – Tuesday, June 7, 2022

We were really impressed by the companies in the region when we visited in December and we can’t wait to share these games with a group of traveling escape room players.

We’ve started to publish the reviews from the region. Check out Blackwell Manor, Rattlesnake Bend, Super Secret, and Jumanji. You can expect more reviews each week.

Tickets are on sale now! They are already more than half sold.

Reality Escape Pod Season 3

Our podcast returns February 15 for its third season.

David and Peih-Gee are excited to bring you 12 episodes (our longest season yet!) with guests from escape rooms, immersive theater, larp, board games, Survivor, and more.

We’ve already recorded a lot of the season, and we’re really excited by what we’ve captured so far.

In the meantime, catch up on seasons 1 & 2 if you haven’t already. And if you have, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts. It may sound silly, but it truly helps us.

RECON Boston

The Reality Escape Convention will be in person in Boston this August. Mark your calendar.

Sunday, August 21 – Monday, August 22, 2022

We’ll be releasing tickets, as well as our plans, soon, but I’ll give you a little teaser. Just something between you and me…

RECON Boston is an in-person convention focused on live interaction. In addition to some phenomenal speakers, there will be lots of opportunities to play escape rooms and other fantastic immersive games baked right into your tickets. It will not have a digital component. It will not be recorded. You’re either there or you’re not.

RECON Global will return in 2023 to continue its success of connecting people around the world and sharing their passion for immersive games.

This year the team is focusing on building the best RECON Boston that we can, and we hope to see you there.

Tickets will be limited. If you want to be informed when they go on sale, make sure you’re subscribed to the RECON newsletter. Click the link below and scroll down to the footer to subscribe.

Industry Report

We are putting together our annual industry report, scheduled for release in late February.

This next report will be an update to our most recent industry report and our 2021 study on the impact of the pandemic on the industry.

If you know of any escape room companies opening, closing, moving, or rebranding, please contact us. Your regional knowledge helps keep our directory up to date.

Thank you!

Thank you to our Patreon backers. You all help make all of these projects possible. We can’t wait to see many of you in New Mexico and Boston in 2022.

We especially want to thank the handful of folks who increased their pledge this month. It means a lot and it truly makes a difference.

Alexander Gierholz
Amanda Harris
Andrew Reynolds
Andrew Sturridge
Anna Lysova
Anna Simon
Anne Lukeman
Barry Joseph
Ben Rosner
Bethany
Bill Chang
Breakout Games
Brent Mair
Brett Kuehner
Brian Resler
Brian Vinciguerra
Bronna Butler
Byron Delmonico
Bytes
C.J. Smith
Cara Mandel
Chris Cannon
Chris M. Dickson
Chris White
Daniel Egnor
Daniel Kolb
Darren Miller
David Longley
deadpan113
Derek Tam
Drew Nelson
Elaine
Emile Wang
Eric Mittler
Erich Schultz
Expedition Escape
Fabrice Falcao
Farand Pawlak
Greg Marinelli
Haley & Cameron Cooper
Herbert Chan
James Shearer
Jan-Luc Van Damme
Jason Richard

Jenna
Jim of PARADOXsquared
John Wardrope
Jon Kaufthal
Jonathan Dautrich
Jonathan Driscoll
Joseph Friesen
Josh Kendrick
Julie Burge
Justin Nevins
Kathryn
Ken Zinn
Kevin
Kurt Leinbach
Laura E. Hall
Leanne
Lee-Fay Low
Lindsay Froelich
Lonnie
M. Sean Molley
M&C Saiewitz
Mark Blume
Mark Denine
Matt Beverly
Matt Keyser
Matthew Stein
Michael Andersen
Michael Wolman
Michelle Rundbaken
Mihir Kedia
Natalie Currie
Nathan Walton
Negina Kolesar
Nick Moran
Nick Rose
No Proscenium
Olivia Anderson
Omer Aru
Patrick McLean
Paul
Paul Tashima
Paula Swann
Philip Ho
Psych Out

Puzzling Company
Rebecca Horste
Rene Sorette
Rex Miller
Rich Bragg
Richard Burns
Rob Tsuk
Ruud Kool
Ryan
Ryan Brady
Ryan Hart
S T Cameron
Samantha Koehler
Sara Reed
Sarah Zhang
Scott Olson
Sean McBride
Sendil Krishnan
Seth Wolfson
Simon Edwards
Spencer Arnold
Stephanie McNeill
Steve Ewing
Steve Gaddy
Steven Valdez
Stuart Bogaty
Stuart Nafey
Tahlia Kirk
Tammy McLeod
Team Bluefish
Teo Litto
Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp
The Escape Room USA
The Wild Optimists
Theresa Piazza
Theresa Wagner
Tiffany Schaefer
Todd Geldon
Todd McClary
Tommy
Victor van Doorn
Vivien Ripoll
Will Rutherford
YouEscape

To those of you reading who have the means, we hope you’ll consider joining this wonderful group of supporters.

Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission

There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon, Etsy, or Art of Play after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.

The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.

4 Comments

  1. RECON 21’s recorded videos were a major facet of what made that conference so great. I was able to enjoy & benefit from talks I missed, due to the busy schedule. I am disappointed to see that RECON ’22’s talks will not be recorded. Not to mention that the pandemic still rages, and in-person events are still dangerous, even with vaccination + masks. I’ve read many REA posts that advocate for accessibility, yet this decision seems to go against that ethos. Why the refusal?

    1. There are two pieces to this answer:

      We’re not just putting together an escape room convention, we’re making an event where talks are just one component, along with workshops, discussions, and playing some of the best escape rooms and immersive gaming that Boston has to offer.

      Room Escape Artist lives its commitment to creating accessible content, as it has for almost a decade. We will continue to create free daily content, a free podcast, and a virtual convention.

      When creating an event, we see it like this: making a fantastic virtual escape game vs making fantastic real life escape game. They are inherently different products.

      We’ve been to conferences that do both, and it is a mediocre experience. If you’re in person, you feel like you’re trapped in a zoom call, an event constricted by the limitations of the internet. If you’re online, you feel like you’re missing out on the party. When you optimize for everything, you optimize for nothing.

      When we host in-person, we are building for in-person. When we host virtually, we optimize for virtual.

      This why we are spinning off RECON Global as a different event held at a different time of year.

  2. Thank you for the response and explanation. I certainly understand the difference between IRL & virtual content, it is sensible to not straddle both. I agree that hybridizing the workshops/discussions/games would be awkward. At the same time, is it overly difficult to record + upload the talks? I think of GDC and their library of talks.

    Either way, I’m excited for both RECON 22 and RECON Global 23.

    1. We’ve certainly considered it. The labor costs would greatly exceed what we expect virtual attendees would be willing to pay.

      And the difference between recording and doing it well is significant while adding a lot more logistical overhead. Ultimately when our goal is to put on the best IRL event we can, we have to keep our eye on the prize.

      And we’re excited to have you be a part of RECON this year and in the future 🙂

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