At Room Escape Artist, we write about escape rooms 365 days a year. It’s a lot of content… so we’ve decided to help you out with monthly column that highlights the strongest and most interesting content that we put out each month.
This month we’re highlighting 4 escape room reviews and 4 commentary pieces… which is a bit more than usual, but we couldn’t choose. We expect these different pieces will engage different readers.
Reviews
Escape Rooms
The Body Shop, Red Fox Escapes (Cambridge, MA) – The gameplay flowed exceptionally well and we loved the unique theme; rebranded Girl Scout badges worked marvelously.
Easy Bake Coven, Niagara Escapement (Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada) – This was a playful space with unique, family-friendly puzzles for a wide range of escape room players.
Station M, Casa Loma Escape Series by Secret City Adventures (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) – The spy vibe was present throughout Station M. It was baked into the set of historical Casa Loma, the props, and the story.
Volcano Views: Aerial Tours, Escape from the 6 (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) – This game took us on an action-packed and momentum-driven adventure through the skies.
Play-At-Home
Puzzle Rap Star: A Hip Hop Puzzle Book, Crux Club (puzzle book) – This is an enjoyable narrative puzzle book experience… and Cindi’s thematic review is especially fun!
Podcast
While Season 4 is in production, we’re doing another podcast throwback this month: REPOD S3E7 – Adrenaline Mapping and Escape Room Design with Tommy Honton, creator of Stash House. Tommy is so passionate about elevating the craft of immersive gaming and advocating for other creators. It’s easy to see why many escape room designers consider him a mentor.
Commentary
RECON Boston Thoughts & Feels 🤯 – Sometimes things turn out the way you fantasized. Against all odds, RECON Boston did just that. Here is David’s reflection on the incredible experience of hosting the Reality Escape Convention in Boston last week.
Field Report: Israeli Escape Rooms – Israel has a thriving, creative escape room scene that includes a bounty of lighthearted themes filled with special moments… Matthew’s reviews of individual Israeli escape games will start publishing in September.
Survey Deep Dive: Escape Immerse Explore New Mexico – In June 2022, we brought 47 players to Albuquerque & Santa Fe on our 7th Escape Immerse Explore tour. The post-event survey surfaced the top games in the region, but also shows the diversity of preference even among serious escape room players.
Chekhov’s Gun & His Other Belongings in Escape Rooms – A simple rule of escape room design: the coolest things in the room need to have a purpose. Don’t make Chekhov’s gun… or his other possessions.
