Room Escape Artist

I traveled to Athens, Greece with a 9 day itinerary packed full of some of the world’s best horror escape rooms. I am by no means a fan of horror, but I did want to see what all the fuss was about. I hoped to return with an answer to the question of why escape room rating sites like TERPECA have so many horror games near the top of their lists. 

I expected the answer to be massive sets, theatrical spectacles and amazing acting, and while there was plenty of all of that, the one consistent thing I noticed about most of my favorite horror experiences was how well they flowed. That state of flow made these games extremely fun.

What is Flow?

The player flow state is described in the 2015 paper Escape Room Games: “Can you transform an unpleasant situation into a pleasant one?” by Wiemker, Elumir, and Clare. In this paper about the core concepts of escape room design, they write:

Flow is a mental state a player can be in while playing a game. Indeed, it is the ideal mental state for players. When one is experiencing flow they are fully engaged in the task at hand and focused solely on it. The idea is from Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, who noticed artists can get so immersed in the moment they forget to eat and drink. He called this state of total immersion ‘flow’ because it is like water taking people down a stream of creativity… When experiencing flow, players get a merging of awareness and action while being in the current moment. They also lose track of time and feelings of self-consciousness during the game… A well designed game keeps players between a state of frustration and boredom. If done right, the players have a better chance of entering this desired mental state of flow.

I found this feeling to be common in a lot of horror games, a level of immersion that is rarely reached. The perfect flow state is something that is hard for an entire team to achieve in most escape rooms. But notably, these horror games seem to be designed with that amazing feeling top of mind, and I can see why they are popular as a result. 

Clear Indicators 

The lighting, sound, and actor movement indicates where players should be, when they should move, where they should go and what they should be focused on. This is expertly crafted in the top tier horror escape rooms. The lack of confusion on the players’ part smooths out the experience into one continuous high energy adventure that makes two hours fly by in what feels like 20 minutes.

Keep Moving

Horror games excel at never letting players get too comfortable for too long, but also never letting them get frustrated or stuck. As a result, puzzle depth and density are lighter than in many other escape room styles. Knowing that we shouldn’t overthink puzzles and that they were often primarily used to gate the next interaction made learning how to play horror rooms easier.

Linear Games Flow

Some of the rooms we played were on some pretty sturdy rails, which didn’t bother me much because I understand that in order to pull off scenes involving tech and live actors, the show runners need to control the players a bit to ensure they are where they need to be at the correct moment. Significant planning and rehearsal were evident in the perfect timing between the control room gamemaster and the actors when performing scenes and executing transitions.

One of the more open sandbox games we played lacked big choreographed interactions. 

A linear puzzle experience might work better in a smooth flowing horror game for a few reasons:

• Teammates are sometimes reluctant to leave each other.
• Solves often trigger cinematic events that the whole team should see.
• Important timing and pacing of a theatrical experience is easier to control.
• Information sorting and lock mapping parallel puzzles are tasks that can slow momentum.

I noticed that typically one layered puzzle was active at a time, which the whole team focused on. 

The repeated design structure of New Space – Puzzle – Scene, New Space – Puzzle – Scene has its pros and cons on paper, but when players get immersed into that rhythm, it just seems to make sense.

Follow The Rules

Whether learned in the pregame briefing or on-the-fly while playing, a clear set of game mechanic rules helps promote good game flow by arming the players with the information needed to make quick decisions when confronted with obstacles. After anticipating the unknown, we were prepared to take the correct action when surprised. This was exhilarating and satisfying at the same time. 

Knowing what to do when you encounter a character (even knowing how to handle different types of characters), what to do in the dark, what to do when the lighting changes, etc… all of this removes moments of indecision, discussion, arguing, and frustration from the experience. The culmination of multiple points of hesitation being eliminated from a playthrough does wonders for flow. 

Rankings Justified

While more puzzle loving players may well find other types of escape rooms much more to their liking, that doesn’t discredit the appeal that high quality, smooth flowing horror games might have to the wider audience of immersive entertainment seekers. More than just for folks who like to be scared, the spooky dark-ride-with-puzzles format seems to work for a lot of people.

My initial assumptions about what might make so many horror escape rooms rise in the rankings did all contribute to making these games impressive. But those elements weren’t too different from what I’ve experienced in my favorite escape rooms of any other genre. Rather, it’s the incredible sets, spectacle, and acting in combination with game design that puts flow state first that made these games so much fun. They were scary at times, but exciting and memorable, and most importantly they flowed so well that I left each one wanting more.

When I am asked to rank or recommend top escape rooms in the future it is going to be hard to not just default to thinking about the amazing experiences we had while playing exceptional horror games. The question it raises for me now is: can other escape room genres utilize this level of performance, spectacle, and steady pacing to produce equally fun experiences?