“It’s entertainment to experience the emotion of fear.”

I creep out from the relative safety of the control center. Keeping to the shadows, I stealthily make the journey through an abandoned train yard. Somewhere in the sprawling tangle of train cars, a gricer is hunting me and my team. I complete my mission, and immediately I hear the clang of footsteps approaching. Before I even register what my feet are doing, I’m on the move, weaving through the debris. Reunited with my team, I’m whooping in celebration and feeling the heady rush of success. My heart is pounding, and I’ve never felt more alive. 

Demise of the Gricers is a massively ambitious game created by Entered, located in Belgium. The worldbuilding is engrossing, and the physical mechanics make you feel like a hero in a real life video game. There’s a reason this game won a Golden Lock Award in 2024, with David Spira calling it “one of my personal favorite experiences to date.” (It’s mine too.) Jeroen van Hasselt, Creative Director & Game Designer at Entered, joins us to talk about his career creating unique game mechanics.

I enjoyed hearing him talk about his design pillars, and his motivations behind crafting the horror aspect of his games. He talks about designing for “apprehension” in Demise of the Gricers instead of terror, and the need to balance tension in horror games. We also discuss safety issues and the steps that his team have taken to address safety.

What really stood out to me during this interview was how much thought Jeroen puts into crafting mechanics that fit the narrative. He explains that thinking about trains in the abstract, he realized they are limited in freedom because they are on rails. He took this concept and used it to create the very unique game mechanics for Demise of the Gricers. While this game might not be for everyone, it is certainly different and exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next for this talented designer. 

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Morty App, Buzzshot, and COGS. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• 00:13 Sponsor Break: Buzzshot, Escape Room Marketing Software
• 02:51 Appeal of Games Designed Around an Unusual Mechanic
• 05:44 The Flock, an Innovative University Project
• 12:39 Lessons Learned from a Mismanaged Game Launch
• 14:17 I Can Hear You

• 18:22 Jeroen’s First Experience with Escape Rooms
• 22:20 Sponsor Break: Morty App, Discover And Track Escape Rooms
• 24:09 The Nightmare of Evelin Shadow

• 29:01 Sponsor Break: Cogs By Clockwork Dog, Interactive Show Controls
• 31:02 Demise of the Gricers‘ Unusual Location
• 33:02 Design Pillars of Demise of the Gricers
• 36:43 Normal and Extended Versions of Demise of the Gricers
  • *Note from Entered: Even though in the podcast we casually refer to the extended version as the 4-hour version vs. the 2-hour version, officially, the extended version is 200 minutes of gameplay vs 100 minutes for the normal version. We tell people to block 4 hours in their schedule, minimum, for the extended version as this includes prep & debrief. For the normal version, this is 2-hour 15 minutes total including prep & debrief.
• 42:08 The Onboarding Process for Demise of the Gricers
• 49:24 The Physicality of Demise of the Gricers
• 51:43 Adjusting for a Team’s Capabilities
• 53:29 Actors and Performance in Demise of the Gricers
• 57:34 Solo and Hero Theatrical Moments
• 1:00:14 The Importance of Apprehension in Horror Games
• 01:02:33 Addressing Safety Concerns
• 01:09:25 The Red Eye Universe
• 01:12:04 Adventurous Dining
• 01:13:32 Uncertainty for the Future of Demise of the Gricers
• 01:17:23 What Comes Next

Leave us a voicemail

Got a question or thought for the podcast? You can submit a voice recording by calling the Room Escape Artist not-so-hotline that always goes straight to voicemail (551-227-7273).

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Entered Website
• REA Review of Demise of the Gricers
• The Flock Wiki
• Red Eye Case YouTube Channel

About Jeroen van Hasselt

Instagram: @entered.rlg

Facebook: EnteredMaaseik

Jeroen van Hasselt, co-founder of Entered, is an award-winning game designer across multiple industries including videogames, reality game tv-shows & escape experiences. He specializes in creating tense game mechanics that make players navigate the space in unusual ways. With Demise of the Gricers, Entered blended multiple design philosophies in combination with next level player equipment to create a long-form immersive game unlike anything else.

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