Room Escape Artist

“This is everything we wanted our haunted house to be.”

Blackwell Manor at New Mexico Escape Room is the game that inspired an entire escape room tour to the New Mexico region. To be more specific, it was photos of this facade.

Darren Guido, owner of New Mexico Escape Room, approached David Spira at a convention with an iPad. Darren showed David videos and photos of Blackwell Manor’s build and invited him to come play. At the time, New Mexico was not considered a travel destination for escape rooms. But when David and Lisa were looking for a place to unwind after producing RECON 21 David recalled those memorable photos of a huge, creepy looking house and booked a trip to Albuquerque.

He never imagined what he would find there. New Mexico Escape Room is in a massive warehouse where every escape room is contained within a gorgeous facade. These facades are a massive undertaking that really speaks to the quality of the sets and build. Owners Darren and Carie Guido joined us on the latest episode of our Spoilers Club to talk all about their flagship game, Blackwell Manor.

Darren and Carie spoke very candidly about everything from the build, to working with puzzle designers, and making adjustments to the game. We talk about all the little details that make this game exceptional, for example, how much Darren struggled to get the timing just right for special effects like audio cues of footsteps running from left to right, leading to a door that slams open and lights up. What I especially appreciated was hearing about puzzles that didn’t work, and how they learned from any mistakes.

If you haven’t already played Blackwell Manor, I highly recommend checking out our Escape, Immerse, Explore tour, the next time it goes to New Mexico.

New Mexico Escape Room also has a series of videos on YouTube with a behind-the-scenes look at building this game.

How to Listen

When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms… spoilers and all!