“Finding escape rooms has been finding my community and my joy.”

When people find out I’ve played 400 escape rooms, they react with awe and wonder, to which my usual response is “That’s nothing—my podcast co-host David Spira has played over 1,200 escape rooms!” However, as it turns out, even David is not the final boss when it comes to the most escape rooms played. 

Enter Sera Dodd, who alongside her partner Sharan Gill, is one of the most experienced escape room players in the Western world. Clocking in at a whopping 3,000 games, not only has Sera seen it all, but she’s also helped shape the escape room industry over the years. From consulting on games, to sitting on the board of advisors for TERPECA, to co-founding the Escape Room Industry Conference (ERIC), Sera has used her experience and knowledge to help push the industry forward.

I especially appreciated Sera’s candor. She speaks openly about being autistic, and how escape rooms are a great way for neurodivergent people to find community and embrace play and adventure in a safe and controlled environment. (We discuss this in more detail in the Bonus Aftershow.)

 She also shares with us how her diagnosis of terminal cancer has changed her perspective on life:

“I think when one’s faced with their own mortality, you spend a lot of time thinking, ‘what is the point of life?’ And the best I’ve come up with is to have good times, to be good, to do good, and to have good times with good people. And that’s what escape rooms do for me.”

In the podcast, Sera talks about finding her tribe in our community of escape room enthusiasts globally, of finding generous friendship and joyous camaraderie. It’s a poignant reminder of how precious life is, and how important it is to appreciate the people in your life. I’m very grateful to Sera for joining us on Reality Escape Pod to share her story.

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
• 02:26 Discovering Escape Rooms
• 06:23 Overcoming Claustrophobia
• 08:27 Learning To Embrace Horror Games 
• 13:14 Her Teams: S2 and S Squared
• 19:01 Origin of Escakes
• 22:13 Sponsor Break: Morty App, Discover And Track Escape Rooms
• 24:55 TERPECA – Being a Board Member
• 37:28 Sponsor Break: Cogs By Clockwork Dog, Interactive Show Controls
• 37:28 Transition to Being a Game Design Consultant
• 41:09 Most Memorable Design Project: Midnight Madness
• 45:47 Hopes and Dreams for the Escape Room Industry
• 48:15 Adding Trigger Warnings to Games
• 45:59 Sister Act Escape Room
• 01:07:08 Bonus Story: The Space Toilet

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

• REA Articles:
  • How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Horror Escape Rooms
  • Escake & Other Celebratory Escape Room Milestone Foods
  • Video Q&A from RECON 20
• TERPECA Website
• Midnight Madness London Website
• ERIC (Escape Room Industry Conference) Facebook page

About Sera Dodd

Sarah Dodd (London, UK) has played over 3000 rooms. This makes her one of the most experienced escape room players in the western world alongside Sharan, with whom she’s played every single game. Together they have a 99.8% escape rate, have played in 17 different countries, and once played 615 games in a single year. Only discovering escape rooms in May 2016 when Sarah decided to book something spontaneous for her own birthday, they have since been members of Team UK during both Red Bull Escape Room World Championships.

They’ve played approximately 500 games as a pair and shared 1000 games with over 80 different teammates from around the world, at least 500 of which have been with the incumbent UK team, Team Squared. Sera co-founded and has run the UK Escape Room Industry Conference (ERIC) for the past three years, works as a UX and Design Consultant within the industry, was a speaker and panelist at Up the Game in 2017, 2018 and 2019, is an admin of the UK Escape Room Owners Facebook group, a moderator on the UK Escape Room Enthusiasts Group, one of three co-hosts on a new UK-based ER podcast, runs Team Squared’s Instagram account and has been featured in the UK press, TV and radio on a number of occasions.

Her real hobbies include bouldering and befriending wild animals. In her spare time, she’s a doctor.

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