Room Escape Artist

This month we published some of the most important content we’ve ever written. It’s about fire safety. If you don’t read anything else this year, read the fire week coverage below.

🔥 Fire Week 🔥

This month started off strong discussing fire safety:

• Fire – Forbidden Escape Room Elements
• House of Horrors Escape Room Fire in Russia Claimed 2 Lives
• An Open Letter to the Escape Room Owners of Athens Regarding Fire Safety in Your Games
• Freaky Minds Horror Live Games – The Sculptor [Review]… the most negative review we’ve ever written.

Reviews

🔒 Golden Lock Winners

Fantastic Warehouse, Pandore & Associés (Paris, France) – The Fantastic Warehouse was an immersive escape room built around the assumption that fairy tales are real. (Review by Cindi S.)

Metropolis 2099, Dream Labs Adventures – Metropolis 2099 leaned into a dark and foreboding Blade Runner-esque dystopian world of the future. The set was mind blowing! (Review by Cindi S.)

The Forest of Fables, CU Adventures in Time & Space (Urbana, IL) – The Forest of Fables at CU Adventures raises that bar with a beautiful combination of creative gameplay, whimsy, and adventure. (Review by David Spira)

The Toy Maker, Big Break Hamburg (Hamburg, Germany) – The Toy Maker brought creativity and whimsy to an already playful escape room theme, surpassing our expectations. (Review by Cindi S.)

Escape Rooms

Duke’s Farm, 60 to Escape (Gurnee, IL) – There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Duke’s Farm. It’s just a normal farm, doing normal farm things. (Review by David Spira)

Play-At-Home

Puzztastic! Puzzle Pack 1, Funbi Games (tabletop puzzle game) – I was impressed with how many puzzles fit in a few simple pages in Puzztastic! Puzzle Pack 1… and it was great value for time of solving!”(Review by Cindi S.)

Limited Run Experience

Cthulhu Luau, Green Door Labs (Belmont, MA) – At Cthulhu Luau, we solved puzzles that advanced the story, while a live band played entertaining music in a grand party atmosphere. (Review by Andrew Reynolds)

Podcast

PG’s Playhouse E23: Survivor (ft. Stephen Fishbach) – In this episode’s puzzle we vote out the word that doesn’t belong alongside Survivor fan favorite Steven Fishbach.

Recommendation Guides

• New: Hamburg, Germany
• Updated: Chicago, Illinois

Commentary

What Escape Rooms Can Learn from Puzzle Hunts – We provide background on puzzle hunts, and also examples of how escape room design can be inspired by them. (By Matthew Stein)