Room Escape Artist

Ask Why is an escape room design concept explained in this paper by Scott Nicholson. Ask Why says that “a designer should look at each element of the player experience of an escape room and ask ‘Why is this here?’ Each puzzle, task, and item in the escape room should be there for a reason that is consistent with the overall concepts behind the design of the room.”

I suggest that the Ask Why concept could also be applied by players during the game to help them understand the experience, its story, and its characters. In the ideal design, players should easily be able to answer the question of “Why are we doing this?” during each puzzle, task, and interaction. It’s the designer’s job to make this always apparent to the players, so that they don’t have to ask, but whenever the immediate motivation isn’t clear, players should actively consider the why to better appreciate the fiction behind the room.

Knowing Means Understanding

I’ll admit that there are times when I have underappreciated a designer’s talent, effort, and their overall end product because I rushed through puzzles without understanding their significance to the story.

I find that asking why as an escape room player often helps me understand the game’s story better; it helps me catch up on plot points and story beats I may have missed. If I can decipher exactly why we need to take on a particular challenge it usually helps me put the narrative pieces together as we play. I resist the urge to just do something because it looks like it could be done. 

I am not saying that players should be confrontational and refuse to proceed without knowing the why behind every single step. But in a general sense, knowing the creator’s story-based intent for things can lead to a more enjoyable playthrough. 

Narratively Inevitable

Escape room puzzles should feel narratively inevitable. This was a sentiment perfectly articulated by Brent Busboom during a chat on the RECON Discord Patreon channel. Players should almost always be aware of at least one narrative goal and the puzzles should be obvious, logical, and inevitable obstacles in their path. 

Nicholson writes, “The players should have a meaningful reason for taking on a task other than ‘it’s the next thing to do in the room’….puzzles and tasks are not simply there to be barriers to winning the game, but each challenge has a purpose and is tied into the larger narrative, giving the player a way to find meaning in their actions.” 

If you, as a player, don’t understand the relevance of a puzzle, ask why. Ask yourself, ask your teammates, or ask your host during the postgame. 

Why Open That Box?

I am not talking about design choices like using the time on a stopped clock as the combination for a locked box. I am saying that players should know why they need to open that locked box, what is in it, and how it can help with their immediate goal. They shouldn’t be trying to open it just because it is there or because someone found some random digits.

Retrieving the items from the box should be an obviously inevitable challenge required to reach the narrative goal without relying on the escape room logic that every locked box needs to be opened. “We need to open that box because a clue shows it contains the amulet” is way better than “We need to open that box because we haven’t opened it yet.”

Players actively asking why is our attempt at meeting the designer half-way. If we require ourselves to know why we are doing the thing before just doing it, we might have a conversation about the story or a character, or we might take a look around and take better notice of the relevant clues and signposting. Most always, we will proceed with a greater understanding of the game.

It Doesn’t Have To Be Deep

The why behind each interaction doesn’t need to be profound. If players are in a child’s bedroom during a horror game and the creepy voice of a character says, “Put my toys away,” that can be a valid reason for the next task.

Needing to fix all the broken systems on the spaceship or finish the scientist’s experiment are great reasons for doing a series of multiple puzzles as long as the larger narrative goal is understood.

The WHY in Solutions

Questioning the significance of puzzle solutions can sometimes be important to players discovering the true story in an escape room. Some story driven games reveal plot information in the solution to a puzzle or upon the completion of a task. Contemplating, discussing, and even explaining to teammates the pertinent information learned can help keep everyone up to speed as the experience progresses.

Most of the people I play escape rooms with are very generous in explaining how they solved a puzzle, but we often are less careful to make sure we all understand what that solve means to the narrative.

Caveats 

This won’t work in every escape room. The reality is that you just can’t Ask Why about every puzzle in every game. Sometimes there is no reason why, and that can be okay too. Puzzles and interactions can be included just for fun or for an extra challenge. Be prepared to just roll with it. Remember this technique is to help us appreciate the games more, not tear them down.

Players asking why too much can negatively affect their immersion. Picking apart the game while playing it is not the goal here. Occasionally asking why can be an in-world concept. Making sense of things should help us feel more like we belong in the game world. 

For designers, too strict of an adherence to the Ask Why principle could come at the cost of cutting fun or unique puzzles and props. Player enjoyment should always be paramount, so if you have a really cool interaction whose relevance is difficult to explain, just do your best and make sure your customers have fun.

Metagaming

We all do it. We use our experience of common escape room rules to help us make decisions on what to do next. All games need some form of rules of engagement to allow players to safely and confidently interact with them. A lot of escape room game mechanic rules are carried over from classic video games. Players can often use these rules, a form of outside knowledge, to help them process the information in the game.  

Players should still ask why. If we find a key, outside knowledge tells us we probably won’t finish the game without using it to unlock something, but when we find the lock we should still know why we want to open it. 

“We haven’t used this yet” and “We can’t use that because we already used it for something else” are not great answers to the questions that arise in narrative puzzle games. Players should look for story based reasons. We should try as much as we can to play the game as designed.

Creators should ask themselves when it is okay to bend or break these ‘rules’ to improve their product or the player experience. 

Be Their Partner

With almost all immersive art there are the waders, the swimmers, and the divers. (The “Waders, Swimmers, and Divers” analogy is often used to describe different levels of engagement or commitment in a given situation, such as an immersive experience.) Engagement with escape room narrative is not immune to this phenomenon, and that’s okay. Some players just won’t be interested in the story. They won’t care about the “why” of things.

Still, broadly, I think the players should be active in co-creating an experience. Making an attempt to be in harmony with the designer and the story they’ve written can go a long way. Players just cruising through the puzzles and advancing without knowing why or who the characters are or what is happening can make owners feel like they’ve failed to deliver. 

“It’s frustrating that they [players] are missing out on something we value highly and put so much work into,” one creator told me recently. 

Ask why. Understand why. Be involved with building the best possible experience for your playthrough. Partner with the room designer to create your adventure by asking why.