Room Escape Artist

REPOD S6E5: Halloween Spooktacular Special

First on the list is our Halloween Spooktacular Special! This was a one-time special episode celebrating haunt season. It was chock-full of games, trivia, and a chilling tale of escape room woe. This episode inspired our newest show, PG’s Playhouse.

REPOD S2E6 Puppets, Haunts, & Pranks—Brian Corbitt, Creator of Miss Jezebel

Miss Jezebel creator Brian Corbitt got his start in the haunt industry. He made a splash with Miss Jezebel, a raunchy, hilarious, and creepy escape room-meets-immersive theater experience that is now closed. If you want to hear more about Miss Jezebel, check out our Spoilers Club episode about it.

REPOD S2E8: The Cinematic Delusions of Jon Braver

Delusion is a seminal immersive theater-meets-haunt experiences created by Jon Braver. Having worked as a stuntman in Hollywood for many years, Jon always makes sure to include incredible, over-the-top stunt work in Delusion. These are haunts with an emphasis on storytelling and the small group experience.

REPOD S4E4 – Holistic Game Design: Alexander Gierholz, creator of Amsterdam Catacombs, Netherlands

The Amsterdam Catacombs is one of the early escape rooms that cemented The Netherlands as the place to come play epic, intense, and hauntingly creepy games. Check out this interview with its creator, Alexander Gierholz. Then listen to our Spoilers Club episode on Amsterdam Catacombs.

REPOD S4E5 – Epic Proportions: Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St.Denis, owners of Escaparium, Canada

Escaparium is one of the top ranked escape rooms in the world, and for a short while, they even ran an epic haunt. Owners Jonathan Driscoll and Sacha St.Denis talk about creating their massive, sprawling games. They also discuss their short-lived haunt, which wound through their escape rooms, and they even created a haunted dining experience, complete with themed cocktails.

REPOD S5E6 – Step Into the Darkverse: Gijs Geers, CEO and Head of Design at DarkPark

No Halloween playlist would be complete without DarkPark. This company is known for their horror escape rooms that are dark, moody, and filled with tension. Gijs Geers fills his games with intriguing storytelling and masterfully crafted scares. Don’t miss our two part Spoilers Club on the incredible but now-closed Stay in the Dark.

REPOD S6E3: Pics or It Didn’t Happen with Christine Barger, The Haunt Girl

Speaking of haunts, we interviewed The Haunt Girl, otherwise known as Christine Barger. Her game, 13th Basement, is a hilarious comedy-horror escape room that’s self-aware and parodies typical escape room tropes. She also shares some of her favorite haunts in the country.

REPOD S7E8 – Influential and Experimental: Luke & Madison Rhoades of Cross Roads Escape Games

Cross Roads owners, Luke and Madison Rhoades, have made some of the most innovative and format-breaking escape rooms in the world from the iconic horror movie-themed game, The Hex Room, to their most recent terrifying masterpiece, The Weeping Witch. In this episode, we break down the brilliance behind their games and what makes them unique.

REPOD S7E6 – Engineering Fun: Al & Stacy Delcome of Confusion Escapes

The couple behind Confusion Escapes honed their talents building elaborate home haunts, complete with stunt work and elevator simulators. Hear about the unique mechanics in their horror game 45 Lampkin Lane.

REPOD S8E5: Epic & Engrossing: Jeroen van Hasselt, Co-Creator of Demise of the Gricers

Demise of the Gricers is a massively ambitious game created by Entered, located in Belgium. The worldbuilding is engrossing, the scares are real, and the physical mechanics make you feel like a hero in a real life video game. Creative director Jeroen van Hasselt talks to us about designing for apprehension instead of terror, and how to balance that tension in horror games.

REPOD S9E12: Lockhill – Designing for Chaos

Bill Dalitsikas, owner of Lockhill Escape Game in Athens, Greece, is the master of horror in escape rooms. The Sanatorium premiered at the #5 spot on the TERPECA awards, and Chapel & Catacombs was voted the #1 escape room in the world in 2022. He joins us on REPOD to talk about his inspiration, thoughts on what makes for a good horror escape room, and the Athens escape room scene.

PG’s Playhouse E9: Disney’s The Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter (ft. Theresa Piazza)

What’s a day of family fun at Walt Disney World without churros, Cinderella’s Magic Castle, and a show so terrifying they had to strap down the hapless guests to keep them from fleeing? In today’s episode, we talk about the short-lived, bone-chilling attraction The Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter. Today’s game is called A Ride Down Memory Lane. It’s a grab bag of trivia about Disney attractions that no longer exist. There’s also a bonus Before and After puzzle which combines Disney rides with movie titles.

PG’s Playhouse E16: Assassination by Umbrella (ft. Aurelius Whitlock’s Murder Museum)

We’re talking Assassination by Umbrella, a slightly morbid topic inspired by our guests, Marcus Richardson and Nathan Hicken, co-hosts of the Aurelius Whitlock’s Murder Museum podcast. Today’s game is called Morbid Mottos, which centers around some dark phrases.

PG’s Playhouse E18: Defenestration (ft. Aurelius Whitlock’s Murder Museum)

What’s a peasant to do when you’re in the midst of an uprising and faced with armored knights and lords? Throw them out the windows! Apparently, this was such a popular way to assassinate your rivals that a term was coined to describe such an act: defenestration. Today’s game is called To the Windows where every answer is a word containing either the letters “WIN” or “DOW.” There’s also a bonus mini-mystery set in an escape room.

PG’s Playhouse E26: Sensurround (ft. Tony from Hack the Movies)

Tony Piluso from the Hack the Movies YouTube channel joins us for a dive into obsolete film tech. He also shares film lore about work prints and gives us some trivia about classic horror movies. Today’s game is called “What Did They Say?” where the players take turns reading nonsense words, and the other must guess the movie title.

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!

13th Basement Exit Game (Anaheim, CA)

13th Basement is the brainchild of haunt influencer Christine Barger. After reviewing escape rooms and haunts for almost a decade, she finally took the leap to creating her own game, which is both a parody and love letter to horror escape rooms. Christine talks about the design decisions she made, largely fueled by frustrations and preferences noted from her own experience of reviewing games. (Preview) (Review) (REPOD S6E3)

Catacombs, Logic Locks (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Catacombs immerses you from the moment you step up and gaze upon its incredible location. This horror game continues to enthrall players with its creepy atmosphere and puzzles. Creator Alexander Gierholz joins us for a behind the scenes look at this game. This game won a 2018 Golden Lock Award. (Review) (Hivemind Review) (REPOD S4E4)

Blackwell Manor New Mexico Escape Room (Albuquerque, NM)

It’s one thing to play a scary escape room, and it’s another thing entirely to walk down a dark corridor to be confronted by a looming, decrepit Victorian house. The two-story set is spectacular with practical special effects, including actual rain dripping down the windows. Darren and Carie Guido, owners of New Mexico Escape Room, join us to spoil their game, Blackwell Manor. I really appreciated hearing about all the technical details of the build and dissecting how they incorporated storytelling into the puzzles. (Preview) (Review)

Forgotten Cathedral – Part 1 and 2, Escaparium (Montreal, Canada)

We were joined by Jonathan Driscoll & Kevin Currie of Escaparium in Montreal for a dive deep on their hit game Forgotten Cathedral. Jonathan and Kevin gave a lot of behind the scenes narrative, design, and constriction details, along with a funny story about a player with reflexes that were a bit too quick. We chatted so much that we ran out of recording time and this has been transformed into a two part episode… which is good because this game deserves the extra time. (Review)

Hex Room Cross Roads Escape Games (Anaheim, CA)

Hex Room is an early iconic escape room with a very unique mechanic. In fact, it is so unique, that to our best knowledge, no other escape room has attempted a similar game structure. Every single player in this game starts off separated in their own isolated puzzle rooms. They can communicate with the detective who is a ring master of sorts, and must collaborate with each player to help them solve their individual rooms. Luke and Madison Rhodes join us to talk about how they created the Hex Room. (Review) (Revisiting Hex Room) (REPOD S7E8)

Stay in the Dark Part 1 & 2, DarkPark (Vlaardingen, Netherlands)

DarkPark owner and Stay in the Dark creator Gijs Geers joins us to spoil this absolute monstrosity of a game. Gijs walks us through the inception of this game and talks about discovering the location, a five story abandoned chemical factory which is a defining characteristic of this game. The scale and immersion factor of Stay in the Dark is mind-boggling, and Gijs talks to us about how they achieved some of their special effects. (Preview) (Review) (REPOD S5E6)

The Ghost of Mentryville, Arcane Escape Room (Newhall, CA)

In this episode David & Peih-Gee spoil the magnificent and minimalist Ghost of Mentryville. This is a 90-minute episode where Matt Tye of Arcane Escape Rooms takes us through his newest game. The episode is complete with in-game audio cues, and the gang really dissects the design decisions made throughout this experience. (Preview) (Review)

The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow Part 1 & 2 Entered & Logiclocks (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (Now Closed)

The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow was a haunting experience where guests stepped into the nightmarish writings of a horror novelist. They had to navigate a hotel filled with nightmares, while being guided by the narrator’s prompts and scripts.

The closure of hotels during the pandemic quarantine era created a golden opportunity for a trio of talented creators from the Benelux region. Alexander Gierholz of Logiclocks, Jeroen van Hasselt of Entered, and Meggy Pepelanova came together to create a unique horror experience set in an entire empty wing of a hotel. Alas, they experienced their own nightmare when lockdown regulations became even more restricted. They had to put their experience on hold, and then suddenly regulations lifted entirely, and the hotel began to resume normal operations. Their window for hosting The Nightmare of Eveline Shadow at an empty hotel vanished, and we’re left with only handful of photos and this Spoilers Club series as evidence of its existence. (Preview)