Room Escape Artist

Kaleidoscope 1963 is one of the best escape rooms in Switzerland. Here are our other recommendations for great games in Switzerland.

The Ultimate Escape Room Trip

Location: Baden, Switzerland

Date Played: August 16, 2025

Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 75 minutes

Price:  230 CHF per team

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players must crawl and climb stairs

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

For as long as I can remember, “kaleidoscope” has been one of my favorite words. The way it rolls off the tongue somehow mirrors the dazzling array of colors and geometric patterns that this word evokes. “Kaleidoscope” also can be associated with psychedelics, referencing the imagery you might hallucinate while tripping.

Kaleidoscope 1963 was a properly prismatic exploration of the latter definition. Diving into the life of Albert Hoffman and his discovery of LSD, Time Maze concocted a brilliant adventure which maintained a clear throughline across a wild range of scenes.

I was especially impressed by Time Maze’s depiction of surreal, dreamy, non-literal environments which felt like Meow Wolf-style exhibits, but with a high level of meaningful interconnectedness and interactivity. The gameplay in each scene beautifully augmented the style, emotions, and pacing, coalescing into an experience that was far greater than the sum of its parts.

Time Maze’s overarching concept is that of a time machine. But instead of choosing random far-off events, each experience centers around the local history of Baden, Switzerland. Their earlier two games, The Heist 1847 and The Forbidden City 1901, were charming, creative, old-school escape rooms. Years later, and in a new location, Kaleidoscope 1963 took the best elements of Time Maze’s earlier style, amped up the ambition and production value, and created a must-play experience that’s worth traveling for.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Scenery snobs
• Psychonauts and history buffs
• Any experience level

Why play?

• A vivid and varied trip
• A deep dive into the history and effects of psychedelics
• Transportive, otherworldly scenic design

Story

We traveled back in time to the year 1963 in the town of Baden, the home of renowned chemist Albert Hoffman. Back in 1943, while riding home on his bicycle, Hoffman first discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD. Decades later, we paid a visit to Hoffman’s pharmacy to retrace his steps.

Setting

Kaleidoscope 1963 began in Albert Hoffman’s pharmacy, an elegant wood-paneled shop with numerous bottles of chemicals lining the shelves. The street outside was quaint, with Hoffman’s famous bicycle parked by an autumnal tree and a full sky of stars glimmering above.

Gameplay

Time Maze’s Kaleidoscope 1963 was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles, making connections, and opening your mind to new realms.

Analysis

➕ Kaleidoscope 1963 presented a meticulously researched tribute to the history of LSD, including the life and experiments of Albert Hoffman and the origins of Bicycle Day. Too often, framing an escape room as a drug trip or dream can be an excuse for a series of random, disconnected themes. Conversely, Kaleidoscope 1963 created an unusual level of cohesion amongst the trippy absurdity. In large part, this stemmed from a central motif that was thoughtfully developed across each scene. Even when scenes contrasted sharply, there was still a consistent internal logic to the flow, much like how a dream makes perfect sense only until you wake up.

🌈 While Kaleidoscope 1963 was explicitly themed around the history of psychedelics, it required no prior knowledge or experience with the subject matter, nor did it involve the consumption of any actual substances. Players should arrive at this experience sober, as with any other escape room. While parts of the experience simulated the various effects of taking psychedelics, it didn’t do anything that was particularly disturbing or emotionally ungrounding. Nonetheless, if you’re uncomfortable with discussions of this subject matter, Kaleidoscope 1963 might not be the game for you.

➕ Kaleidoscope 1963 was the only escape experience we encountered in Switzerland that began with a cold(ish) start. A layered entrance into the experience set a particular tone and pacing for all that was to come, yet they still gave us time to go to the restroom and get situated upon arrival.

➕ The sets were gorgeous — an evolution of the nostalgic, hazy, historically detailed style of Time Maze’s older experiences, but with an impressively higher level of production design and polish. The opening street scene instantly felt like a lived-in world, complete with leaves crushed into the cobblestone street, a water spill by the well, and an actual tree in the corner. Careful lighting, sound, and scent design furthered the immersion.

➕ Various voices we heard throughout Kaleidoscope 1963 sounded real, specific, and personal.

➕ The gameplay included creative puzzles that often didn’t even feel like puzzles, yet still required subtle and meaningful observational ahas. There was a humor and playfulness throughout. The gameplay style shifted through each stage of our trip, embodying not just the changing environments but also the changing moods, emotions, and tempos.

➕/➖ A whimsical game toward the start of our trip showed us how it wanted to be played. While it accelerated in pacing and randomness as it progressed, there was opportunity to mirror this crescendo further through the lighting and sound design.

➕ One space implemented a trippy effect that I’ve been waiting years to see an escape room pull off. It was remarkably effective, and it also cleverly utilized the unique features of the space in the gameplay. (Hot tip: For the full effect, I recommend lying down on the floor.)

➕/➖ I could have spent hours wandering around a particularly calm and relaxing environment that was enhanced with some nice sensory effects. While the scenery here was detailed, the gameplay was fairly simple and short. Our team throttled ourselves to enjoy the space for a bit before triggering the next step, but I wished the gameplay had directly forced us to slow down before moving on.

➕ Our trip came full circle, ending on an introspective, appreciative, and rather poetic note.

Tips For Visiting

• Time Maze has 2 locations. Kaleidoscope 1963 is at the location at Landstrasse 2b, 5415 Obersiggenthal.
• There was a parking lot.

Book your hour with Time Maze’s Kaleidoscope 1963, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.