Room Escape Artist

 ”We are not in the business of retail. We’re in the business of experience.”

Creator Nick Moran must have borrowed Luna Fox’s time machine, because The Lance of Longinus was so far ahead of its time it practically invented the future of escape room design. It’s no secret that this game is one of David’s favorite early escape room memories.

Nick created The Lance of Longinus back in 2014, when most escape rooms were cobbled together out of used furniture and broken locks. The Lance of Longinus was ambitious, beautiful, and technologically advanced.

It spanned multiple fully realized time periods, each with its own distinct feel, aesthetic, and puzzle logic. As you can see, the sets were massive. The props were physical and chunky and part of the world. This game was also designed from the start to be pipelined, to maximize the player throughput. The entire game ran on Qlab, industry software created specifically to run broadcast, theater, and live experiences because the creators all came from the world of immersive theater.

In this episode of the Spoilers Club, Nick Moran joins us to talk about what made this game so extraordinary, including the design decisions, technical ambitions, things that worked, and things he’d do differently. Sadly, this game doesn’t exist anymore, so feel free to listen in and spoil yourself.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from Nick, check out his first appearance on REPOD in REPOD S2E2, and to hear more about Phantom Peak, listen to his second episode REPOD S5E1.

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!