Room Escape Artist

This month’s review highlights include Golden Lock Award winning escape rooms from across Europe, a tabletop game (that you can still back on Kickstarter if you act now!), and deep dives into escape room adjacent experiences: the Dropout Kickstarter, a puzzle hunt at Disney, and Jubensha. Plus don’t miss the REPOD Season 12 Finale mailbag episode where David, Peih-Gee, and Lisa answered your questions.

Just Launched: The RECON Archive

The RECON Archive is comprehensive documentation of the people who have presented at RECON and what topics they covered. Plus for RECON Remote, it includes all of the videos of every past session that we have recordings of. We made this because we’re proud of every RECON event and the people who presented.

If you’re inspired by these talks, join us at our next event:

RECON Laval, August 16 – 17, 2026

Reviews

🔒 Golden Lock Winners

Cobayes, PANIK ROOM (Paris, France) – Cobayes was a horror escape game with unique asymmetric gameplay and excellent mission escalation. (Review by Theresa)

House on the Hill, Lockhill (Athens, Greece) – With compelling acting, impressive special effects, and a deep, thought-provoking story, House on the Hill was incredible. (Review by Cindi S.)

The Escape Room That Changed Me – An escape room philosopher’s reaction to The House on the Hill and why this game is worth taking note of. This is a companion piece to the review linked above. (By Richard Burns)

Monster Mashers (Dark Mode), Tales of Torchdale (Zoersel, Belgium) – Monster Mashers created an unforgettable world that is worth traveling from any distance to experience. (Review by Matthew Stein)

Play-At-Home

The Stormlamp Rituals, PostCurious (book) – Jack Fallows’ The Stormlamp Rituals, published by PostCurious is a beautiful illustrated puzzle narrative. This kickstarter ends July 2nd. (Review by Andrew Reynolds)

Something Different

Dropout‘s Game Changer: Home Edition Kickstarter – If you like Game Changer on Dropout, check out this unusual, playful kickstarter for Game Changer: Home Edition. This is a review of the kickstarter. (Review by Chuck Kaplan-Smith)

Puzzlehop: The Puzzliest Place on Earth – Puzzlehop was a puzzle hunt that took place at Disney in February 2026. It featured a huge breadth of puzzles, and was a joy to solve. (By Matthew Stein)

Podcast

Thomas Snyder, Principal Puzzlemaster at LinkedIn Games (REPOD S11E11) – For the fans of the trending daily puzzle games, check out this interview with Thomas Snyder.

Recommendation Guides

Updated: Athens, Greece

Commentary

Killer Storytelling: The Rise of Jubensha – Jubensha is a a role-playing murder mystery game. Curious if this game style is right for you? Here’s everything you need to know! (By Peih-Gee Law)

REA Deep Dive

The State of Room Escape Artist: Data, Criticism, and the Future of Escape Rooms – We concluded REPOD Season 12 with a look at the REA Audience Census results, and answering your questions.