Room Escape Artist

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to visit Charlotte, North Carolina. I played a variety of games, two of which were the games at Doors of Divergence: Charlotte: Heresy: 1897 and Madness: 1918. Doors of Divergence: Charlotte is not owned and operated by the creators who launched it in New York. It is under new ownership in Charlotte.

Before we take a look at Doors of Divergence: Charlotte, I need to catch you up on a bit of history.

What Was Doors of Divergence?

Doors of Divergence was a theatrical and deeply replayable escape room that took the New York City escape room scene by storm in 2023. Made up of two actor-driven games, Heresy: 1897 and Madness: 1918, these games were interconnected to one another… and to the Paradox Bar.

Heresy: 1897 had two unique puzzle and narrative paths through the game, and essentially 4 endings.

Each of those 4 endings fed into a unique opening for Madness: 1918, changing the story and consequences in dramatic and wonderful ways.

The Paradox Bar was both a bar and the company’s lobby. It was a space that felt alive because the performer behind it and anyone who passed through built an elaborate fiction and never, ever broke that fiction.

The magic of Doors of Divergence lived in the lobby experience, the performances, and the choice mechanics.

A third concluding game was promised… but never came to be because of a debacle involving the company that was leasing the venue to Doors of Divergence. Tragically, it closed down in late 2023.

I 🩵 Doors of Divergence

I was a massive fan of Doors of Divergence back when it was in New York City.

In fact, no one played Doors of Divergence more than I did. I’ve seen almost every ending to Madness: 1918 (which is a lot of shockingly different conclusions.) This was enabled by a combination of living in the region, and opening up my house to friends who were traveling to visit Doors of Divergence. I tagged along for a lot of games (and thankfully Doors of Divergence stopped charging me because I kept showing up with teams of 4 or 5 people who would play both games twice.)

I don’t believe that anyone knows these games better then me unless they created them or acted in them.

I’m providing this context because I want to make it clear how badly I wanted Doors of Divergence to return and thrive.

Visiting Doors of Divergence: Charlotte

Doors of Divergence: Charlotte was Doors of Divergence… in so many ways it felt like I had traveled through time, but it was incomplete and off. My teammates who had never played before were surprised that these games were so celebrated. This was because there were a few significant problems:

• It was public ticketed: These are not games that you want to play in public groups. The group makes meaningful decisions. It’s grim and emotional. Thankfully, when we wrote to them and said that we were buying both games twice, they locked them down for us, as private experiences.
• The Paradox Bar was incomplete: The bar was the beating heart of Doors of Divergence, and it was barely a thing. It didn’t feel like a place and had no spark of life.

• Things were broken: In both games, significant props were visibly and clearly broken. Speaking to other people who had played months before us, the same things were broken for a prolonged period of time.
• Our decision was ignored: There are two paths in Heresy: 1897, the Wife Path and the Child Path. Our team very clearly chose the Wife Path in our first playthrough and we were deliberately and secretly shunted down the Child Path. This was never acknowledged, but it was obvious to my teammates who had never played the original games… and it was extremely obvious to Lisa and me.
• A whole path was missing: On our return visit, we wanted to pursue a specific path and learned that it simply did not exist. They said that it wasn’t programmed, but I found that confusing on account of it having existed 3 years ago in New York. The games were obviously running the same code. I don’t begrudge the performers for covering.
• There was a lack of direction: These performers were great. They were clearly talented and they played their parts well. At the same time, no one was there to give them notes. In one instance we had a performer wailing over a critical voiceover. Their acting was good, but they didn’t get the note to not step on the story. This was one example of many where discipline was missing from the performance. I do not for one second blame the performers for this. This is a management issue, not an acting issue.

Like I said, the magic of Doors of Divergence was the lobby experience (which barely existed), the performances (which were lacking direction), and the choice mechanics (which they ignored).

When you strip all of that out, you are left with two fine escape rooms… albeit with some broken props.

In a vacuum those games aren’t special. When combined together with all of the life of the performers, decisions, branches, and implications… it becomes magical. There wasn’t a lot of reason to replay these games, unlike in the past when the magic of the games only truly revealed itself on your second run.

There isn’t currently magic in that building. And that’s truly not for lack of effort on the part of the performers. They put in the work.

So Doors of Divergence: Charlotte is Closing

Yesterday, Doors of Divergence: Charlotte announced that it was for sale… and I have been inundated with people asking my opinion. So here it is:

First, I’m sad for the actors. These people clearly cared a lot. They were excited about the job and the potential of the third game. There’s no great way to lose a job, but some ways are worse than others… and having to act in a dead show for a month isn’t great.

Second, I am getting asked by a lot of people whether or not they should rush to visit Charlotte and squeeze in Doors of Divergence before it goes away. Sadly I have to say no. If you live nearby, sure… but if you’re going to disrupt your life and drop a bunch of money to play some escape rooms, I’d encourage you to go to play something that is receiving proper maintenance. This isn’t the Doors of Divergence that you’re looking for.

Finally, these games still have great potential. They need service. They also need ownership that doesn’t just want to run an escape room… but actually wants to manage the theater troupe that is required to make these games into the magical things that they can be. Don’t buy an expensive sports car if you can’t drive stick and don’t want to pay for the maintenance.

If you buy Doors of Divergence expecting to slim down the operations, cut corners, and ignore the unique qualities that make the games wonderful, then you will fail. That much is very clear.

In the meantime, I will return to hoping that Doors of Divergence rises again and can bring back the wonder… and maybe the long promised third game.

Learn More

For more about Doors of Divergence in New York, check out our REPOD S6E1: Replayability & Branching Narratives with Christian Vernon and Zac MacKrell, Creators of Doors of Divergence.