Room Escape Artist

“With haunted houses, you’re telling a story on the run.”

You cling to your friends as you creep through the slaughterhouse. The walls are slick beneath your fingertips and the air reeks of blood and rot. Somewhere nearby, a chainsaw roars to life. You thought it was just a show, but now you’re suddenly not so sure. At the 13th Gate, your deepest fears and darkest fantasies are brought to life in terrifying, cinematic detail.

As the founder of the 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Dwayne has spent 33 years creating haunted attractions and more than a decade building some of the most spectacular escape rooms in the world. The sets are massive, detailed, and ultra realistic. He even had caves and snake pits filled with live snakes. The secret weapon behind all this is a talented team of artists creating realistic sets that rival any movie studio. Dwayne is constantly committed to creating bigger, better, and newer scenes.

Dwayne talks to us about building his haunted attraction, one of the largest in the country. After cutting his teeth building haunted house sets, he discovered escape rooms in 2015 and quickly realized he could put his talent for creating immersive worlds to work in a new way. And unlike haunted attractions, which are seasonal, escape rooms could operate year-round.

I especially enjoyed hearing Dwayne discuss the importance of transitional spaces in a haunt and how they contribute to the storytelling. Storytelling in a haunted house is different from in an escape room because of the how little time the guests are spending in any one scene. Escape rooms, however, gave Dwayne a reason to incorporate more interactivity and weave in deeper narratives.

David recounts how he and his wife Lisa visited the 13th Gate to play some escape rooms and suddenly found themselves thrust into the haunted house at Dwayne’s urging. They left with some great stories about navigating the horror maze with a terrified family.

We also talk about how 13th Gate Escape’s beautiful games deserve better post-game photos. (Dwayne, we’re still campaigning for taking those photos inside the games!)

The 13th Gate has inspired countless escape room owners and creators to dream bigger and push the boundaries of immersive design. An icon of both the haunted attraction industry and the escape room world, it helped set the bar for what these experiences could become. This was a fascinating look behind the scenes at the 13th Gate. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to also check out our reviews of 13th Gate Escape.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We are immensely grateful to our sponsors this season: Buzzshot Bookings, Ubisoft VR Escape Games, and Immersif. We truly appreciate your support of our mission to promote and improve the immersive gaming community.

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• 01:38 Why Scare People
• 03:50 REA’s First Visit
• 06:59 Haunt Structure and Scale
• 08:42 Carnival Midway Extras
• 12:58 Sponsor Break: Buzzshot – Escape Room Booking & Marketing Software
• 15:45 Haunt Goals
• 18:22 Transitions Between Realms
• 24:30 Sponsor Break: Ubisoft – Harness the Power of VR Escape Games
• 26:43 Escape Rooms Origin Story
• 28:26 From Haunts to Escape Rooms
• 30:22 Set Design Advantage
• 30:52 Designing Wow Reveals
• 32:41 Choosing Themes
• 33:46 Building Cutthroat Cavern
• 35:21 Upgrading Rise’s Games
• 37:09 In House Build Team
• 37:51 Five Minute Escape Rooms
• 39:40 Improving Photo Ops
• 41:58 Sponsor Break: Immersif – Business Mentoring & Performance Intelligence Reports
• 45:06 Disappearance of Flight 13 Upgrade
• 46:56 Fragments of Time Tease
• 49:48 Wrap Up and Credits
• 54:00 Story: Feeling Faint

Leave a Voicemail

Got a question or thought for the podcast? You can submit a voice recording by calling the Room Escape Artist not-so-hotline that always goes straight to voicemail (551-227-7273).

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• 13th Gate Haunted House
• 13th Gate Escape Room
• REA Reviews of 13th Gate Escape Rooms
  • The Collector
  • Tomb of Anubis
  • Agent 13
  • Death Row
  • Cutthroat Cavern
  • Disappearance of Flight 13
  • The Asylum
  • Spellbound

About Dwayne Sanburn

Instagram: @13thgateescapebr

As the owner and creative director of Midnight Productions, Dwayne is the creator of the award-winning 13th Gate Haunted House and 13th Gate Escape in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His work is known for combining cinematic environments, practical effects, immersive storytelling, and innovative puzzle design to create experiences that feel more like stepping into a movie than visiting an attraction.

A lifelong builder and designer, Dwayne is passionate about creating moments of wonder, fear, surprise, and discovery. Whether it’s a haunted attraction, an escape game, or a new immersive concept, his goal is always the same: make guests forget the outside world exists for a little while.

Today, Dwayne continues to develop new attractions, experiment with emerging technologies, and explore how storytelling and gameplay can work together to create unforgettable experience

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