Author: Lisa Spira

Evil Dead 2 is a digital adaptation of a real-life game created by Hourglass Escapes in Seattle, WA.

Format

Style of Play: digital adaptation of a real-life escape game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 3-5

Play Time: 70 minutes

Price: approximately $30 per person (varies slightly based on team size)

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

You’re a team of paranormal investigators who are being shown around by your boots-on-the-ground companion. Not only your eyes and ears, he has your trusty evil-dead-vanquishing toolkit that you can interact with throughout the game. In addition to this gamemaster/ avatar, this digital adaptation included a webpage with pictures and 360-degree scans of the room.

Hivemind Review Scale

The Truth About Edith is a virtual escape game created by Mad Genius Escape Co. in Portland, OR.

Format

Style of Play: Natively online escape game blending multiple media

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

The game has to be played on a computer with Zoom downloaded and either Chrome or Firefox. It’s helpful to have a second screen. You’ll be interacting with both websites and video. It won’t work on tablets or phones.

Recommended Team Size: exactly 4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $80 for a team of 4 players

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

The Truth About Edith is played over Zoom with a live gamemaster and a live actor. However, it is not played via an avatar in a real-life escape room. Our job was to investigate a strange woman. We followed clues to different bepuzzled websites, and encountered a couple of different characters over video call.

Hivemind Review Scale

The Lost Temple is a combination digital + printable game created by CU Adventures in Time & Space in Urbana, IL.

Format

Style of Play: fusion of point-and-click adventure game and print-and-play tabletop escape game

Required Equipment: computer with an internet connection, printer, pen and paper, scissors, tape

This game was designed to be printed. There is a “no print” version, but using it really does rob you of this game’s finest moments. We strongly recommend doing most of the cutting out prior to the start of the game. (Keep track of the page numbers for the things you cut out.)

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: about 2 hours

Price: $10 for print-and-play with higher prices for shipped components

Booking: purchase the game and play at your leisure

Description

The Lost Temple was a fusion of LucasArts-style point-and-click adventure with tabletop escape room. We received a PDF with a couple of dozen printable pages, many of which had bits that needed to be cut out. Then we used a web-based interface to click around and interact with the game world. This interface kept us organized while presenting the puzzles as well as the story.

Hivemind Review Scale

Ruins: Forbidden Treasure is a digital adaptation of a real-life escape game created by The Escape Game, a national company based in Nashville, TN.

Format

Style of Play: digital adaptation of a real-life escape game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $25 per person

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

This is a live virtual experience in which an in-person avatar explores the physical room on your behalf, following your commands. While watching the first-person experience via Zoom, you also have access to a web app that presents a 360-degree view of the room as well as an inventory of the objects you have collected. Each team member interacts with the app asynchronously, which enables effective parallel exploration.

Hivemind Review Scale