Adventure #29: Escape Room

I have long stated that I'm not a huge fan of puzzles, so why I decided to do an escape room, I'm not sure, but something about it felt different, and I'm SO glad that I leaned into that feeling!

The evening started out a little rough, as I struggled to even to find the entrance to The Escape Artist in West Seattle. I definitely walked by the door about three times before I found it...not a good omen for the evening.

The sign isn't subtle. I'm just oblivious. 

Usually, my aversion to puzzles is that I see no point; I find them to be time wasters, with no real reward. A jigsaw puzzle yields a pretty picture, but the picture is also on the front of the box. A metal ring puzzle yields a ring, but the entire purpose is then to put the ring back into the puzzle. See? Pointless. A piece of Ikea furniture is often like a puzzle, but you usually end up with a functional and stylish piece of furniture, which is much better than a picture, or a metal ring (and there are usually meatballs and delicious lingonberry sauce involved).

In the escape room, however, each puzzle solved is incredibly gratifying, because it leads to the next puzzle, which ultimately leads towards a team focused goal--"escaping". And I am ALL about collaboration, communication, and creative problem solving. As a theatre teacher and improvisor, most of my career is collaboration, communication, and creative problem solving, and I love getting to work with a variety of people to find the best way to solve a problem (whether that problem is how to design a set with multiple locations that will fit on one tiny stage, how to push a student off of a "building", or just how to solve a problem like Maria). Challenging ourselves to work together to solve a variety of puzzles (physical wooden puzzles, math problems, mazes, decoding symbols, riddles, and more) was a fascinating way to get to know each other better, and think outside the box a bit. While I was not feeling terribly optimistic about escaping at first, I was optimistic about having fun, so success was inevitable.

The leaderboard for each of their three games: Trapped in Space, The 13th Floor, and SpellStruck

The time limit also added a bit of pressure, and encouraged us to move quickly. There is a leader-board with the best times for each of their three rooms, but that was the least of my worries. The instructions we were given made it seem like I should be more focused on keeping my temper in check, and not kicking, hitting, punching, yelling or biting (yes...biting) my teammates. I hate to think of the scenarios that the game masters have had to deal with as people struggle through each challenge.

Our adventure started as our game master set the scene--we were playing the role of avid campers who had gone out to explore in the forest of West Seattle, and while there have been rumors about a coven of witches that may be involved in the disappearance of people through the years, we paid no heed. Suddenly, we found ourselves TRAPPED in their cabin, with only an hour to escape before our souls would be gone forever!

There is a major lack of photos in this post, despite ALL of the adventure we had, because the people who create these games work very hard to create a variety of challenges, and revealing those secrets online is a big no-no. I can state though that the room was beautifully and intricately designed, with great attention to detail, and crafted in ways that you can't tell if something is supposed to open or move, or light up until (like magic) it does. They also sneakily added a personal touch, with a personalized "Happy 29th Adventure" sign in part of the room!

In the end...WE ESCAPED! And, not only did we escape, but we actually took the 5th position on the leader board with a time of 39:38! We had a few hiccups along the way and used two of our three offered clues, but in the end, our recorded time beat out the previous holder by 20 seconds! This room has a 30% success rate overall, so I'm very proud of what we were able to do. Going with a group of people that I knew and trusted was a huge part of our success. We were able to divide and conquer the puzzles, so we were working on multiple aspects at any given time. Trying to do this with only two brains (rather than five) would have made it much tougher. There's also something to be said about having too many cooks in the kitchen though, so it was great to have the perfect balance.

SUCCESS!

The Escape Artist has two other rooms with two completely separate themes, and I would love to go solve them too, so if anybody wants to join me, let me know! I'm definitely hooked! I've already started trying to think of other potential scenarios that would be fun to "escape" from (A Soviet war bunker? A sinking ship? One that requires complete silence like The Quiet Place or blindfolds like Birdbox? A prop/furniture storage room in a haunted theatre?) and the designer in me would love to be in on the ground floor of planning something like this. Additionally, they'll update the rooms with new themes and new challenges in about a year, so there will certainly be more to come!

ONE MORE ADVENTURE TO GO!