5th Street Escape Room is proud to be part of a growing movement of high-quality escape games. The popular scenarios The Heist, Hostage Crisis, and Table for 2 build on and contribute to a well-established history.
What is an Escape Game?
In an escape game, players find themselves locked in a room. To free themselves, they must use their surroundings to solve puzzles and open one or more doors. Often, as with 5th Street Escape Room, players work with each other against the clock.
These are not just ordinary rooms. You can expect a variety of exciting fictional locations, including prisons, dungeons, or a bank vault!
This is what many escape games look like today, but they have their roots in computer games. You could describe them as physical versions of popular point-and-click adventure games that were typically created as free browser games, such as Aksys Gamess 999, Nine hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.
As in the physical games, there is normally a locked door, objects that can be manipulated, and hidden clues. Players must use the objects and clues to escape.
People consider Planet Mephius by Eiji Yokoyama (1983) to be the first point and click adventure game. Another early game worth noting is Behind Closed Doors by John Wilson (1988), because it spawned many point and click varieties. It was text-based and featured the single location popular in physical escape games. In this case, the room to escape was a restroom!
Toshimitsu Takagi created Crimson Room in 2004. This game spread the genre throughout the internet, making the format attractive to both players and interactive fiction creators. Translating these games into real-life locations was a natural progression.
The First Real-Life Escape Games
Escape games for computers or digital devices are generally for a single player. While they can be fun, some players complain that they lead to a feeling of isolation. They are atmospheric, but they dont suit everyone. Also, finding the clues in the computer game versions often involves a lot of pixel searching, which can be tedious.
The real-life versions, on the other hand, usually involve multiple players, making escape a shared activity. The search for clues and problem-solving tend to be more fun, because people are part of a group and they can physically interact with their environment.
After Crimson Room excited Japan, real-life games started to appear in the countrys bars and clubs. The first was Unnamed-5 (2007) by Takao Kato. These games were a hit with the Japanese, and so creators began constructing permanent games, not only in Japan, but in locations including Australia and Budapest.
Real-life escape games caught the imagination of the US between 2012 and 2014. Companies made games in San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, New York City, and Nashville. By 2015, there were more than 50 games in Singapore and almost 3000 venues worldwide.
How Real Life Escape Games Can Be Used
Escape games are not only fun but the multi-player element makes them great team building exercises. Winning these games requires a variety of skills. Everyone has a chance to shine.
A game like The Heist or Hostage Crisis will plunge players into a realistic, thrilling environment and draw on a range of abilities. Its a fun way to bring natural abilities into the spotlight and to sharpen areas that could be improved. Leadership, observation, patience, diplomacy, prioritizing, humility, critical thinking, and a sense of humor are all qualities that will help participants escape the room and win the game.
These are not your typical team-building exercises that make everyone involved groan internally.
People form bonds in a stressful but fun situation. The connections that players make in these environments can last for entire working relationships and beyond.
Escape rooms provide hours of fun for friends and families. An escape room is an escape all of its own. Its gratifying to see groups enjoying a shared experience and playing together with a common goal. Those who want a more intimate experience can try the two-player Table for 2, in which theyll be locked in a restaurant by their angry waitress!
Escape Rooms Today
There are now escape rooms in more than 50 countries and 280 cities around the world.
Their popularity is assured because they allow people to be main characters in adventures. In a world in which many popular forms of entertainment are passive, it makes a refreshing change for participants to be active and to have a direct result upon the outcome.
What can we expect for the future of escape games? We are already seeing more and more variety, and increasingly engaging puzzles. Theatrical elements are also a big part of making these games unforgettable. Having convincing locations and interesting storylines helps to make these experiences truly immersive.
With 5th Street Escape Game, you can enjoy just the right balance of theater and tantalizing puzzles, for a fun, exhilarating, and satisfying experience.