Escape from the Ordinary: Part 1
For a few months this winter, I was in an interesting transition. I had finished 7 interesting, thrilling, and exhausting years at Peloton, and my need to relax was in conflict with my need to be “doing something”.
Alongside some reflection about what “doing something” even means and why I am compelled to be that, I picked up some side projects. These included meeting many Nashvillians, reading some great books, growing food in my backyard for the first time, and learning about generative AI.
And finally, the silliest side project: making my own escape room.
Welcome to my 3-part series on how I built an escape room in my house, the obstacles I encountered along the way, how it went on Escape Day, and what I learned.
Why Build an Escape Room at Home?
I love to visit escape rooms. They bring out my sense of play, push me to work well with a group, and challenge my intellect. And if I designed one myself, I wouldn’t have to do the pesky “collaboration” part of solving an escape room.
My birthday was also approaching, a milestone I view as an excuse to drag my husband and friends along on adventures.
So I decided to challenge myself and build a home escape room for my friends to solve.
Initial Research and Setting Goals
I started with some research. I read some internet sources on home escape rooms. I also read The Do-It-Yourself Escape Room Book and 101 Puzzles for Low-Cost Escape Rooms to learn more about best practices when designing puzzles and an overall room.
I also wrote some quick requirements to focus myself:
- Scale and timeline: I wanted an escape room with a few friends, in my house, with my children asleep, on the weekend of my birthday.
- Must do/don’t do: I’m more interested in puzzle design and psychology than interior design, so I avoided expensive/complicated physical puzzles, and left most puzzles unpolished.
- A Moveable feast: I wanted to be able to do setup and teardown in under an hour combined because I figured I’d set up and tear down a few times.
Choosing the Theme and Designing Puzzles
I wanted to run the escape room in my home office, which pushed me towards a theme that worked with the existing decor. In my escape room, I decided that you’d “Escape WFH” by developing a vaccine to combat a pandemic.
I had more “realistic” ideas for room structure, but decided to pretend that a vaccine is a six-piece jigsaw puzzle, and completing it lets you escape. I liked this because it created six mostly independent puzzle paths, each incorporating various puzzle types. Here’s what that framework looked like at the end:
I sketched out these paths upfront, with a theme for each inspired by the lighthearted aspects of 2020. I mixed in elements about remote work, pop culture hits like The Last Dance, physical crafting, hand washing songs, and lots more. I also tried to create a lot of varied types of puzzles (physical puzzles, visual puzzles, audio puzzles, search and find, cryptography, etc.) because my favorite escape rooms are very multimodal.
Finally, I knew that when I got into the details, I would find that some of my puzzle ideas needed to be radically simplified or nixed. So I designed each puzzle path with flexibility in mind.
Project Tools and Preparations
To stay on track, I developed some quick weekly targets leading up to my birthday weekend. It turns out that a simple project plan helps me keep momentum on some of my larger life projects. And yes, I have a spreadsheet for my garden. Nothing fancy though:
I also put together a setup checklist to make it easier to set up and tear down the room, and kept my flowchart up to date as I went.
With a clear plan and a few essential purchases, like locks and puzzle components, I was ready to start building individual puzzles.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of creating each puzzle. In the meantime, let me know if you love/hate this, or just have an Escape Room idea for me to check out!
