Escape Room Rumours – 31 October 2016

Happy Hallowe'en

Happy Hallowe’en and welcome to your (approximately) weekly dose of UK and Irish escape game rumours. This site is always on the look out for any new games or venues that are opening, references in the media or anything else that might be of interest to the readers, so please do send an email if you spot anything of interest.

On to the news

  • East Midlands:
    • First prize for my favourite company name in the last few weeks goes to Room with a Clue, a new escape game opening in Northampton. At barely a couple of miles off the M1 perhaps a perfect break on a long journey between the north and south of England… They mention three rooms as being in the pipeline – The King’s Quest, Down the Rabbit Hole and The Great Escape.
    • Escapologic already offer a massive five rooms to the people of Nottingham which, according to some of the enthusiasts who’ve visited, come with a great reputation. This week they’re adding Curio to that list. If you want to find out more, you can watch the trailer here.
    • Leicester had an escape game way back in 2013 but after its closure the city was devoid of rooms to be locked in until earlier this year. Since then they’ve been growing from strength to strength with Bolt Out joining the fold this week. Their first room is The Abandoned Office with a second room currently listed as opening later this year.
  • London:
    • Handmade Mysteries are running a competition to win tickets to one of their games in either Brighton or London.
    • To be honest, I’m really not clear on whether End Game is an escape room or not but it certainly purports to have escape room elements. Longer term they plan to run a permanent game but for now they’ve set up a popup facility in Shoreditch for Hallowe’en which involves laser tag, puzzles and immersive theatre.  If you’re interested get in quickly – it closes later this week!
    • Very first mention of a new escape room venue in the south of London, just south of Bermondsey. There’s very little information on the website but the name, Modern Fables, certainly suggests they’ll do more than throw a few locks and puzzles in a room.
    • Time Run‘s new game, Celestial Chain, got a mention in the local press.
  • North East England:
    • Cluedini have launched a Kickstarter project for their venue in Yarm. They’re 20% of the way to their total and are offering an escape room level at only £40 – cheaper than plenty of Groupons.
    • Teesside is obviously the place to be with Teesside Escape Rooms appearing on the interwebs. Located in Middlesborough, their first room is called Jail Break with a second, the Fear Room, mentioned as coming soon on their website.
  • North West England:
    • Code to Exit closed their room “The Test” last week. That’s particularly interesting because their original room is still open – apparently the local population weren’t keen on the more obviously puzzly nature of their second game in spite of its “no locks” tagline. Something to think about for escape room owners everywhere – enthusiasts might like harder puzzles but will that put off the general populous?
  • Wales
    • According to their booking page Mystery Room Merthyr opens this week with two games: the Olympus Room and The Witch’s Cottage.
  • South East England
    • Clue Cracker‘s Hallowe’en room, Escape From Quarantine, closes this week. After a great reception for their first game, Jail Break, it seems likely they’ll open a new game before long. Details when I get them!
    • Another week, another game in Canterbury. This week Escape Kent add Kidnapped to their lineup. In fact, they only launched last week with Dame Kelly Holmes (Olympic gold medallist in 800m/1500m in 2004 amongst many, many other achievements) doing the honours. You can read more about it in this article by Kent Online.
    • See the London section for details on a competition to win tickets to Handmade Mysteries in Brighton
  • South West England
  • West Midlands
    • Sutton Coldfield, a town in the Birmingham area, will be welcoming Escape Time to its centre. No word yet on what rooms they’ll be opening.
    • Escape Live, who are due to open in Coventry later this year, got a mention in the local paper.
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
    • Cryptology Rooms already have a good reputation in Nottingham, so it’s great to see they’re expanding. Their new venue in Barnsley is due to open in December with SS Cypher followed by First Contact opening next year.
    • The Great Escape, who are opening a new venue in Leeds, were covered in an article in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

That’s all folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, then let me know via email or in the comments below and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!

New games in the South West – Salisbury, Penzance and Weston-super-Mare

SW England

Last week the site looked at new games in South East England, this week it’s the South West’s turn with three new games having popped up over the last month or so.

1)  Lock and Code opened their doors in Weston-super-Mare back in March of this year but it’s taken six months for their sequel to The Last Victim. In Episode 2, the Alchemy Enigma, you are trapped inside the Alchemist’s Chamber and must find the philosopher’s stone to make your escape. With a host of fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor, including some from enthusiasts, they must have done something right with their first room, so why not give them a go.

2) Salisbury Escape Room closed down Murder at the Museum at the end of Summer to make way for FRAMED – guilty until proven innocent which opened its doors in late September. In this story, Wessex Constabulary Serious Crime Squad are investigating a series of robberies, with the latest at the Salisbury Smithsonian Museum. Suspicion falls on you and your team and you are summoned to the Crime Squad offices. Falsely accused, you must escape and prove your innocence. Is all as it seems within the  crime squad?

3) Last of the three rooms to open was at Cornwall’s Great Escape Rooms located just outside Penzance which introduced a Hallowe’en room at the start of October. Room 13 runs throughout this month and into early November for teams of 4-6 (£60-84) with a minimum age of 16.

In the game, you play supernatural hunters. An article in the local newspaper has caught your attention. Knowing about the vast amount of suicides that had occurred in ‘Room 13’ at Cornwall’s Great Escape Rooms Hotel, you’ve decided to investigate the recent massacre of 4 local teenagers. The deaths resemble the mysterious suicides that occurred in Room 13. They all died by their throats being slit. The apparent murderer Will Longmore pleads his innocence, claiming that a demonic child is responsible. You have just 60 mins in Room 13, to find out what really happened and put a stop to the killings once and for all!

So there you have it, three more rooms in the South West bringing the total across the region to 38. Onwards and upwards!

Great Expectations!

Great ExpectationsSome readers may remember TimeTrap Escape Rooms popping up briefly at the Reading Fringe with their room “the Dungeon”. It was, inevitably, a brief appearance, with them staging the game at the Purple Turtle for just a couple of days. The good news is that they’ve found new premises and on 1st October they launched a new game: Dickens’ Final Chapter. If you’re wondering why they would create an entirely new game when the old one has only been played by a handful of people then perhaps the fact their new venue is the Great Expectations Hotel will give you a clue. Yes, this a Dickens-themed room in a location where the man himself once gave public readings. It’s great to see a room opening up which takes advantage of the local history to enhance the story and theming.

In the game, Charles Dickens has passed away, leaving the final installment of his much anticipated novel, ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ unpublished. Last night, Police received news of a break-in at the Dickens household. Charles’s personal safe has been broken into and the final chapter of the novel stolen. The Police have six suspects but have reached a dead-end… Can you uncover the criminal and ensure the safe publication of Dickens’s last masterpiece?

The game admits 2-6 people on Wednesdays to Sundays at a cost of £50-100 depending on numbers. Note that I’m a bit behind with publicising new venues so be aware – this is currently a six week run with tickets only on sale till 6 November.

Escape Room Rumours – 24 October 2016

news-spiral

Happy Monday and welcome to your (approximately) weekly dose of UK and Irish escape game rumours. This site is always on the look out for any new games or venues that are opening, references in the media or anything else that might be of interest to the readers, so please do send an email if you spot anything of interest.

On to the news

A bit of a bumper news update this week as the site catches up on a few entries that were forgotten in some recent updates on top of an already busy week. Don’t expect all this goodness to be a regular occurrence!

  • International
    • A few weeks ago this site posted an article on escape rooms in a box, well here’s news of another. This one from Space Cowboys, a serious board game company with plenty of talent, is called Unlock! but will they be able to translate that board gaming experience into the escape the room world?
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
    • There was a vague reference to an escape room franchise opening in Scunthorpe a few months ago in the comments of an article on this site. All went quiet, so it looked likely that nothing had come of it until Open the Door popped up. Given its location and that it’s certainly a franchise it seems reasonable to assume that this was the promise venue. Two games in the offing: Sherwood, presumably drawing on some local heritage, and Prison, which seems likely to have been imported from the franchise. Bonus points if you recognise the error with Scunthorpe’s location on the map…
    • It’s always interesting to see a new venue put a firm stake in the ground as to the theming of their rooms. Usually that’s something as vague as “horror” or maybe more specific like pirate-themed but Sheffield’s Voodoo Escape Rooms is certainly setting itself up with a pretty narrow set of options. Perhaps the old adage of “do one thing and do it well” will prove to be the case here!
  • North West England
    • Talking of venue themes, Moviescape are launching in Stockport (near Manchester if your knowledge of the North West is lacking). First two games are expected to be horror themed but the site suggests other genres will appear in the future.
    • Everyone else scours the planning applications diligently right? Oh, just this site? Well great news for those of you in Manchester – a new location has been granted planning permission in the centre. No details of the rooms themselves (other than that there will probably be two) but the location is interesting – just a stone’s throw from one of Breakout Manchester’s High Street. Always useful for enthusiasts looking to play a string of games in a day when the venues are close together!
    • House of the Dead has opened back up for Hallowe’en. You may remember they had three escape rooms open last year for several months under the “Trapped Up North” brand. This time round they’ve opted for just a single short-term room called the Commune. Hopefully they’ll get better reviews than last year.
    • As mentioned in an article late last week, the new game, Captured, is opening at the Town Hall site of Breakout Manchester.
  • South East England
    • Yet another venue which is pitching a specific type of escape room, Other World Escapes describes its offering as “sensory team escape experiences”. Away from that common ground there’s plenty of variety with themes as diverse as Mayan, Hotel and Abyss and room sizes as small as 4 players and as large as 12. As last week’s article said, Southampton is hotting up!
    • If you head due south from London (well, say, Canary Wharf) for about 25 miles you’ll arrive in East Grinstead, the home of Random Rooms (not to be confused with a similarly named venue on the Isle of Wight). The first room is entitled “the Rundown Locker Room” which is an odd title on the face of it but makes more sense when you learn that it’s located inside a sports centre. Perhaps it really *is* a rundown locker room!
    • If, on the other hand, you headed south east, you might chance upon Tonbridge, the location of Time Quest. As the name suggests, the games are based on time travel with the first missions giving you a grounding in the time travel essentials and then sending you back to WWII. Their third game, marked as coming soon, throws you back to Medieval times and will see you saving Camelot.
    • Escape Kent, based in Canterbury open this week with two games, Alien Attack and Kidnapped.
    • Canterbury Escape Rooms who, in case you haven’t guessed, are also based in Canterbury launched this week taking advantage of the history of the ancient city in their game the Jailer.
    • The second game, Hannibal, is opening at The Lockey in Bournemouth this week.
    • Milestones Museum closed Traitor’s Escape Room
  • Wales
    • You’ll find almost nothing on the website, but the Escape Game is a new venue opening in Swansea. With the less than happy demise of Devastate Swansea, it’s great to hear that a new venue is opening up to keep the enthusiasts in the area entertained. Three rooms are planned – details of them when they become public…
  • West Midlands
    • You’d have to be looking very carefully to spot Clue Hunters since, as of yet, they don’t even have a website but you can follow them on Facebook if Leamington Spa is somewhere you’d consider visiting. With rooms opening up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Coventry, Leicester, Corby and Loughborough, it looks like the Midlands is finally getting the love it deserves.
    • Sadly, far too late to get involved but worth mentioning because it might come back. Dana Prison in Shrewsbury runs a variety of immersive events one of which was a massive jail escape game. From the sounds of it tens of people are locked up and then have to get past the guards using a combination of trickery and bribery. It’s probably very far from typical escape rooms but it’s often the ideas that are less mainstream that prove the most interesting so fingers crossed for another outing.
  • East Midlands
    • It’s been a long time coming but Loughborough finally gets its first escape room as Escape the Gallery opens at Hour Escape.
  • East England
    • Escape the Gamekeeper’s Bothy is opening at Suffolk Food Hall just outside the centre of Ipswich
    • Fancy a free game in Ipswich? Well, Ipswich Escape Rooms is running a competition to win tickets to their game. No details yet about what that game will be but, if they go for a TRAP-designed room like their sister site in Cambridge did, that’s likely to be a game with plenty of pedigree.
  • South West England
    • As part of cyber security week, the University of the West of England ran a 45 minute escape room to introduce students to security concepts in a fun way. No word on how it went but if you know anyone at the university, this site would love to hear more!
  • Scotland
    • Escape Rooms Scotland Edinburgh opens up this week, just in time for Hallowe’en. Two games to start with: Escape the Bunker and Outbreak.
    • A mention of the Escape Reality venue opening in Glasgow made it into the Daily Record along with a promise that they’d be heading along later to test their puzzling skills.
    • Ayr Rooms opens this week with two games, the Dark Room and the Burns Room.
  • Mobile
    • A new mobile escape room has appeared, Home Escape Party, possibly based in Manchester judging from the website. One game to start with, Library of Alexandria, for up to 10 people.

That’s all folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, then let me know via email or in the comments below and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!

Breakout breaking out

Breakout

Breakout is possibly the largest escape room provider in the UK and definitely has the most distinct games on offer. They’re obviously not happy to rest on their laurels though and within the last couple of weeks they’ve announced new games in each of their cities. Given that Hallowe’en is just round the corner, it’s not entirely surprising that there’s a somewhat horror theme to the new rooms, although if that’s not the sort of game that tickles your fancy then there’s still one new option that might be of interest.

1) Breakout Cardiff – Disturbed

Breakout Cardiff is the smallest and most recent of the Breakout venues so it’s great to see that it’s getting its first original room – with previous rooms having been imported from Manchester or Liverpool.

In the game, your colleague, and friend, PC Richards has been missing for over a week. His last known location is an old abandoned house on the outskirts of town which he had gone to investigate one night after work. His obsession with a closed kidnapping case had left him paranoid and wanting to investigate more. You decide to go to the abandoned house to see if you can find any clues as to where he may have gone. You come across a gruesome crime scene, you have 60 minutes to investigate and discover the fate of your friend.

2) Breakout Liverpool – the Heist

The only non-horror arrival is this bank heist themed game for the Liverpudlians. In it, you are a team of elite bank robbers in the midst of your most daring heist ever. You have reached the legendary vault of the Locke and Quay Treasury – rumoured to house the fabled private depository of one of their richest clients. You have 60 minutes to raid the vault and make your escape before the back up security systems seal your fate forever.

3) Breakout Manchester – Captured

The new game for the Mancunians is reminiscent of a certain horror film that’s long been associated with escape rooms. According to the description, it’s time to play a game. Some people are so ungrateful to be alive. If you survive this room you won’t be. One minute you are leading a normal life, going about your daily business, the next you are captured. You wake up in an abandoned basement with no idea how you got there. A video begins to play and the clock starts to count down. You have 60 minutes to escape, or your life will end.

So there you have it. Three new games for the Breakout stable bringing their total up to something like 18. It’s hard to believe that one company could offer so many games when you’d be hard pressed to find another with more than six or seven on their books. With the John Monroe room being cycled out of the Manchester lineup recently, it’s clear that there’s a shelf life to these games in each location and so it surely won’t be long before we start to see other new games arrive.

More south coast solving

Sandcastle, spade and bucket.

It doesn’t seem very long ago that this site was talking about a series of new venues opening up along the south coast but, less than three months later, a second wave has arrived. This time round venues in Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton are on the table with a variety of games to entertain.

1) First up, Portsmouth and a particularly interesting escape room that’s located inside a museum. There’s nothing new there but this site delights in seeing new games appearing that tell stories related to their environment and if that environment is educational, so much the better. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, as the names somewhat suggests is dedicated to all things maritime and amongst other things offers visitors the chance to see delights such as the only 16th Century warship on public display (the Mary Rose) and Nelson’s ship, the HMS Victory.

The escape room is set in 1940 and you are helping with the vital war efforts in the historic C magazine building in Gosport, sorting the munitions, when you find a bomb planted by enemy spies. The door locks and you have 60 minutes in which to defuse the bomb. The game opened at the end of August and caters for 4-8 people with prices ranging from £60-88 depending on numbers.

2) Moving a little westwards, we soon encounter Southampton which, having been roomless only four months ago, is rapidly become a hotbed of escape game activity. Houdini Escape opens up close to the centre of the city with a single game, Alcatraz, but plans are in place for another couple of games in the future with Escape the Titanic being next on the list.

In Alcatraz you have been convicted of multiple murders that you didn’t commit and have 1 hour to escape your cell in Alcatraz before you are executed.

The game opens this weekend and teams of 2-6 players can play for £50-£100 depending on numbers.

3) Continuing our journey along the coast, we arrive in Bournemouth another rapidly expanding escape room town. Jumping ahead of the MacGuffin Project and Escape Room Bournemouth, the Lockey opened in late August with Case Nr. 47 and follows up with a second room next week, entitled Hannibal, just in time for Hallowe’en, which isn’t entirely surprising given the title of the room.

In terms of the stories of the games, the website gives away very little except for the essentials: the games can be played by 2-6 people and cost £50-120 depending on numbers.

So, three more venues for those of you on the south coast and I can assure you, it doesn’t end there – plenty more are coming your way!

Escape Room Rumours – 16 October 2016

news-spiral

Welcome to your (approximately) weekly dose of UK and Irish escape game rumours. These have been appearing over on The Logic Escapes Me for the last six months or so but, while the nature of them is a little more gossipy than is usual for Exit Games, they fit more naturally with the content of this site than the reviews on their former home so it makes sense to relocate them.

This site is always on the look out for any new games or venues that are opening, references in the media or anything else that might be of interest to the readers, so please do send an email if you spot anything of interest!

On to the news!

  • National
    • You’d have to be hiding under a stone to miss that the Crystal Maze made a return to Channel 4 last night. While the show itself is a one-off in aid of Stand Up to Cancer, this site can’t help but feel that, given the furore around it at the moment, there’s a chance to launch a successful TV show off the back of it. Indeed with the announcement of a new venue in Manchester that’s housed at the old Granada TV studios, one can’t help but wonder whether they gave any thought to how they might fit filming into the venue…
    • Off the back of that, the Guardian ran a story about escape rooms and how they’d been part of the impetus behind bringing back the show.
    • Another thing you’ll have missed by the time you read this news update but… Alibi TV ran a live streamed murder mystery escape room style event on Facebook where the audience got to make decision about what the character did. If you think that’s a tenuous link to escape rooms then perhaps the fact Minkette of Enter the Oubliette fame was involved in the design will convince you it belongs here.
  • Northern Ireland
    • Escape Belfast opened with two rooms: Down the Rabbit Hole and The Preacher
  • North West England
    • As mentioned above, the Crystal Maze announced the opening of a venue in Manchester. Tickets are already on sale for the April opening date with promises of new games and some changes to the format. Head over to Ex Exit Games for some more analysis and interesting musings.
    • Breakout Challenge near Manchester opened with a single game entitled… the Game.
    • Timed Trap in Preston is opening later this week with The Great Escape, Serial Killer and Treasure Theft. If the name sounds familiar then it’s possibly because they ran an, ultimately unsuccessful, kickstarter project a few months ago. It’s great to see that in spite of that setback they’ve pushed on and opened not only the two rooms they working on but a third entirely new one.
    • Unfortunately appearing too late on this site’s radar to broadcast more widely, Wigan vs the Lizards was a free to play reboot of a temporary escape room that ran last summer in St Helen’s. This site certainly hopes that it wasn’t just a one off return!
  • East Midlands
    • Escape Reality have announced their Leicester location and games with Jungala, Enigmista and Alcatraz coming to the Midlands.
  • West Midlands
    • Those of you who like to know about escape rooms’ arrivals well in advance might be curious about a planning application in Stratford-upon-Avon by Escape Live – the brand behind the successful Birmingham and Southend games that has already announced plans for a room in Coventry.
    • Xscape Now (not to be confused with some of the other venues mentioned in this article that used to use the name Xscape…) have successfully applied for planning permission and will be opening an escape room in Telford in the not too distant future. The local journalists are obviously fellow readers of planning applications and ran a story on the new outfit.
  • Scotland
    • If you’re quick, and you’re in the right area then you’re just in time to sign up to the Midlothian Science Festival’s free escape room, Escape the Cell. Sadly, it’s only running on 18th October so you’ll have to be very quick indeed!
    • Escape Reality have announced their venue in Glasgow and opening date (1 December). As with their Cardiff site, there are five rooms: Jungala, Misery, Enigmista, Alcatraz and, in place of Fibonacci, they’ve got Murder in Whitechapel.
  • London:
    • Operation Escape opened with a single game: World War II – the Ops Room
    • Enigma Escape have announced their long-awaited second room, the Breakout.
    • Enigma Quests have finished beta testing and opened up their second room, the Million Pound Heist, this week.
  • South East England:
    • Clue Cracker in Margate closed down their first game, Jail Break, and have just opened Escape From Quarantine
    • The Real Escape opened their second game, Dr Ryddle’s Memories, this weekend. Another games follows in November
    • Houdini Escape opens its doors this week with Escape from Alcatraz.
  • East England
    • If you’re a fan of escape rooms with a local tie in (and this site certainly is) and you live in Suffolk then you should be excited about the arrival of an escape room at the Suffolk Food Hall. Escape the Gamekeeper’s Bothy is due to open in late October and comes from the same stable as the Oliver Cromwell escape room in nearby Ely.
    • Meanwhile, just outside Cambridge, this site has come across a venue that’s planning two games. The interestingly named Cryptx is based on farmland a few miles outside the city centre and plans to open two games at the end of November, the Pub and the Gaol. Looking further ahead, there appears to be plans for a venue over in Essex somewhere. Watch this space…
  • Wales

That’s all folks

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, discounts or competitions, then let me know via email or in the comments below and I’ll include updates in the next edition.

Thanks for reading!

What of the future?

The futureIt’s been a few months since I took on this blog from Chris (if you haven’t already, you can follow his new blog here) and I’ve come to realise just what a sterling effort he put in. It’s got to the point where there are almost too many escape venues opening to keep up with and, if I never catch up, I’m not going to be able to post about any of the other subjects that are interesting or tell you about the plethora of rooms that have opened at existing venues. Add to that the fact that I don’t think many of you are actually interested in my musings on each individual escape venue or, at least, not enough to read a whole article and it brings me to the conclusion that it’s time for a change…

Many of you are aware that I also run an (almost-)weekly news round up of anything UK and Ireland escape game related over on The Logic Escapes Me. I originally started that series of articles just before Chris handed over the reins and, with it being borderline gossip, it felt reasonable to stay there, where the flavour is more opinion and less objective. It’s never sat quite right, though, and I think it’s time to bring it over.

So, here’s what I’m thinking as a broad outline for the future:

  • An (approximately) weekly round up of all the news in the country that’s happened over the last week. Short and to the point, the true enthusiasts will read the whole thing for the latest and greatest information.
  • An (approximately) weekly article on venues that have opened recently. Not necessarily in the order they’ve opened and I’ll lag a little to allow me to group sites that are closer together. You should be able to tell from the title/opening paragraph if the article’s interesting to you.
  • An (approximately) weekly article on games that have opened recently at existing venues – with a similar lag and grouping as above.
  • Ad hoc articles on other subjects – things like the recent articles on escape rooms in a box and games for children.

In case it’s not obvious, I’ll also keep going with the map and listing which I think are important as the most up-to-date reference for players around the country. No promises that I’ll stick to the schedule above but it seems like a reasonable target.

Over to you! What do you think of the above? Were you happy with the status quo? Pleased with the new plans? Don’t really care? Do you have other ideas for things that I should be doing? If so then let me know in the box below or tell me on Twitter.