Escape Room Rumours – 29 May 2017

news-spiral

Welcome to your weekly escape room rumour round up packed full of new games, venues and media mentions.

This site is always on the look out for 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. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!

On to the news

No rest for the wicked – another busy week of updates.

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!

A report from Up The Game 2017

Tim Horwood, co-proprietor of Derby’s escape game game Make Your Escape was one of several UK owners to visit the Up The Game conference in Amsterdam in the surrounds of the impressive Breda Prison Dome. He kindly wrote about his experience for Exit Games UK.

As escape room operators ourselves, last year’s inaugural Up The Game conference was a springboard for our business, which we opened just two months later. We had so many ideas from attending it, and gained so much advice, making so many contacts in the process. From advice of the legal side of running an escape room company, to the storytelling aspects and use of technology we subsequently incorporated into our games, it really was pivotal to Make Your Escape’s development.

So, it is with some trepidation, we attended the “difficult follow-up” of such a successful event for us personally. We had lower expectations – for a start, the venue had been switched from Amsterdam to Breda. The first thing I did was reach for google maps. Secondly, the conference was to be held in a prison – ok, it sounded a novelty, but would it actually work? Thirdly, we’ve been open almost a year, and I was concerned that many of the talks would go over old ground. Still, we all know the industry is an evolving one, so I was interested to see just how the conference had grown, if at all.

The venue was, quite simply, astonishing, and a vast improvement on 2016. The main criticism I had last year, was that it was often difficult to manoeuvre between rooms due to the narrow corridors and low capacities of the smaller stages. This year, there was no such problem, and it’s credit to the organisers that the capacities seemed appropriate. The only issue I found was that there was no central stage in the same way there was the previous year, so organiser Alexander Gierholz had to welcome the attendees in the huge, open foyer, whose acoustics were appalling and sounding like, well, a prison. Other than that, the foyer space served well as a communal area for escape room operators, enthusiasts and suppliers to mingle, drink, eat, buy, sell, and plan itineraries. The buzz felt much friendlier than the more clinical feel of 2016.

So onto the speakers, and there was a huge variety this year. Last year we had the team behind the Crystal Maze attraction talk about how they set it up. This year, Scott Nicholson opened proceedings on the main stage, discussing or, at times, defending how he’d been involved in setting up this year’s Red Bull Mind Gamers. For me, Scott was probably the main draw for the event, a great achievement having him sign up to the conference, and becoming involved in the discussion panels later in the day. Having said that, there were some great names on the bill, Stephanie Allen from the acclaimed Punchdrunk, the brilliant Jasper Wille, presenting utilizing actors in interactive experiences and, skilfully engaging the audience, and Room Escape Artist’s Lisa and David Spira.

Our very own Nick Moran from Time Run, arguably, gave one of the best talks of the day, on the tools of immersion used in escape rooms. As the industry grows, so too do the customers’ expectations and the standards we see. Time Run is a great example of a truly immersive experience, and for Nick to share his thoughts on the subject, interjected with bucket loads of humour, his was the standout session of the weekend.

In addition to the talks and presentations, the conference gives an opportunity for discussion, and panels of experts from various corners of the industry, from operators to enthusiasts to bloggers discuss various aspects and developments.

We also had talks on legalities again, how escape rooms are useful for team building, and the importance of set design…with Wilko Drews giving some brilliant advice on how to make your escape room set look far more expensive than it actually is, but then confessing to spending 80,000 EUR on his own room!

As escape rooms incorporated more technology, Chris Lattner and Malte Eiben’s tech workshops proved particularly popular, ranging from basic tech to advanced tech, and Adrian Bacanu of the quite brilliant Quest Mission gave an engaging talk on how escape rooms encourage personal development, are incredible tools to assess human behaviour, and shape people’s lives. For many enthusiasts, creators and operators, this could not be any closer to the truth.

Once again, Logic Locks and Real Life Gaming succeeded in creating an outstanding conference, bringing together the best of the industry – ‘Connecting Creators’ was this year’s motto, and Breda felt the perfect venue for this. Very much looking forward to seeing what happens next year…

Make Your Escape is the brainchild of Shelly Burton and Tim Horwood, perceived following a trip to Budapest in 2014. The two escape room enthusiasts wanted to mix storytelling, traditional puzzles and technology into their rooms, but also create games which offer a twist, and also set themselves within Derbyshire. Whilst the original idea was to introduce the escape room sector to their city, they also wanted to create games based around local stories and legends. 

‘The Signal’, based on a story that appeared in the local newspaper following a sighting of lights in the sky, is designed to engage players and then offer them a moral dilemma as to whether to do “the right thing” and the couple cite Up The Game 2016 as a major influence on the game.

‘Spellbound’ was designed for larger teams, again following advice picked up from Up The Game, and is based on the local legend of the Witches of Bakewell, who were hanged close to the escape room.

Two new games are being built ready for the Summer, with the promise of a unique premise…

Escape Room Rumours – 22 May 2017

news-spiral

Welcome to your weekly escape room rumour round up… Back to the usual weekly schedule but still plenty to keep you occupied.

This site is always on the look out for 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. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!

On to the news

No rest for the wicked – another busy week of updates.

  • West Midlands
  • North East England
    • The Strategy in Sunderland is opening its second game, the Vault
  • North West England
    • Playful Thinking, the conference on the intersection of Play and Learning will take place in July with Liz Cable running a session on creating escape rooms for higher education while Stephen Caspar and Daryl Peel from the University of Southampton will be running a workshop on creating educational escape rooms.
    • Cliffhanger Rooms has been nominated for the 2017 Cumbria Tourism awards in the category of best new business.
    • Rooms Quest isn’t taking bookings at the moment after issues with the landlord which means we lose their Jailbreak, Safe Haven and Platform 7 3/8ths rooms for a while. The website does show bookings for August so hopefully that means they’ll be reopening their doors eventually.
  • East of England
    • Lock House in Cambridge throws open its door this week with two new TRAP rooms – Egyptian and Cambridge.
  • South East England
    • It’s not often that a room opens before this site becomes aware of its existence but The Great Escape UK managed that feat by opening a couple of weeks ago. The Reading-based company has two rooms in its line up – Prison Break and Mad Scientist.
    • Locked in a Room are looking to launch in Milton Keynes this summer – no details of whether they’ll use the same rooms as elsewhere but the capacity suggests 8 rooms of 5-6 people.
    • Exciting Escapes announced that they’ll be opening a second site up in Basingstoke.
  • London
    • Fosters are running a popup escape room in London on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The website suggests that it will take place on the Time Run premises.
    • The Safecrackers: Blue Eyed Cats is opening at Namco Funscape Escape Room
    • Escape This Room closes London Bank Heist on Saturday 27th after three weeks.
  • South West England
  • Ireland
    • Incognito Escape Room are opening this week in Dublin with two games that, based on the descriptions, are NERD-designed. The Cabin in the Woods is a variant of Helter Skelter (coincidentally about to open in Kent) with Baker Street the second room (also available in Workington, Cumbria)

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!

Seeing double?

If you found this article useful then good news – I’ve now transferred all the information about UK/Irish duplicate rooms below (and more!) to the Exit Game lists. You’ll now find an icon next to any duplicate games with information about where they’re present around the country. Note that, as of yet, that doesn’t cover games that are unique on these islands but have copies overseas.  I try my best to include overseas duplicates too, although companies aren’t always open about it.

Ever had the feeling of déja vu in an escape room? Chances are that it wasn’t because you’d already played the game but, if it was, you certainly wouldn’t be the only one. Slowly, cases are appearing where people sign up to play an escape room and then find out when they arrive that the story seems somewhat familiar and the puzzles are all too easy. It’s made particularly difficult for players who travel the world since they’re both more likely to encounter the same escape room franchised in two areas and also not recognise it as the same room because the localised version of the name is completely different.

With that in mind, this is an attempt to bring together all the current information about escape rooms that are duplicated in this country. Be warned: it will almost certainly not be correct at the time of writing with the odd room slipping through the net and, furthermore, by the time you get around to using the information, it’s perfectly possible that it will be even more out of date. It is at least a stake in the ground and as a community we can consider what the best route is to tracking these duplicate games.

Rooms repeated within the UK and Ireland

Obviously any brand with multiple venues is likely to have repeated rooms. Breakout Games in Aberdeen/Inverness, Breakout in Manchester/Liverpool/Cardiff, The Escape Room, Clue HQ, Escape Reality, the Panic Room, Escape Live and Escape all have games at multiple venues. Hopefully those should be pretty easy to spot for any escape room enthusiast.

You can add to that list Escape Rooms Belfast, Escape Rooms Derry and Escape Hour Edinburgh which might not be so obviously from the same stable. Similarly Escapism Chester, while not part of the same franchise group, has bought in its games from Escape, so you’ll see duplicate Area 51, Taken and Espionage across those sites.

The more interesting thing is where a room is repeated at a totally different company, possibly with an entirely generic name (Prison Break?) or even a different name. Here’s my list of known overlap:

  • TRAP games
    • The Tomb or Secret of the Tomb is a TRAP game licensed to Cambridge Escape Rooms and Escape Room Centre, Blackpool.
    • Egyptian from TRAP is available at both the Escape Room Centre, Blackpool and Lockhouse, Cambridge
  • NERD games
    • Helter Skelter is about to open in both Escape 60 in Kent and Incognito Escape Room in Dublin
    • The Baker Street Mystery is located in both Xscape Now in Telford and Lakes Escape in Workington
  • Mazebase games
    • Secret Agent can be played at No Exit in Bolton and Puzzlair in Bristol
    • The Poltergeist Room is available at No Exit in Bolton and Puzzlair in Bristol
    • The Tomb exists at both No Exit in Bolton and at Escape Rooms Cardiff
    • Finding Sherlock has made its ways to three venues: No Exit in Bolton, Escape Rooms Cardiff and Inside Out Escape in London
    • Lev Pasted is present on both sides of the country at Puzzlair in Bristol and Cryptic Escape in Norwich
    • John Monroe’s Detective Office is at Hint Hunt in London and was previously in Manchester’s Breakout
  • Others
    • ENIGMA at the Panic Room Harlow was previously at the Great Escape in Milton Keynes

Rooms repeated outside the UK/Ireland

As more of the enthusiast community head abroad, it becomes increasingly likely that you’ll find yourself in a room that is unique to the UK but you might encounter/have encountered elsewhere. Many of the rooms in the previously category also fit here – any Escape, The Escape Room, NERD design, TRAP or Mazebase rooms are likely to appear abroad, as well as any international company (e.g. Omescape and iLocked) but some less obvious occurrences:

  • No Exit Bolton’s games are all Mazebase designs
  • Most of Puzzlair’s games in Bristol are Mazebase
  • The Virus game in Manchester is based on a Mazebase design
  • Escape Rooms Cardiff’s games are all Mazebase designs
  • All of the Cambridge venue Lockhouse’s games are TRAP designs
  • All of Blackpool’s Escape Room Centre’s games are TRAP designs
  • KLB Escape room in Andover uses a NERD design for their game
  • Escape 60, with various locations opening in Kent, has bought in NERD designs for their games
  • Lakes Escape games are NERD designs
  • Cliffhanger Rooms in Cumbria have a couple of NERD games although their most recent game was designed in house.
  • Breakin Escapes in London are part of the Romanian company Breakout (name changed in the UK for obvious reasons) who sell their games to a variety of locations.
  • Escape Game Over in Derby offer games from the GAME OVER parent brand – but be aware that these game are sometimes sold without the GAME OVER brand.
  • Locked In North Wales bought their games in from Escape Room Franchise (aka Buy Escape Games)

Full list of duplicate games in UK/Ireland

If you want the full list of games available at multiple sites (including companies with venues in multiple cities) then read on:

  • Lock & Key (2 locations – 1 open): Breakout Games Aberdeen, Breakout Games Inverness
  • Black and White (2 locations – 1 open): Breakout Games Aberdeen, Breakout Games Inverness
  • Frankenstein (2 locations – 1 open): Breakout Games Aberdeen, Breakout Games InvernessPrison Break (4 locations – 4 open): The Escape Room Barrow, The Escape Room Manchester, The Escape Room Stoke, The Escape Room Preston
  • Room 13 (2 locations – 2 open): The Escape Room Barrow, The Escape Room Manchester
  • Major Plott’s Revenge (3 locations – 1 open): Escape Rooms Belfast, Escape Rooms Derry, Escape Hour
  • Dr Wilson’s Office (2 locations – 2 open): Escape Live Birmingham, Escape Live Essex
  • Room 13 (2 locations – 2 open): Escape Live Birmingham, Escape Live Essex
  • Bunker 38 (7 locations – 7 open): Clue HQ Birmingham, Clue HQ Brentwood, Clue HQ Glasgow, Clue HQ Leicester, Clue HQ Sunderland, Clue HQ Swindon, Clue HQ Warrington
  • Cell Block C (4 locations – 4 open): Clue HQ Birmingham, Clue HQ Glasgow, Clue HQ Leicester, Clue HQ Manchester
  • AI9 (2 locations – 2 open): Clue HQ Birmingham, Clue HQ Leicester
  • Detonation (4 locations – 4 open): Clue HQ Blackpool, Clue HQ Brentwood, Clue HQ Coventry, Clue HQ Manchester
  • Quarantined (2 locations – 2 open): Clue HQ Blackpool, Clue HQ Leicester
  • Taken (7 locations – 5 open): Escape Blackpool, Escapism Chester, Escape Edinburgh, Escape Hull, Escape Newcastle, Escape Stoke, Escape Peterborough
  • Da Vinci (8 locations – 7 open): Escape Blackpool, Escape Doncaster, Escape Edinburgh, Escape London, Escape Newcastle, Escape Stoke, Escape Clonakilty, Escape Dublin
  • Contagion (4 locations – 4 open): Escape Blackpool, Escape Haymarket, Escape Glasgow, Escape Hull
  • Egyptian (2 locations – 1 open): Escape Room Centre, Lock House
  • Secret of the Tomb (2 locations – 2 open): Escape Room Centre, Cambridge Escape Rooms
  • Secret Agent (2 locations – 2 open): No Exit, Puzzlair – Barton Rd
  • The Poltergeist Room (2 locations – 2 open): No Exit, Puzzlair – Barton Rd
  • The Tomb (2 locations – 2 open): No Exit, Escape Rooms Cardiff
  • Finding Sherlock (3 locations – 3 open): No Exit, Escape Rooms Cardiff, Inside Out Escape
  • Dungeon of Doom (3 locations – 3 open): Clue HQ Brentwood, Clue HQ Coventry, Clue HQ Warrington
  • Lady Chastity’s Reserve (3 locations – 3 open): Handmade Mysteries Brighton, Handmade Mysteries – South, Handmade Mysteries – East
  • John Monroe (3 locations – 2 open): Puzzlair – Midland Rd, HintHunt, Breakout Manchester – High St
  • Lev Pasted (2 locations – 2 open): Puzzlair – Midland Rd, Cryptic Escape
  • Timelock (2 locations – 2 open): Locked in a Room Bristol, Locked in a Room London
  • Invisibility Gene (2 locations – 2 open): Locked in a Room Bristol, Locked in a Room London
  • Classified (3 locations – 2 open): Breakout Cardiff, Breakout Liverpool, Breakout Manchester – Great Northern
  • Sabotage (3 locations – 3 open): Breakout Cardiff, Breakout Liverpool, Breakout Manchester – Town Hall
  • Cursed Carnival (3 locations – 3 open): Breakout Cardiff, Breakout Chester, Breakout Liverpool
  • Disturbed (2 locations – 2 open): Breakout Cardiff, Breakout Chester
  • Jungala (5 locations – 4 open): Escape Reality Cardiff, Escape Reality Coventry, Escape Reality Glasgow, Escape Reality Leeds, Escape Reality Leicester
  • Enigmista (3 locations – 3 open): Escape Reality Cardiff, Escape Reality Glasgow, Escape Reality Leicester
  • Alcatraz (5 locations – 4 open): Escape Reality Cardiff, Escape Reality Coventry, Escape Reality Glasgow, Escape Reality Leeds, Escape Reality Leicester
  • Misery (2 locations – 2 open): Escape Reality Cardiff, Escape Reality Glasgow
  • The Heist (2 locations – 1 open): Escape Reality Cardiff, Escape Reality Coventry
  • Area 51 (5 locations – 5 open): Escapism Chester, Escape Doncaster, Escape Haymarket, Escape London, Escape Stoke
  • Espionage (3 locations – 3 open): Escapism Chester, Escape Livingston, Escape Dublin
  • Vacancy (2 locations – 2 open): Breakout Chester, Breakout Manchester – High St
  • Most Wanted (2 locations – 2 open): Breakout Chester, Breakout Manchester – High St
  • Identify (2 locations – 2 open): Breakout Chester, Breakout Manchester – High St
  • Sacrifice (2 locations – 2 open): Clue HQ Coventry, Clue HQ Warrington
  • Murder in Whitechapel (2 locations – 1 open): Escape Reality Coventry, Escape Reality Glasgow
  • The Diamond Heist (2 locations – 1 open): Escape Rooms Derry, Escape Hour
  • Escape Casino (3 locations – 3 open): Escape Haymarket, Escape Hull, Escape London
  • Helter Skelter (2 locations – 1 open): Escape 60, Incognito Escape Room
  • EMCU Trials (3 locations – 2 open): Escape Glasgow, Escape Hull, Escape Stoke
  • Blueprint (3 locations – 3 open): Tick Tock Unlock Glasgow, Tick Tock Unlock Leeds, Tick Tock Unlock Liverpool
  • The Hatch (3 locations – 3 open): Tick Tock Unlock Glasgow, Tick Tock Unlock Leeds, Tick Tock Unlock Manchester
  • The Panic Room (3 locations – 2 open): The Panic Room Gravesend 1, The Panic Room Gravesend 2, The Panic Room Harlow
  • The Witch House (2 locations – 1 open): The Panic Room Gravesend 1, The Panic Room Harlow
  • ENIGMA (2 locations – 1 open): The Panic Room Harlow, A Great Escape
  • 221B Baker Street (2 locations – 2 open): Escape Hull, Escape Peterborough
  • Outbreak (2 locations – 1 open): Secrets Beneath Jersey, Secrets Beneath Portsmouth
  • The Betrayal of Cluetankhamun (3 locations – 2 open): Clue HQ Leicester, Clue HQ Swindon, Clue HQ Warrington
  • The Vault (3 locations – 3 open): Clue HQ Leicester, Clue HQ Sunderland, Clue HQ Warrington
  • Teleporter (2 locations – 2 open): Clue HQ Leicester, Clue HQ Warrington
  • The Crystal Maze (2 locations – 1 open): The Crystal Maze, The Crystal Maze Manchester
  • The Mummy (2 locations – 2 open): The Escape Room Manchester, The Escape Room Preston
  • Spy Mission: Knight Order (2 locations – 2 open): The Escape Room Stoke, The Escape Room Preston
  • Da Vinci (2 locations – 2 open): WeEscape, WeEscape Dublin
  • Taken (2 locations – 2 open): WeEscape, WeEscape Dublin

Escape Room Rumours – 15 May 2017

news-spiral

Welcome to your weekly escape room rumour round up… Apologies for the gap last week – I was in Amsterdam last week at the Up the Game conference. The good news is that I didn’t stop collecting information, so it’s a bumper article this time round.

This site is always on the look out for 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. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!

On to the news

Another busy week!

  • International
    • Last week saw the second edition of Up the Game in the Netherlands, the international escape room conference. The UK was well represented with Stephanie Allen from Punch Drunk, Amy Strike and Gwyn Morfey from Fire Hazard, Nick Moran from Time Run, Sera Dodd from S² and the enthusiast Facebook group and Ken Ferguson (me!) from exitgames.co.uk/thelogicescapesme.com not to mention a bunch of attendees from the UK.
  • National
    • It’s not quite the reality TV fame that this site predicted back in January but Arsenal got in on the escape room act with a players vs ex-players challenge. Welbeck, Cech and Mertesacker took on Keown and Parlour. You’ll have to watch the video to find out who won but I can tell you that the game was put together by the mobile escape room company, Escape Game Events.
    • Another exciting news update – SCRAP Zelda is coming to London. For those who aren’t in the know, SCRAP was the first escape room company when it hit the ground in Japan back in 2007. Zelda is obviously the famous Nintendo video game series. Marry them up and you have something that really helps bring the industry in front of a new group of people. Be warned, though, this is a “ballroom game” with multiple teams competing simultaneously in a single room.
    • Escape Hunt have already announced that they’ll be opening a host of escape rooms across the country following their flotation on AIM. Well, the first of those appears to have been announced in Birmingham with this article in the local paper.
    • If you’ve herd of Camp Wildfire then you’ll know it brings a wide range of activities together for a weekend festival. Whether you want to try ice cream making, shooting, dodgeball, making nipple tassles or, and the reason for this site’s interest, escape rooms, they’ve got you covered.
  • East of England
  • Wales
    • The Escape Rooms Newport is opening its doors following a successful Kickstarter campaign with Torture Corp their first game
  • South West England
  • West Midlands
    • The latest Clue HQ game, Captain Riddle’s Forgotten Fortune, is opening at Clue HQ Birmingham
  • London
    • See the International and National sections for coverage of some London news.
    • Clue Trace opened their second game, Mission Critical
    • If you’re following this site’s predictions you might be excited to hear that another escape room kickstarter has launched. It’s still early days but it doesn’t look likely to make its target.
  • South East England
    • See the National section for coverage of Camp Wildfire.
    • The Macguffin Project opened their first game, The MacGuffin, last week and alongside that got a mention in the local paper
    • First mention of a new company in Ramsgate: Real Life Games are set to launch their game, Extinction, in June.
    • Another new game, Locked In, looks to be opening in Folkestone. No exact address yet but they do have a couple of games mentioned on their website.
    • Trapped Down South had only just opened in the Blue Water but things obviously didn’t go well (or possibly didn’t go at all) and they’ve already closed down after only a couple of weeks.
    • Escape 60 opened their first two games, Zombie Uprising and Helter Skelter
    • Alien Abduction and Cabin in the Woods open this week at the new Milton Keynes venue, Escaper MK
  • North West England
    • Workington based game, Lakes Escape, got a piece in their local Cumbrian paper.
    • Forsaken is opening at Breakout Manchester – High St. That makes it their twelfth different scenario in the city.
    • The Haunted Pirate Ship is opening at Cliffhanger Rooms bringing their total to three games
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
  • East Midlands
  • West Midlands
    • See the National section for coverage of Escape Hunt

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!

Escape Room Rumours – 1 May 2017

news-spiral

Welcome to your weekly escape room rumour round up… This site is always on the look out for 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. That applies to owners too – feel free to send me your news for inclusion here. Don’t be shy!

On to the news

Another busy week!

  • National
    • If you’ve been reading carefully for a while you’ll have seen references to the Dorcaster Group and Escape Hunt – well this week the FT published an article covering their plans to float on the London Stock Exchange – the first escape room company to do so.
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
    • First mention of a new escape room coming to York. The Escapologist appears to be a combined escape room, bar and kitchen with steampunk vibes – now that’s a project and a half!
    • And another new company making its way to the area – The Escape Room Emporium is looking to open in Halifax and they’re apparently in the process of sorting out their logo.
    • Tick Tock Unlock Leeds are expanding with two new games: The Asylum and The Forgotten Tomb. They’ll also be adding some VR escape rooms to their offering.
    • Leeds is obviously booming with Locked In Games‘ also expanding and bringing four new games opening this week: Kiss of Death, American Die-ner, Hotel Heist and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
  • South West England
    • 11th Hour Escape Rooms opened their second game, Victoria’s Last Challenge which sees you trying to find a mischievous aunt’s inheritance.
  • Wales
  • East of England
    • Rustic Riddles are opening next month in Norfolk with an outdoor escape game where you have to hunt down a potion to ward off invading trolls.
  • South East England
    • Kent Live ran a story covering the seven escape rooms you need to play in Kent.
    • Sad news with the first closure for a while: Mystery Room UK are closing their doors this month and no new bookings are being accepted.
  • North East England
    • Project Escape are opening on campus in Teesside University with their first game entitled The Magician’s Illusion
  • West Midlands
    • If you’re interested in zombie experience escape room crossovers then there’s a new one opening in West Brom. Zombie Infection: The Courthouse involves escape room elements and takes teams of up to 16.
  • London
    • Escape from the Room, the enthusiast-operated venture in Sutton have released their second game, Cabin in the Woods. They’re running two different options with the basic 60 minute game but also a longer 90 minute version.
    • City Mazes London are set to launch in Shoreditch with their first game, Professor’s Predicament. Four more rooms are due to follow over the summer with a total of four distinct games.
    • Escape This Room also launched in Shoreditch with their first game entitled the Bank Heist
  • North West England
    • Lakes Escape opened in Workington (up in Cumbria if you don’t know the town) with two games: Baker Street and Quest for the Throne
    • Escape and Conquer are a new blogging team operating in the North West and down to Birmingham. If you went to the Edinburgh unconference, you might even have met them.
    • More evidence of escape rooms hitting the curriculum with another school escape room.

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!