Escape Room Rumours – 28 August 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

After last week’s quiet, things are obviously hotting up for the new school term, with plenty of new openings:

  • London
    • Time Run are looking to hire a Sales Manager.
    • Escape Plan, the Elephant & Castle-based company, are closing The Adventure Begins today. Their new adventure, Battle for Britain, opens in a couple of weeks.
    • World War II – the Spitfire is opening at Operation Escape.
  • South West England
    • Cheddar Gorge and Caves is the latest traditional attraction to add escape rooms to their offering. They’re running two games: Caved In, an hour long attraction; and The Vault, a thirty-minute experience. They were also visited this week by the local press.
  • East of England
    • Thinking Outside the Box close Stranded at the end of this week to make way for a new game – no mention as to what that theme will be yet.
    • The East Anglian itinerant game Puzzle Room is visiting Reedham in Norfolk.
  • South East England
    • Escape Colchester has been announced, with the first two games mentioned both existing in other Escape venues round the country – Witchcraft and Wizardry and 221B Baker Street.
    • Deadlocked Rooms has been announced in Reading. The name may be new, but the team behind it were involved in the highly praised Thinking Outside the Box Escape Rooms in Peterborough.
    • From Rags to Riches is opening at Pressure Point Escape Rooms.
    • Locked in a Room Milton Keynes opens its doors this week with Timelock and Invisibility Gene. Both games are taken from their other centres and, with each having four copies, it seems like they’re heavily targeting the corporate market.
  • Virtual Reality Centres
    • For those of you interested in VR escape rooms, Belfast has a new VR centre: VR Party.
  • North West England
    • Mission Exit, near Manchester, will be launching a Hallowe’en version of the Killer’s Code.
    • First news of Lancaster Escape, with the Lancaster Guardian running an article on them.
    • If you pay any attention to the escape room news, then you’re probably already aware of moviESCAPE, who launched a new Star Wars escape room this week and got plenty of press coverage.
    • It’s not clear whether it’s actually open, but it’s certainly pretty close, and the booking page for Time Race in Bury near Manchester has opened. Two games to start with – the Invitation and Vault 17.
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
    • Clue HQ Sheffield opens this week with the perennial Clue HQ room, Bunker 38, and another popular room from their other venues, Cell Block C.
  • Ireland
    • It’s actually been open for around six months, but Exit Athlone has only just appeared on my radar in spite of having two rooms, Clown Prince of Crime and New World Order.
    • Ealu Escape Rooms is, in comparison, a relative newcomer, having been open only four months in Westport. With the Hidden Temple and the House in the Woods, that means Ireland’s total of known rooms has grown by about ten percent this week!
  • Scotland
    • Witch House in Scottish Highlands is opening at Glasgow’s Locked In Escape Room.
    • Padlox Escape Rooms launched in Edinburgh. Their first game, Going for Gold, has a particularly unusual theme – you’re trying to find evidence of Olympic drug cheating.
    • Lockdown Inverness replaced Area 51 with a new game, Lost!
    • If the games up in Shetland are a little too far for you, perhaps Escape Room Orkney will allow you to tick off “northerly island” from your to do list.
  • East Midlands

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, significant 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 – 21 August 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

As we draw to the end of the summer, it’s been a relatively quiet week although the South East doesn’t seem to have got the memo 😉

  • East of Midlands
    • Lincolnshire Live made mention of the new Enigma Rooms venue in Retford.
  • East of England
  • Scotland
    • Locked In Edinburgh have a couple of their escape rooms, the Distillery and Animal Hospital, available as part of the Fringe.
      • and take note – Animal Hospital will close after the Fringe so if you haven’t already played, this is your last chance!
    • Don’t forget that you can also catch Agent November‘s half hour escape rooms up in Edinburgh until the end of this week.
  • South East England
    • Guildford Escape Rooms open this week with the launch of their first game, The Case of the Missing Gun.
    • First mention of a new escape room – Time 2 Escape in Rochester are aiming to open in early October.
    • The Magician is opening at The MacGuffin Project in Bournemouth.
    • Defective Detective is opening at The Panic Room Gravesend.
    • Ace Ventura has opened at The Lockey, also in Bournemouth. Note that this is a separate venue from their other two games.
  • London
    • The Case of the Dynamo Diamonds opened at Popup Escapes in Putney last week. As suggested by the venue name, it’s a popup game so you’ll only have three months if you want to go and experience it.
  • North West England
    • Lock Down Exit Games in Warrington are teaming up with a local scare attraction and a Quasar site to put together a Hallowe’en escape room.

That’s all I’m aware of. If any of the above is incorrect or if you’re aware of other news, significant 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 – 14 August 2017

news-spiral

Welcome to your weekly escape room rumour round up packed full of new games, venues and media mentions. Apologies to those of you who missed last week’s edition – I was away in Warsaw for the weekend so didn’t have time to gather all the news updates together.

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

Quietening down for the summer?

  • General
  • South East England
    • CTRL-ALT-ESC have launched in Margate with their first game entitled Frankenscape.
    • (see also the national news at the top about an article in the Bournemouth Echo)
    • More Bournemouth news: Escape Rooms Quest have opened in the town with their first game entitled The Zodiac: Chapter 1.
    • Yet more Bournemouth news – a new company U-Escape looks set to launch in the town.
  • Northern Ireland (Thanks to Jackie for the ongoing updates in NI!)
    • Lifford Old Courthouse are running a popup game next week as part of an upcoming heritage week.
    • Timescape are a new venue opening in Belfast
  • South West England
    • First hints of an escape attraction that will be opening in Cheddar Gorge. Not sure of the timeline but it looks like there will be a couple of games at the venue.
  • East Midlands
  • East of England
    • Colchester has recently approved planning permission for one game but it’s obviously a popular choice with a second planning application being submitted and noticed by the local paper.
    • Ipswich Escape Rooms was visited by their local paper.
    • History Mystery have opened their second site at Blickling Church in Norfolk, the first permanent UK game to open in an active church. The church is connected to the Boleyn family so it should come as no surprise that the game, The Queenmaker, is centred around Anne Boleyn.
  • Scotland
    • Go Escape in Dunfermline opened Mission: Implausible
    • London-based mobile operator, Agent November, is visiting the Fringe this month with a couple of their games customised for the festival
    • (see also the national news at the top about an article in the Sunday Herald)
  • North West England
  • Yorkshire and the Humber
    • Yet another outdoorsy escape room is opening, this time near Sheffield. Living Adventure Puzzle Woods has launched the Miner’s Trail, a kind of outdoors puzzle trail with escape room elements.
    • Enigma Rooms Retford opens this week with two games: Colditz and Outbreak
    • The Escapologist opened in Selby with two games: World of Wizardry and Anarchy of the Seas
    • Wakefield has been added to the Enigma Rooms’ website. No details of opening dates or games as of yet.
  • West Midlands
    • Unfortunately I was too late to spot this in time to enter but it looks like there was a running/escape room hybrid taking place in Malvern last week.
    • It’s obviously the time for hybrid events with the Quiztal Maze taking place last week in a pub in Nuneaton. According to the advert it was a pub quiz with escape room elements. For now it seems to be a one off but if that looks interesting then I’d suggest getting in touch to find out more.

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!