Merry Christmas! Whether you’re reading this on Christmas morning with the excitement of a child taking down their present-filled stocking, in the post-prandial slump following an excessive amount of turkey or, indeed, don’t managed to get round to it until after the day itself, I hope that your festive season is filled with plenty of fun. See you again in 2018!
Another bumper update this week – partly because I skipped last week’s news and partly because I did a trawl through most of the company websites looking for games that had closed or opened since I last checked.
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
- National
- The big news for this week is that we’ve reached 1000, yes ONE THOUSAND, open rooms in the UK. Exact numbers will vary depending on what you count but I’m pretty confident we’ve now breached the milestone by pretty much any reasonable person’s definition.
- Officially, it’s a piece of London news but a game by an escape room provider in Parliament seems like it’s worthy of wider coverage. Unlock Parliament is a thirty minute game in association with Agent November where you’re set the task of moving Agent N’s bill through Parliament. Act now or you’ll miss your chance – bookings are only running over the festive period.
- Fancy getting a behind-the-scenes look at an escape room company? Well, here’s a video interview with Enter the Oubliette.
- Can You Escape?, the popular outfit with venues in Edinburgh and York has been taken over by Escape, the multinational that originated in Scotland and now has around 70 UK rooms and many more worldwide. No official news yet but you can see the CYE sites listed on the Escape Game Design homepage and I’ve confirmed with Escape. Could this be the first sign of industry consolidation? I’m aware of at least a couple more smaller players that are heading in a similar direction and there are likely more that I’ve not heard about.
- South East England
- The Skape Rooms are a new company launching in Crawley, West Sussex with plans to launch two games in Q1 of next year and another two later in 2018.
- Exciting Escapes opened Murder at the Movies at their Basingstoke site.
- Escape Game Brighton opened Secret Agent: The Black Box
- Guildford Escape Rooms opened their second room, Venus
- Also in Guildford but probably a couple of months out of date, Containment opened The Lab
- South West England
- Tr@pped Escape Rooms has opened their first game in Devon which sees you trying to retrieve the Bletchley Blueprints.
- Escape Time St Ives are already successfully operating in Sutton Coldfield but they’re now expanding to St Ives in Cornwall. Exact location hasn’t been announced but if you dig into planning permission you might be able to find it.
- Incarcerated opened Conspiracy – Agenda 21
- North West England
- Wirral Escape Rooms looks set to launch in early 2018 with the first game entitled Curse of the Golden Lion.
- Atherton Escape Rooms opened The Office Party
- Escape Room Centre opened their sixth game, Body Parts
- Exit the Room opened (or possibly re-opened – I believe they opened briefly then hit some issues with the building that caused a temporary closure). They’re an international company bringing three tried and tested games to the UK – Bomb, Madness and Murder
- Lockdown Escape Rooms opened A.W.O.L. and The Neglected
- Escape Game Over opened a Rochdale branch with four games Pirates of Carribean, Maniac, Winter is Coming and, also available in their Derby branch, Espionage
- Scotland
- Locked In Escape Room are closing Christmas Room at the end of this week to make way for their 2018 game, the Heist.
- North East England
- Exit Newcastle launched Christmas Game at their second venue in the city
- Escape Newcastle also opened a second venue but with three games – The Cabin (a brand new game from the Escape stable) plus two stalwarts, Contagion and Witchcraft and Wizardry
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- Another proposal story, this time at the Great Escape Game in Leeds.
- The Live Escape is expanding to a second venue in Huddersfield where they’ll be opening a new game, Underground
- The Lockup Escape Rooms is set to open in Sheffield in early 2018 – if you fancy testing their game then follow that link and sign up.
- Kanyu aka The Secrets of South Lodge have launched with two games, Follow in my Footsteps and Lightning in a Bottle
- The Escapologist opened their third game, Back from the Future
- London
- Agent November are closing Christmas Crisis
- Also worth looking at the national news for a couple of London-based snippets of wider interest.
- East of England
- Room Escape Southend closed A Zombie Xmas to make way for Apartment 666.
- West Midlands
- Shrewsbury gets its second venue – Adventure Vault
- East Midlands
- The Escape Room Guys got some coverage in the local paper for their next game
- Find out all about the men behind Escapologic in this interview with Simon Stokes.
- Northern Ireland
- A little bit of controversy appeared this week in a Belfast paper over an escape room that’s creating a game out of the Titanic disaster.
- Blog posts
- The Logic Escapes Me
- Lock Us Up
- Really Fun
- Brit of an Escape Habit
- Stuck In The Riddle With Clue
- Escape Review
- Extremescape, Disley – Lost Tomb
- Puzzling cards
- Extremescape, Disley – Pirate Ship
- Agent November, London – Christmas Crisis
- Escape Quest, Macclesfield – The 13th Element
- Escape Quest, Macclesfield – Mr Chuckles Funhouse
- Escape Quest, Macclesfield – Curious Encounters
- Escape Quest, Macclesfield – Amazon Escape
- Escape Plan, London – The Battle For Britain
- Ctrl Alt Esc, Margate – Frankenscape
- Immersophenia
- The “Great” Escapees
- Escape the Review
- Agent November: Christmas Crisis
- Paper Escapes: Volume 2: Survive the F5
- Ivan Tapia: The Escape Book
- The Room: The Beast of Berlin
- The Room: The Lost Treasure
- The Room: Go West
- House of Tales: Columbus
- House of Tales: The Executioner
- House of Tales: The Secret of the Pharaohs
- House of Tales: Kowloon – Walled City
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!