Late October 2014 Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play exit games for less

"SAVE NOW" graphicThe usual Dealwatch rules are in operation:

  • Do check voucher companies’ terms, conditions and guarantees and this site takes no responsibility for deals that fall through for whatever reason, as, sadly, has actually happened;
  • Many of these deals only permit a limited number of vouchers to be purchased and then the deal will expire. It’s quite possible that deals may have expired between being published below and your attempt to use them;
  • This non-commercial site does not attract any commission for promoting these deals, or for you using them;
  • These deals are not exclusive in any manner.

The Gr8 Escape of Belfast have a Groupon voucher that will apply for their two Christmas-themed games, Snow Way Out and Santa’s Work (It Out) Shop. Games will be available from the 1st to the 23rd and from the 26th to 28th. Groups of up to six can play for £42 and groups of up to eight for £49 and fancy dress is encouraged.

If you act quickly, you can get a special deal at XIT of Dublin. Their new game, Curse of the Mummy opens very shortly; if you book in October – and there’s not much of it left – to play in November, your group need pay only €59 rather than the usual €79.

Talking of new openings, the opening deals at GR8escape York and Locked In Games of Leeds and are still available, each permitting teams to play for just £30. GR8escape York opened on Monday and limits its opening deal to the first 30 teams to book; Locked In Games opens very shortly and the opening deal will last all November.

Also in the North, Escape Newcastle is set to open on Saturday 1st November, as previously discussed. This site cannot yet find an opening discount for it, but both Escape Edinburgh and Escape Glasgow had them, so keep an eye out. If the site proves as popular and well-reviewed as its Scottish predecessors, it’ll be something quite special.

In other pre-opening news, Escape Quest of Macclesfield have a competition up and running. The site opens on November 19th; if you can help either (or both!) of their social media campaigns out before November 13th then your team might be the one drawn to play a free game!

Cyantist of Bournemouth have a couple of deals ongoing, either for those who have ever hosted guests using the Couchsurfing service or for those who buy tickets for their friends. The site also, unusually, features a free ten-minute online game to give you a feeling for what sort of things might await you. Clever idea!

All the news and deals from the local exit games

NewspaperPlenty of exciting good news stories at the moment, including a few discounts available for at least a short while, so let’s run through them quickly:

  • Lock and LOL of London has now definitely opened in London; subject to confirmation, this site believes that the first teams played yesterday on Friday 17th October. There are some spaces left to book next week, and the booking code SHERLOCKED is in operation until the end of the month, enabling play for a flat fee of £49 per group. The week after next is busier – perhaps due to half-term?
  • Can You Escape? of Edinburgh have revealed their location; more specifically, it was guessed after just three clues in their pre-launch treasure hunt promotion. No opening date is yet available, but this site gets the impression that it won’t be long at all before this site has a lot more to say. With great joy, they have been pinned onto the map, much as the Lock and LOL pin has been turned yellow to indicate an open site.
  • Locked In Games of Leeds used their Facebook page to announce their opening offer: the site opens on Hallowe’en and all November bookings are just £30 for a group of 3-5. With such a good price available, perhaps players from a little further afield might be able to soak up the travel costs in order to come and play!
  • The Gr8 Escape of Belfast have similarly used their Facebook page to announce a Groupon deal for the festive room they have lined up for December. The vouchers reveal that games are available from the 1st to the 23rd and from the 26th to 28th – perhaps they could be a Boxing Day treat? Groups of up to six can play for £42 and groups of up to eight for £49, a reduction of (just!) over 50%. Fancy dress is encouraged! These social buying deals tend not to last too long so get busy.
  • XIT of Dublin used Facebook to announce their new room, “The Curse of the Mummy”. Locked inside a dark and spooky archaeological site with twisted tales of cryptic pyramids and forgotten tombs. Can you decipher the ancient wisdom or will you perish like all those who have attempted to escape? There’s a competition for a free voucher for the game if you can like and share the message as well.
  • Clue HQ of Warrington similarly Facebooked their announcement that their ghastly new game, The Dungeon of Doom, is now open for booking; these previews are only available on Fridays and Saturdays before a wider release later. They have released quite a few images to their Facebook already so you can get a feel for whether this game is for you or not… and if you don’t like big spiders (even cute cuddly toy ones!) then this might be the very rare situation where this site might advocate giving a brilliant-looking game a miss.
  • Breakout Manchester of Breakout bucked the trend and used Twitter for their recent announcement; it’s not a new room, but it’s definitely a new twist on one of their favourites: 24th Oct – 3rd Nov our #Virus room takes on a sinister #Halloween twist! Dare you enter? Well, dare you? The results might just be frighteningly good!

Dealwatch: coupons and discounts to play exit games for less

"Sale" stickerOne frequently-used technique to help brand new exit games to fill their rooms early before the word has got out too far is to offer discounts for a while after the site opens. It’s probably no bad thing for advertising purposes that the coupons are still easy to find online even after the validity deadline has expired, and you can see how many sites that are now booked up almost completely weeks in advance started off by offering social buying deals. Here’s a quick run-through of the deals that this site could find that are still valid. (Ground rules: terms and conditions doubtless apply and this site takes no responsibility for deals that fall through for whatever reason. These are not exclusive in any shape or form.)

  • Keyhunter of Birmingham have a Groupon deal active. £15 for two players, £19 for three, £24 for four or £29 for six. Codes are activated 48 hours after purchase and are valid for 90 days after purchase.
  • Tick Tock Unlock of Leeds have a Groupon deal active. £22.50 for three players, £30 for four or £35 for five, restricted to new customers only. You must book by e-mail, including a contact phone number. Codes expire 90 days after purchase. There’s also a similar deal at Dealmonster where tickets are a flat £30 and expiry is a constant date of 9th January 2015 rather than 90 days after purchase; terms and conditions are presumably different to the Groupon ones.
  • Cipher Entertainment of Leicester are currently closed in preparation for their second season, but they have a Groupon deal active all the same. Deals are only available for the one-hour version of the game. £19 for four players, £24 for six or £29 for eight. You must book by phone and arrive 10 minutes early. Codes expire 90 days after purchase and exclude public holidays.
  • Ex(c)iting Game of Oxford have a Groupon deal active. £24 for five people or £47 for six to nine people, restricted to new customers only. You must book by phone. Coupons listed as valid until 8pm, so presumably are not valid for the 8pm-10pm game available daily, and expire 90 days after purchase.
  • Clue HQ of Warrington officially open a week today, but already have a Groupon deal active already. £29 for three or four people, £32.50 for five or £36 for six. You must book online. Coupons are valid from 28 June-28 September 2014. There’s also a similar deal at kgb deals, though this charges £39 for six and terms and conditions are presumably slightly different.
  • XIT of Dublin have a LivingSocial deal available on their BOXit room. €35 for four people. You must book online. Coupons are valid until 27 October.

Those are all the active deals, discounts and coupons this site could find; if you know of others, please send them through – and if your site has a offer not listed above, please don’t take it as a deliberate attempt to disrespect and this site will happily spread the good news.

All the news: from the exit games

news3To conclude our round-up of news, let’s check the ten known exit game sites in the UK and Ireland for their news:

The biggest news comes from Cipher Entertainment in Leicester, who will be temporarily closing their Chamber Escape game from 26th April in preparation for what they call season two. “We hope you adventurers are ready for the new game, with new tricks, new decorations, new ways of gaming and so on! So be ready, Champions! For we defy you all, you will not escape that easily again.” There are still a few spaces available for April, though none yet for May. Their new pricing structure reveals one-third off discounts for booking for weekdays, and one-eighth off discounts for booking for parties of 6+. More news about the reopening when it becomes available.

Make A Break of Manchester have extended their opening offers until 20th April; three-player teams earn £5 off per player, four- and five- player teams earn £3 off per player. Only a couple of TripAdvisor reviews so far, but they look very promising.

Similarly, Puzzlair of Bristol have an Easter Egg discount promotion offering 15% off for parties of three or more, if you book before Easter Monday, which I reckon is 21st April.

Over the Irish Sea, XIT of Dublin recently used their Facebook page to announce the opening of their fourth different game. “Imagine a world where every sin is an illusion of a virtue that guides you through logical steps to get hold of the Philosophers’ Stone. Is seeing really believing?” I like the theme – and while I know of another site where four teams can play at once, I believe XIT is unique in having four different games to play. An unusual and delightful theme and the two photos they have revealed look rather gorgeous.

Also news from Escap3d of Belfast: they are currently number one attraction out of 137 in Belfast; very intrigued to see a review mentioning the development of a second room at some point. The admission fee is now £45/team, with soft drinks included, but the site is open seven days a week and can accept teams of six as well as 2-5.

Lastly, very interesting to see this Indiegogo project to crowd-fund another exit game, QuestRoom, set to open in London. A couple of weeks in, it doesn’t appear to have got too far towards its goal, but the “flexible funding” option means that all the donations will go towards funding the site, with the campaign saying “Our goal is to reach £15,000 which would cover the start up the game and the first couple of months’ essential costs. The plan is flexible; we’ll find a bank loan for the missing amount if we need to.” The perks for donating include vouchers for play. There doesn’t seem to be much to go on, but there is a Facebook page and you could try asking questions there.

If you know something I don’t, please send the news through!