It's been a hectic couple of months since my last post about the Escape Room industry. I have had a pretty full schedule getting our new room DEFCON-1: Red Alert open and was finally able to take a short breather before we swing into another build. During my recent vacation I had an opportunity to unwind and travel down the YouTube rabbit hole. I watched a ton of videos about the Escape Room industry and flagged a few as my favorites.
Join me on this journey as I tell you about some of the ones I found to be the most informative, entertaining, and fun videos about Escape Games on the YouTube's.
9. An Invitation - Escape the Night
Why it's good. Well produced Youtube series that sets YouTubers in the environment and challenge of an escape room. Part scripted series, part murder mystery dinner party, part escape room game, what's not to love. This is a YouTube Red series, so if you want to watch more than the first episode you will have to pay a subscription. The reason I like this episode is the beautiful set design and intriguing puzzles in the unscripted portion of the episode. The show runners have put some thought into designing clever puzzles.
8. Felicia Day's The Flog!: ROOM ESCAPE w/ Zachary Levi, Seth Green, & Clare Grant
Featured Game: The Basement L.A. The Boiler Room
Why it's good. This video illustrates all the high points of a good Escape Room game. Immersive environment, clever puzzles, engaging storyline. Also has some of my favorite Geek & Sundry personalities playing one of my favorite activities.
7. Conan & Jordan Schlansky Escape the Room - Conan on TBS
Featured Game: The Detective at Escape Room L.A.
Why it's good. Conan presents escape room challenge in a comedic and engaging manner. I genuinely lol'd a couple of times.
6. Puzzle Break - Teamwork and Escape Room Games - Extra Credits
Featured Game: Puzzle Break - Seattle
Why it's good. The producers of this animated video do a really good job of explaining why Escape Rooms are great team building activities. Not to mention it features Escape Room notable, Nate Martin's flagship location of Puzzle Break.
5. Embrace your inner adventure game geek and explore an escape room with us
Featured Game: Escape Room L.A. The Alchemist
Why it's good. The alchemist room is a top quality, high production, escape the room experience. Not only does it blend tech in interesting ways, there are also traditional locks and keys for Escape Room purists. Interestingly enough, there is a scent puzzle that uses various vials to help solve a clue. Not my particular cup of tea, but interesting nonetheless.
4. Top 5 WORST Escape Rooms
Why it's good. Christine Barger AKA The Haunt Girl and her husband Jeremiah are seasoned Escape Room players that provide incredible insight into what makes their favorite and least favorite escape games. As I design my games I come back to this video as a sort of checklist of things not to put in my experiences.
“...You see us coming up to probably could be a failure and figuring out how to work through that.”
3. Opening An Escape Room! - A Roundtable Discussion
Why it's good. I had previously blogged about this particular video. Read 5 Things I Learned at the Room Escape Conference from Other Owners. Here. I periodically re-watch this video because it reminds me of where this industry is coming from and where it's going. At this year's Conference, I was part of the discussion. This industry is constantly moving and expanding. There is great value in revisiting older conference videos to cull lessons learned.
2. Escape Rooms 101
Why it's good. The learned sage of the Escape Room industry, Dr. Scott Nicholson, introduces the escape rooms concepts in a fun and engaging instructional style. Learn more from Dr. Scott at his website
1. Gratuitous Sets - Instructional Videos
Why it's good. Besides being former Marines, these guys are killing it in the Escape Room design business. This video series gives a great behind the scenes build log of their latest project with Red Door Escape Rooms in Dallas Texas. A fantastic video series that is both inspirational and instructional.
WELL THAT'S IT FOR TODAY. UNTIL NEXT TIME, WHAT DO YOU THINK? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW
Brian Vinciguerra is a retired Marine and is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Cracked it! Escape Games in Jacksonville, North Carolina.