Author: wedoo

Famous escape room fans on secret missions 

Who said that the entertainment and suspense of an escape room is only for ordinary mortals? Celebrities are also attracted to the secrets and mysteries of escape rooms and not only say yes to this challenge but also have fun with it and do not hesitate to even advertise it through their social media accounts.

The first teacher was former US President Barack Obama, who on Christmas 2016, while on vacation in Hawaii, played with his daughters Sasha and Malia in one of the escape rooms at the Waikiki Breakout venue.

The Obama family chose the Mission Manoa room, the most difficult room in Waikiki Breakout, from which they managed to escape literally in the blink of an eye, with just twelve seconds left before the time ran out! Their mission was - as secret agents - to escape the room before the dangerous group of terrorists could find them and capture them. Coming out of the room, Obama stated that all the hard work was done by his eldest daughter Malia and that if they hadn't had her on their team, things would have been very bad for them.

A year ago, from the same exact room, American Olympic champion and famous international soccer player, Abby Wabbach, "escaped" with her teammate, also Olympic champion, Sydney LaRue. In fact, Obama, jokingly, in his statements about his experience from this particular room, compared the escape time of the two famous US athletes (they left one minute before the end) with the time of his own team, admitting his defeat by the US women's national soccer team.

However, other footballers have also shown their "playful" disposition in escape rooms in the past. A typical case is Arsenal footballers Danny Welbeck, Petr Cech and Per Mertesacker, who played against the team's veteran players, Ray Parlour and Martin Keown. The escape room was "set up" as a pop up inside the Arsenal stadium and the two teams, the "players" and the "legends", were asked to escape from their coach's office, having only 20 minutes at their disposal. The puzzles they had to solve were five in total, while the players managed to leave the room first, with a time of 11' and 50', compared to the legends who scored 13' and 26'.

As for the entertainment industry, popular actor Chris Evans, known as Captain America and ambassador of the non-profit organization Christopher's Haven, to support families with children with cancer, started and continues, with the knowledge and experience of the company Omaze, a huge charitable campaign, essentially "selling" the opportunity to donors-benefactors of the Organization, to lock themselves away for an hour with him in a costumed escape room, inspired by the adventures of Captain America. The supervision, organization, and setup of this entire initiative is led by Omaze, the company that became known for using the support of the American star system to carry out various charitable actions (Sarah Jessica Parker has lunch with you if you donate to the "Next" foundation to support people with autism, Bono of U2 plays mini golf with you if you support "Red", the organization against AIDS, and many other cases).

In fact, in order for Omaze to further advertise this initiative, it uploaded a video on YouTube starring Chris Evans as a bully-game master and "victims" unsuspecting players who entered a comic store in Boston as customers and suddenly found themselves chatting with a large, cloth Captain America doll and trying to solve a series of puzzles. If they successfully completed their mission, they were led to a secret room where the famous actor greeted them.

If you go looking for it, remember that the hilarious reactions of the players both during the game and at the end will make you press replay again and again!

Game master, this stranger is your friend!

Your "best" friend for as long as you are trapped in the room, your guardian angel in the success of your mission, your ally in every step that brings you closer to the correct code for your escape.

But what exactly are the responsibilities of the game master? First of all, he must know the rooms he works with inside and out. Each game master takes charge of specific rooms, which certainly do not change at the last minute, not even in the slightest, without first informing him.

He always arrives at least half an hour before his first group arrives. He sets up the room, puts things in the right place and makes sure that everything is working properly before closing the door behind him. Once the group of players arrives, he leads them into the room and explains the terms and rules of the game (what they can look for and where it is forbidden, what to watch out for, how they will communicate with him during the game and how they will operate in case one or more players want to leave the game early, etc., etc.). Some escape rooms follow the policy according to which the game master must explain the scenario and plot to the players, giving them basic information about their mission in advance.

Then, for the next hour or an hour and a half, the game master is locked in a control room from which he supervises the players in his room via hidden cameras. But he certainly does more than that. Through a computer screen, he communicates with the prisoners, giving them clues each time so that they can successfully solve the puzzles. Step by step, these clues, when wisely decoded, “open” the escape path a little more, until the players solve the last puzzles and ultimately end up with the knowledge, that is, the decryption, of the long-awaited code. Therefore, one of the qualifications of the right game master is the correct and quick typing of instructions, so that the players, on the one hand, understand the messages he wants to convey to them and, on the other hand, do not waste time communicating with each other.

If the players ultimately fail to escape, the game master either shows them the steps they could have taken to successfully complete their mission, or – and this depends entirely on the company – simply opens the exit door for them, avoiding revealing the secrets of the puzzles so that they can try the room again if they wish. If they manage to escape the room within the time limit, the game master “celebrates” with them and usually takes a group photo of them holding signs like “We have escaped”, “We Won”, “We are the champions”, etc.

As for the characteristics of a perfect game master, they clearly include high levels of energy, politeness, ingenuity, the ability to "play ball" communicatively with the players and of course to be cheerful and have a good sense of humor (players always like that!). But above all, he must have the ability to concentrate completely on what he is watching. To not miss a moment of the players' action, to pay attention to even the smallest detail in their movements.

In any case, the role of the game master is undoubtedly charming and certainly crucial to the success of a group's mission.

Ten different personalities you can meet in an escape room

It's incredible how people truly transform when they're under intense stress. So, when a group of friends - or even just acquaintances - are locked in an escape room, the characters that emerge can surprise even those who boast the highest levels of self-awareness.

These are the ten -strongest- personalities you will encounter in an escape room:

1. The veterans: These are, of course, those with significant previous experience in similar games, and this is something you understand from the very first moment, either from the advice they give you, as they perceive the heavy sense of responsibility, or from the self-confidence they exude, even before entering the room, "shouting" from afar: "I came to help the team"!
2. The hyper-analytical players or - according to our English friends, the «bloody analytical players: They are the ones who want to win at all costs every time, that's why they "blow up" the game master with questions, not only before the game starts but also during it. They make sure to collect every possible piece of information and get irritated when they feel that something is missing! In reality, these players usually make more noise than they help their team in deciphering the clues, while they constantly complain that the help the game master gives them is not enough!
3. 3. The Time Maniacs: They make sure to keep you informed about every minute that passes from the first moment you enter the room until the last. You usually find them under or opposite the clock - stopwatch, so that they don't lose touch with time. Of course, these are also the types that stress you out the most, obviously because they don't stop reminding you that time passes and ends. However, useful and necessary, but only to a certain extent!
4. The Entertainers: They are the players who probably joined the group by chance, and that's because they almost always say yes to every new challenge and adventure. They participate in the game - and often dynamically - but in the wrong way because they are unable to concentrate on their mission. In fact, their favorite habit is to give random answers to the puzzles, clearly showing that they have not understood the philosophy behind an escape room. But they are having a good time and it shows! Therefore, the only sure thing is that - especially if you don't take things too seriously - you will have fun with them from beginning to end.
5. Last minute heroes: These players enter an escape room just to experience the glory of victory. It doesn't matter how much they have helped their team win throughout the game. What matters is that they are at the last moment, in the right spot, letting the team do all the hard work and at the end they can shout that they won and brought victory! They are usually far away in the room or are in places that don't show interest and as soon as they realize that the team is five minutes away from solving the puzzle, they approach, grab the lock - or the respective item - and wait for the others to cheer them on!
6. The Disobedient: Here we find the most difficult category of players. Those who almost always cause a headache for the game master of their room. They search in places where they have been made clear, straight from the beginning, that they should not search. They move furniture, hang things from the walls, use excessive force when manipulating the objects in the room until they hear something break and generally destroy everything they find in their path. Of course, at the end of the test, they always "duck" when the damage they caused is realized.
7. The leaders. Their voices are the ones that drown out any other voice in the room. They usually move in the center, so they can control your every move. However, they always get in front of you every time you approach an element, interrupt you, get stuck in what they have in mind and hardly recognize your right to take the initiative. In fact, they go crazy with their joy of sharing responsibilities, to such an extent that they keep everyone busy with something, from beginning to end. If you generally consider yourself versatile and low-profile, accept the test of being locked in the same room with such a guy. Otherwise, you won't see the time to escape!
8. The administrators: They are the ones who manage various types of information with precision and consistency: From the group's time and how it will be distributed correctly, so that it is not wasted pointlessly, to the locks you have left to try, the keys you still have to find or the possible numerical combinations - and how many there are each time in total - that could lead you to the correct code. The most likely scenario is that these guys have also made the phone or online reservation of the room. Freaks control from the moment the idea of ​​visiting an escape room was born until the end.
9. The Persistent: They may have checked a particular spot in the room for clues, found absolutely nothing, and yet continue to return to the same spot again and again, until they are convinced that there is no “hidden treasure.” These are the players who waste their time and do not communicate with the rest of the group, in their attempt to satisfy their compulsive and persistent instincts. They simply do not know when it is time to stop and move on. And this is something they carry outside the escape room.
10. The Silent Observers: You find them in almost every group. They are the ones who show that they have not understood where they are, what is going on with the game or what they need to do to help their group escape. They did not lock themselves in the room for glory, nor to gain the reward, sympathy or interest of the others and in fact not even to escape. As for how they ended up there? The most likely scenario is that they found themselves there by chance because of the company.

Escape rooms may have started their history in Japan, but the Americans later proved to be the masters of the genre. Well-crafted scripts, blockbuster sets, and even actors who skillfully enhance your instincts of fear and anxiety, bring such a development to the landscape of this industry that you often feel like part of an incredibly terrifying story, a thriller that surpasses even the most subtle limits of your imagination.

These are the scariest escape rooms currently operating in the U.S.:

«The Basement» – Los Angeles

From the title alone, you understand that here you will find yourself confronted with your darkest fears. Shortly before the game begins, you are hooded and led with your group into a chained cage. There, the hoods are removed and the game begins, facing a bloody scene, in the old room of the dead mother of a psychopathic serial killer with cannibalistic instincts. You have only one hour to escape, solving puzzles and deciphering clues that will open the door to freedom, before you find yourself on the plate of the cannibalistic killer! For many, the scariest room in all of Los Angeles.

Noriko – Toronto

One of the most successful horror escape room scenarios that has haunted houses and spirit hunting as its theme. An atmosphere that makes you shiver from the very first moment you enter this spooky abandoned house, which once used to house the family of the beautiful Noriko, in Osaka, Japan. Today it is inhabited only by spirits who ask you to put the puzzle pieces in order in order to offer them the peace and justice they seek. Mystery, theatricality, deadly secrets and deadly elements that remain well hidden inside the house. Ideal room for large groups but also for fans of the genre who are not easily scared. Characteristic here is the participation of actors who stretch your nerves and endurance even more!

«The Caretaker» – Orlando

Locked in a wooden cabin, somewhere well hidden in the forests of Oregon, you and your friends must escape, avoiding wolves – monsters that roam free in nature and are the creation of a perverted geneticist. The difference, however, with other escape rooms is that you must free one more person from the room outside the company. This is a defenseless and helpless elderly resident of this cabin, who goes by the name of “The Caretaker” and may not be as innocent as he seems. Horror, suspense and adventure in one of the most atmospheric escape rooms in Orlando.

«The Unknown» – Toronto

It belongs to the category of the most famous horror-escape rooms in America and has managed to become the talk of the town in the circles of escape room junkies mainly for one reason: Your mission in this room remains unknown from beginning to end. What makes it so exciting is that the action, the elements and the surprises alternate in an extremely terrifying setting that has so far managed to stay away from the revelations of spoilers. The company's website gives absolutely no information about what you will encounter, nor do the game masters tell you the slightest detail until the end. However, the two rules that are communicated to you right from the start and remain inviolable are that you must be over 18 years old and not have serious health problems (mainly heart problems). Comments from those who have visited confirm the fact that it is indeed necessary to be an adult to play in this room (and it has nothing to do with sexual-type tests, as they emphasize) as well as to be able to withstand high pressure and stress conditions.

«Spooky room 479″ – New York

With a mere 25% successful escape rate -to date- from the room, Spooky room 479, remains one of the most challenging in the American community of escape room fans. The story takes us to the dormitories of a college student. There is also the haunted room 479 from which you must escape. But until this happens, you are confronted with mysterious entities (here actors also participate) and metaphysical phenomena that, thanks to the well-crafted digital audio and video media used, there are many times when you feel fear overwhelm you.

«The Hex Room» – Los Angeles

This atmospheric themed escape room has managed to create the ideal gaming conditions for groupies of mainstream American thriller films. Its peculiarity, however, lies in the fact that each player is locked in a different room, depending on the answers they have given earlier to the questions of a psychological test. The test also determines the role you will have in the game, and therefore the room you will be locked in. So, a detective, a nerd, an athlete, a virgin, a rebel and a prom queen emerge. The motto of the company is that each person, individually, must fight not only to escape but also to save their life. And they will only understand this if they start on time, cooperating with their neighbor or with the person locked in the opposite room…

The rapid and certainly spectacular spread of the fame of escape rooms in America, in recent years, could not have gone unnoticed by the hounds of major television series production companies such as HBO, which has so far introduced worldwide great hits to fans of television series everywhere. Productions, therefore, such as Veep, Silicon Valley and Game of Thrones, which have been loved by as few as a few TV series junkies, were transferred in March 2017, for the needs of the South by Southwest film and music festival, in Texas, to specially designed spaces in which groups of players were locked up who were then invited to escape, having only 45 minutes at their disposal. The rooms communicated with each other in such a way that you could not move to the next one if you had not first unlocked the door of the previous one.

Of course, the best impressions of the audience were gathered by the themed room dedicated to Game of Thrones, which transported you to the frozen and snow-covered Castle Black, with such accuracy and detail that you felt like you would actually meet John Snow on horseback. What remains remarkable is the number of people who passed through these rooms in three days, which exceeded 1,500.

A few days later, the rooms traveled to UCLA, as part of another festival, UCLA Geek Week. Tickets may have sold out within hours, but those who weren't lucky enough to get in were content with a few selfies on the Game of Thrones-style Iron Throne, a faithful replica of the famous Iron Throne.

Of course, even before HBO decided to commercially exploit the potential of the escape room industry, some international television networks used the idea of ​​room escape, designing interactive games in which live players attempted to escape one or more rooms and win significant cash prizes. The most popular TV shows that relied on this philosophy, even creating huge waiting lists for prospective participants, are “Fort Boyard” (a French television game show that was also presented in our country by Christos Ferentino in the period 2004-2008) and the popular, mainly among the British audience, “The Crystal Maze”. In particular, Fort Boyard, which began in France in 1990 – and continues to be shown there today – was set in an 18th-century castle, on a rocky island in the middle of the Atlantic, where five players went through tough and clever tests in order for one of them to win the cash prize. The game was shown in many different countries, from Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Finland to the USA and Canada, and was a huge success in most of them. However, similar productions were also staged in China, Japan and Indonesia, albeit in different variations of the well-known game.

As for the legendary “The Crystal Maze”, it is by far the coolest adventure and escape game show that made its mark in Great Britain in the early 90’s, and which was recently announced to be returning with a new series to the British small screens. In our country, it arrived in the mid-90’s with the title “Crystal World”. It started, in fact, on the old SKAI and continued on STAR, bringing to our living rooms, on Saturday mornings, the inimitable Richard O’ Brien, the bald presenter with the characteristic spooky physiognomy.

The game, for the oldies to remember and for the new ones to learn, was as follows: Six players, three men, three women, went through various tests through four zones, corresponding to today's escape rooms, with the goal of collecting as many crystals as possible. These zones were: The Aztec zone, the Industrial zone, the Medieval zone and the Futuristic zone. At the end of each game, the participants entered a crystal dome and, depending on the crystals they had collected from each zone, they won the corresponding time to collect 100 golden cards and receive the grand prize.

The area used to set up the game was approximately the size of two football pitches, while the cost of the sets exceeded 200,000 British pounds. Of course, Channel 4 executives rubbed their hands with satisfaction every time they received the ratings. Over 6 million viewers tuned in to Crystal Maze each time, setting a record for viewing figures among British television games.

In our country, the game, due to its spectacular response from the public, was also released in a tabletop version by MB games. It may no longer be found in stores, but those who bought it back then and managed to save it from the ravages of time to this day have every reason to feel happy because they now hold in their hands a collector's item.

From Dan Brown with the legendary Da Vinci Code and the explosive Illuminati thriller, J. K. Rowling with the charismatic Harry Potter, to the classic masterpieces of Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, The Haunted House), Jules Verne (Around the World in 80 Days, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express), Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and Stephen King (The Shining, Missery, The Mist, It, etc.), literature has always found its rightful place in the field of search for themes in Greek and foreign Escape Rooms.

However, you don't have to make an entire journey to enter King's mysterious world, no matter how fan or crazy you claim to be. The themed room "Tiranny" of Escapepolis, in Metaxourgeio, brings to life in a chillingly realistic and atmospheric version the pages of the masterpiece Misery (King's book that inspired director Rob Reiner to adapt it for the big screen in the early 1990s), raising the level of anxiety and suspense to the heights, until you finally manage to escape from the "prison" of the mentally disturbed nurse Annie Wilkes (played in the film by Kathy Bates).

When the global escape room industry meets Hollywood, the results can only be spectacular. The boundaries between fantasy and reality blur in adventurous and mysterious paths, bringing suspense, anxiety and adrenaline to the forefront.

Some of the best and all-time classic films of the world cinema have already inspired script and direction, escape rooms all over the world, conveying with skill and sophisticated technological means - this happens in most of them at least - the atmosphere of the film.

Heroes and characters who made history on the big screen and whose fame was identified with the big names of the actors who played them, are once again "starring" in themed escape rooms in every corner of the world: Harrison Ford, on the one hand, as Indiana Jones who gets involved in risky adventures and on the other hand as a ruthless "fugitive" (The Fugitive), Johnny Depp as the infamous bank robber John Dillinger in the film Public Enemies, Tim Robbins as the genius fugitive Andy Dufresne in "Rita Hathworth's Last Great Escape"), Clint Eastwood as the criminal Frank Morris in "Escape from Alcatraz", Steve McQueen as Captain Virgil Hilts in The Great Escape and even Jack Nicholson ως ο σχιζοφρενής αλκοολικός συγγραφέας Jack Torrance με τα δολοφονικά ένστικτα στο κλασικό «The Shining» του Stephen King.

Fans of retro situations will surely remember the war film Das Boot (1981) by Wolfgang Petersen, which takes us to the period of World War II and to one of the submarines of the German fleet. during his mission in the Atlantic Ocean. For many escape room fans, this film later served as the starting point for the birth of many script ideas - mainly of a war nature - that were ideally suited to setting up escape rooms, especially since underwater adventures have always attracted their own dynamic audience, mainly male.

Another important milestone film in the escape room industry could be considered Clue (also known as On the Trail of Mystery). The script of this cult American mystery comedy is clearly inspired by the well-known board game Cluedo. The film has now become as beloved as few escape room creators, especially in America.

But even the most modern film successes are becoming objects of study (and often even copying) by large escape room chains. Typical examples are the films: Panic Room, Harry Potter, Phone Booth, The experiment, Titanic, Cabin in the Woods House on Haunted Hill, Silent Hill, The Game, Saw, etc.

Of course, Alfred Hitchcock, also known as the "Lord of Suspense", could not be left out of the game, with many themed escape rooms, mainly in America, honoring his contribution to the history of psychological thrillers and adventure thrillers. At the top of the escape room themes today are the films "Rear Window" and "Psycho".

As for sci-fi adventures, these are consistently the top choices of escape room players: From the all-time classic films Alphaville (1965) by Jean-Luc Godard, 2001:A Space Odyssey (1968) by Stanley Kubrick, THX 1138 (1971) by George Lucas, Star Wars (1977) also by George Lucas, Aliens (1979) by Ridley Scott, E.T. (1982) by Steven Spielberg and The Abyss (1989) by James Cameron, to the more modern ones, The Cube (1997) by Vincenzo Natali, The Matrix (1990) by Lana Wachowski, Planet of the Apes (2001) by Tim Burton and Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2013) by Alfonso Cuarón.

It was late 2013 when, in the heart of Athens, in an old neoclassical apartment building from the 1930s, in the shadow of the Hilton Hotel, the story of the first Greek escape rooms, known and popular abroad as escape rooms, began. Then, timidly, Greek groupies of horror, adventure, metaphysics and mystery stories began to reintroduce themselves to the heroes of Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Arthur Conan Doyle and Dan Brown, this time seeking new communication codes. In a hermetically sealed room and with only an hour and a half to escape, they become accomplices and participants in thriller scenarios with puzzles, murders, disappearances, unexplained phenomena and deadly secrets. Interactivity, adrenaline rushes and well-thought-out storytelling with a happy ending that brings their release from the confinement room.

Since then, the rooms have increased, the ideas have changed and much has changed in the landscape of the market in question. New technologies, impressive digital media with sound and visual effects that make you confuse truth with lies, and even scenarios enhanced by the presence of experienced actors, provide the necessary push for the Escape Rooms theme to go a step further in our country.

Today, therefore, Escape Rooms in Greece may exceed 200 businesses, with over 500 themed games in about 30 regions of Greece (Athens is the leading force with about 130 businesses, followed by Thessaloniki and Rhodes in third place), however, the "mother" and ambassador of this entertainment innovation undoubtedly remains the homeland of almost every technological miracle, Japan. It all started in Kyoto, Japan, in the summer of 2007, when the entrepreneurial genius of 35-year-old publisher Takao Kato gave substance to the philosophy of escape games that until then had only been found on mobile phones and - in an even more primitive form - on PCs (users participated with their mouse in point-and-click escape and mystery-solving games). His company, SCARP, opened the first Escape Room there, with a single room ideal for 5-6 players, with a scenario based on solving difficult puzzles and with extremely low escape rates. Over the years, SCARP decided to transfer the concept of popular video games to even more specially designed rooms, reaching today having studied the topic of "Real Life escape games" so thoroughly that it even has a thematic escape room outdoors in which up to a hundred players participate simultaneously.

As for the other major Asian countries (China, Singapore and Malaysia), they soon joined the game, initially "dragging" America and then Europe, Australia and Canada (the number of companies worldwide today exceeds 3,000).

In Europe, in particular, the Escape Rooms trend began in Budapest in 2011, when the company Parapark, unaware that the concept had already taken off in Asia, decided, inspired by the logic of video games, to set up the first escape room (it later opened 20 more throughout almost all of Europe and in Australia). Almost simultaneously, the first SCRAP franchises in America (“Real Escape Rooms”) were launched, starting in California and specifically in San Francisco, where more than 6,000 visitors passed through in its very first year of operation. The terrible thing is that today the average waiting time to make a booking in this room exceeds 30 days.

Are you still wondering whether or not you want to test your adrenaline levels and brainwaves through the experience of a real escape room? Try answering a few simple psychoanalytic questions before you decide to make your first online booking: Were you a fanatical video gamer in your teens to the point where you would literally camp out over your PC until you finished your favorite adventure game (if you were active during the 90's, you will surely remember Myst, The 7th Guest, Crimson Room, the forerunner of today's live escape rooms, and of course the top The Secret of Monkey Island)? Did you burst with happiness every time the group gathered at home for an all-night tournament of Cluedo, Night Falls in Palermo or for the all-time classic role-playing game Werewolf? Today, you proudly declare yourself, Guru of the downloads of the most exciting applications with escape games (highly rated options, most of them even free, are: The Room, Forever Lost,</em Silent Age, Hellraid: The Escape, the Escape the Hellevator and the Titanic?

If you nod in the affirmative to all of them - even halfway - then you are on the right track. Find the right company, awaken the Sherlock Holmes or Macgyver that is hidden within you and live the adventure of escape. In fact, before you go, make sure you are in the right state of mind by doing the right mental warm-up. Go online and play until you drop in an online escape room that transports you from spooky basements of old medieval castles and holds of pirate ships to modern and intellectual spaces of today, offices and even prisons (check out 365escape.com as well as addictinggames.com).

For the sake of history, however, and to reinforce the theoretical part of your escape room knowledge, learn that it all started with...  

Will Crowther, the programmer-creator of Colossal Cave Adventure, the first black-and-white, scripted adventure video game, which first appeared in 1976 - and continued to evolve until the mid-1980s - and followed the story of a character who had to escape alive from a cave, after first discovering its well-hidden treasure.

However, the first masterfully designed online escape room, built exclusively with Macromedia Flash graphics, came in 2001, under the name Mystery Of Time And Space (also known as MOTAS), essentially ushering in a new era in the evolution of online games of this type.