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The escape-room games industry is booming

economist.com

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Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#81

Post by nothrabannosir »

talltimtom wrote: post #72
nothrabannosir wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> and make it clear that if they do give hints (no matter how bad we do) they won't get paid. > That sounds a bit harsh. He’s negotiating in advance, not punishing them. It’s about making it clear what you want for your money, and allowing the other party to make a choice. This is how negotiations work. “Hi I’d like a room here but I have a special request: don’t call me ‘sir’. It’s non negotiable; if you do I won’t…

Hi, I’d like a ticket for the new transformers movie, but id there are any explosions I want my money back. Sure that’s just negotiation, but in that case I’d argue just as well that the costumer is being unresonable because he has expectations of the experience that simply don’t align with what is being offered. And if the establishment decides not to take your business because of the unusual request, which is wierd…

I feel like we are in utter, complete agreement. At least for the first two paragraphs.

As for the third.. Is making payment conditional on the service provided, weird? I'm not sure how else you're supposed to negotiate. "Here are my demands, but if you don't meet them I'll pay anyway."

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#82

Post by Roritharr »

devgutt wrote: post #78
gkoberger wrote: post #37

I was really fascinated by the industry, so I got into it and eventually built my own as a side project ( http://StartupEscape.com ) It can be a good business if you have a few rooms. There's two types of people who get into it: passionate people, and people who buy designs online for a decent revenue. The latter makes more money, but there's some amazing escape rooms that are Disney-parks-level. Unfortunately, escap…

Just as a side note, I wonder if this could be a better alternative to job interviews. An opportunity to have fun and interact with possible candidates.

I've actually discussed this with a local escape room owner, for our 50ish people company it's wasn't worth the effort, but if you are hiring 20-30 people in a short time it could be worth the effort.

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#84

Post by the_unknown »

almost wrote: post #80

DISCLAIMER: My own startup, Buzzshot ( https://buzzshot.co ), makes an Escape Room software SaaS product. I've been running it for 2 years and its been my full time gig for about 6 months The article doesn't talk about it much but there's also a booming support industry that's built up around Escape Rooms. From prop makers, puzzle desingers, suppliers of full turn key rooms. It's a fascinating industry to work in. Ha…

In Toronto there's a Murdoch Mysteries escape room which has been running for over a year. They've now moved to Casa Loma - an actual Castle in just-out-of-downtown Toronto.

A huge hit for fans of the show (and book) series.

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#85

Post by influx »

devgutt wrote: post #78
gkoberger wrote: post #37

I was really fascinated by the industry, so I got into it and eventually built my own as a side project ( http://StartupEscape.com ) It can be a good business if you have a few rooms. There's two types of people who get into it: passionate people, and people who buy designs online for a decent revenue. The latter makes more money, but there's some amazing escape rooms that are Disney-parks-level. Unfortunately, escap…

Just as a side note, I wonder if this could be a better alternative to job interviews. An opportunity to have fun and interact with possible candidates.

Please don’t. I get that every time a programmer solves a puzzle they then want to turn that into an interview question, but those usually have no correlation to work performance, and having to solve problems in a physical space sure isn’t fair to folks who have disabilities that make that difficult but could still work fine behind a desk.

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#87

Post by jpindar »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #2

I can't read the full article but it the preview seems oddly mixed in whether its talking about how there are fire hazards vs. how they're a successful business model. Either way, I enjoy them. I do, however, think the business model could be a lot more scalable. Content providers should seek to either use the same space for multiple games, or use the same game across multiple scenarios. This would be a great use cas…

I make content for Open Simulator type virtual worlds and I could see this becoming popular there. Definitely in a spaceship, dungeon etc., the possibilities are endless.

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#88

Post by superqd »

nanoseltzer wrote: post #4

Honestly I fail to see their appeal. I did one and it was so boring. I think the main “appeal” is that it locks you in a room where everyone is forced to actually interact and not just stare at their phones. It seems to be mostly used for corporate outings or clubs, where people aren’t quite comfortable with each other yet. I’m thinking it would also be good for group dates. But for with your real friends with whom y…

I think some can be boring. There is one near our house with 3 or 4 rooms. I took my family to it and we did two of the rooms. I've been to some escape rooms with work as well. The one near my house that I took my family to was my favorite, and had a room that was genuinely enjoyable and exciting.

That room was actually 3 rooms as part of the escape. It was built around the idea of a zombie apocalypse. You enter a room, #1, and the lights are off, and you are trying to get into a bunker. Once you get in to the bunker, room #2, you have to find your way out of that room before a toxic gas is released. We had to use a ladder to get to a "vent" to climb through (and shut off lasers in the vent) to room #3, the final room, a science lab.

The quality of the build was very high, and was pretty fun, as it was very much like a movie scenario.

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#89

Post by dlhavema »

conickal wrote: post #16
Invictus0 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a hackathon project I saw a couple years ago where you had to defuse a bomb in VR. Not quite an escape room project but the potential there is clear.

There's Keep Talking and No One Explodes http://www.keeptalkinggame.com/

This is an amazing game. I didnt play it in VR, but its fully VR ready. This would be a great party game

Re: The escape-room games industry is booming

#90

Post by dlhavema »

cc439 wrote: post #8
nanoseltzer wrote: post #4

Honestly I fail to see their appeal. I did one and it was so boring. I think the main “appeal” is that it locks you in a room where everyone is forced to actually interact and not just stare at their phones. It seems to be mostly used for corporate outings or clubs, where people aren’t quite comfortable with each other yet. I’m thinking it would also be good for group dates. But for with your real friends with whom y…

Personally, I see the "Escape Room" boom as something akin to the "Fondue Party" craze in the 70's. It's a fun social outing... once. Eventually there won't be enough new customers to sustain the business model and they will disappear almost as quickly as they arrived. I'm sure there are better example, particularly ones from the entertainment industry booms of the 1920's and 1950's but I just can't think of any off…

Of the limited number I've been to ( 2 ) each of them have multiple types of rooms. And they can shuffle the clues around to make it basically anew experience. Different people changes it up a lot and you can also add other elements too. Isn't there one variation that has a "zombie" chained up in the room with you?
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