After participating in a commercial escape room (a timed group activity in a space filled with clues and puzzles) with two of my friends, we left inspired to build our own version to share with our community. Over two months, we constructed an escape room inside a local workshop, consisting of three rooms, over a dozen original puzzles, and a time limit of 30 minutes for participants to escape. The community turnout was amazing – 52 teams totaling 210 people participated in this intergenerational family game. We learned a lot while building the escape room and desired to make another. www.sculptureschoolvt.com/escape-room-2017
The next year we transformed a local barn into our second escape room. Over three months we filled this cavernous space with six locked rooms, many large puzzles, and more outside-the-box thinking. Over 300 people participated. www.sculptureschoolvt.com/escape-room-2018
The next year we transformed a local barn into our second escape room. Over three months we filled this cavernous space with six locked rooms, many large puzzles, and more outside-the-box thinking. Over 300 people participated. www.sculptureschoolvt.com/escape-room-2018
For our third escape room, we sought a space that would permit us to run our operation over many months. We settled on a 20x40 foot empty racquetball court at Sugarbush Resort’s fitness center. We were very excited to start with an empty room, providing a clean slate to build anything we wanted. We started by developing a CAD model of the space, followed by brainstorming puzzles and clues and laying all our ideas out on a planning board. The empty racquetball court inspired us to center our ideas around the theme of a mad scientist laboratory. Around this theme, we developed floor layouts and identified the purpose of each room - the introduction room, a waiting room, an office, a laboratory, and a human maze. We also designed ways to control the rooms and keep track of the team's progress. With this all planned out we started on the next phase, building it.
Construction of the third escape room was one of the most challenging stages of the build. The racquetball court was an empty space, necessitating us to segment the space into rooms for each stage of the escape room experience. One of the difficulties that we ran into was that we were forbidden from mounting/screwing anything to the floor or walls. We addressed this constraint by making free-standing wall frames. Together, the framed rooms created a corridor that couldn’t be accessed by the participants, allowing us to stay hidden from view while keeping an eye on the groups. With this framing in place, we finished the walls, built a ceiling, and painted each space.
With the rooms built, we focused on making the spaces look as authentic as possible. We borrowed chairs and TVs to make the “waiting room” look convincing. We outfitted the “office” with a computer, a filing cabinet, and built a bookshelf that doubled as a secret door. The “laboratory” was furnished with real lab tables and beakers. Last, we built a large, complex human-sized mouse maze as the exit.
We then designed, built, and tested all the puzzles. This process is one where creativity and trial and error are key. There were times when we had great ideas for puzzles, but realized after they were built that they weren’t practical for the average participant. We took our time, accepting the iterative nature of the escape room building process. We had to make our puzzles fun, challenging, and fool-proof, but also organized so that they made sense collectively and ensured participants could escape the course within the 45 minutes time limit. www.sculptureschoolvt.com/escape-room-2019
Construction of the third escape room was one of the most challenging stages of the build. The racquetball court was an empty space, necessitating us to segment the space into rooms for each stage of the escape room experience. One of the difficulties that we ran into was that we were forbidden from mounting/screwing anything to the floor or walls. We addressed this constraint by making free-standing wall frames. Together, the framed rooms created a corridor that couldn’t be accessed by the participants, allowing us to stay hidden from view while keeping an eye on the groups. With this framing in place, we finished the walls, built a ceiling, and painted each space.
With the rooms built, we focused on making the spaces look as authentic as possible. We borrowed chairs and TVs to make the “waiting room” look convincing. We outfitted the “office” with a computer, a filing cabinet, and built a bookshelf that doubled as a secret door. The “laboratory” was furnished with real lab tables and beakers. Last, we built a large, complex human-sized mouse maze as the exit.
We then designed, built, and tested all the puzzles. This process is one where creativity and trial and error are key. There were times when we had great ideas for puzzles, but realized after they were built that they weren’t practical for the average participant. We took our time, accepting the iterative nature of the escape room building process. We had to make our puzzles fun, challenging, and fool-proof, but also organized so that they made sense collectively and ensured participants could escape the course within the 45 minutes time limit. www.sculptureschoolvt.com/escape-room-2019
With a successfully constructed escape room, our beta testers showed it took just under 45 minutes to “escape.” The final objective before opening to the public was to make an introductory film laying out the rules and guidelines. We pretended as if the participants were participating in a research study and acted as if we were laboratory officials. After producing the video, we recorded it onto a VHS tape, which the participants played on a small CRT-style TV before starting the escape room experience.
Overall, this third escape room was an amazing team experience. We had over 600 community members experience our escape room, raising money for the non-profit Sculpture School VT.
We were interviewed about this escape room by our CBS-affiliate television station, which can be viewed at www.bit.ly/escape-vt
Overall, this third escape room was an amazing team experience. We had over 600 community members experience our escape room, raising money for the non-profit Sculpture School VT.
We were interviewed about this escape room by our CBS-affiliate television station, which can be viewed at www.bit.ly/escape-vt