Escape rooms have been popping up all over London Ont since 2014. The latest change in this new entertainment industry? The emergence of competitive enthusiasts.
Chloe Ashick-Stinson is hooked. She completed her first escape room at Forest City Comicon in 2015 and has since played 24 different rooms across Southwestern Ontario with her friends.
Ashick-Stinson’s group may not beat every room, but they do complete the majority. “Our escape rate is between 75-78 per cent right now,” she says.
What started out as a fun activity to do with friends quickly became serious business for Ashick-Stinson and her group.
“Often, we will be at dinner or at drinks after we’ve done a room,” says Ashick-Stinson, “and we’re booking [the next game] on our phone, at the table.”
Since the opening of Mystery Escape Rooms, London’s first escape room business, the industry has exploded across the city with five establishments currently operating. Mystery Escape Rooms plans to open a second location later this year.
Derrick Noon is the owner of Trapdoor, London’s newest escape room location. He says that enthusiasts, like Ashick-Stinson, have become quite common with the rising popularity of the games, but escape rooms are not only for the experts.
“Enthusiasts are definitely a big part of the escape room market and there are people who will go and do every escape room within driving distance” says Noon. “They aren’t the majority of our customers, or anything like that, but they’re an awesome part.”
“Sometimes we’re mad at each other, sometimes there’s yelling,” says Ashick-Stinson. “There’s a lot of yelling.”
The team ranges from four to eight people, depending on the room and weekend. Members of the group live across Southwestern Ontario, from Kitchener to London to Kincardine.
They’ve attempted rooms in each of those areas, as well as in Toronto. Ashick-Stinson says her friends group can no longer get together without visiting an escape room. Game availability often determines the time of their next meeting.
Chloe (centre with trophy in hand) with her team.
Photo courtesy of Chloe Ashick-Stinson
Most establishments have rooms ranging in difficulty, in order to accommodate a wide audience. Escape rooms have become a popular destination for everything from corporate getaways to birthday parties to first dates.
Kristy Roberts, a manager at Mystery Escape Rooms says her business has also increasingly become an alternative to traditional entertainment getaways.
“We get everything from a family coming in for their first escape room ever, to those enthusiasts that have played them all across the country. . . We do everything from corporate events to birthday parties” says Kristy. “It’s something totally different, it’s an immersive experience. You enter a room and you’re transported into another world entirely.”
These themes offer more than just entertainment. Noon and Roberts have had companies book escape rooms as a team building activity too. In fact, Noon says puzzle solving teaches communication skills.
Ashick-Stinson agrees that escape rooms are a good team building exercise and that a well-balanced team is essential to completing a room.
To win, she also suggests going in with a clear mind. “If you’re really tired,” Ashick-Stinson believes, “your teamwork goes down because you’re snapping at each other and missing things.”
Volcano’s Ruin, Trapdoor’s first room open to the public, is next on Ashick-Stinson’s list. After that, her team will have to wait for more rooms to be created because they’ve already played every other escape game in town. Typically, groups won’t return to a room after their first try, though some businesses will offer discounts to players who haven’t made it past the first half of a room’s puzzles.
As new businesses emerge, game designers are increasingly incorporating innovative technology into their puzzles. Meanwhile, established locations also make major changes to keep their own game selection fresh. According to Roberts, Mystery Escape Rooms have retired a couple of their own rooms “because [they] had brand new ideas and really wanted to open up new rooms.”
Playing escape rooms competitively is not only on the rise in Ontario, but also around the world. Earlier this year, the first ever World Escape Room Championships were held in Budapest, Hungary. However, Ashick-Stinson says that her group is still far off from any international tournaments. Their current focus is on finding new rooms that will challenge them.
“We want a certain level of difficulty that is getting harder and harder to find.”
This website is a final project for a Masters in Media Journalism and Communication course at Western University, London, Ont. Although escape rooms have been around for five years now in Ontario, the public's' fascination is only being vamped up by the introduction of new tech and complicated puzzles. So Dylan, Kajol and Melinda set out to find out what makes a good Escape Room. Meet the trio behind investigation below.
ABOUT US
KAJOL RATANJANKAR
DYLAN SHORT
MELINDA THERIAULT
Email | dshort4@uwo.ca
| @DillyShort
Email | kajol.r.94@gmail.com
| @kk_ratz
Email | mtheria@uwo.ca
| @tinymenlinda