Let's have a Peek at 5 most Frequent mistakes in escape rooms Experience or design, that may ruin it for visitors! We won't be listing them at any particular order, as they're all (quite) bad for escape room encounter, and it really depends to what extent they appear from the room.
POOR
Poor puzzles design can signify many things and could be present In an escape room in various forms. The end result is generally similar -- that the visitor is confused, annoyed and uncertain what the heck just happened.
· Reusing the identical information or hints for over one puzzle could be extremely confusing for visitors. When you figure out that you should not just figure out what book to use in a puzzle from a group of pieces of paper you found scattered all around the room, but also who's the murderer, what is his shoe size and what he had for breakfast last January, that's the password to his computer account (yes, I am exaggerating:-RRB-), it leaves far from a great impression.
· Involving props which shouldn't be moved. That's probably only the worst puzzle design flaw on the market. Of course players will touch and move everything in the area -- it's a part of their experience and what they're used to do. If them moving props in the area produces a puzzle unsolvable (without hints), it's just poor design.
· (too well) hidden items can be quite annoying. We visited a room where we could not find the first key for almost 15 minutes -- and we weren't even the only ones, when talking to the proprietor, he said majority of people have problems with that. To make matters worse, finding items was a huge part of the rest of the game too -- and was just there due to the lack of actual puzzles. Searching for items =/= puzzles!
· It is not really restricted to the high-tech puzzles though, it may happen with padlocks and low tech puzzles aswell. Technologically advanced puzzles can be great, and will definitely increase the"wow" factor of the space. But when something goes wrong, it is just a lousy experience.
A BAD INTRODUCTION AND DEBRIEFING
Introduction and the debriefing may not be a Part of the room itself, but it's surely part of the escape room encounter. A poor debut and debriefing can really hurt the overall experience when seeing an escape room. No matter how great the space is, it may only feel as if something is missing when you are promptly asked to pay and depart after you resolve it.
As poor introductions go, we have seen all kinds -- from space master only reading the instructions from a bit of newspaper to not even mentioning the narrative of this space.
It's even easier to Pinpoint a bad debriefing -- and those are not hard to come by. To be completely honest, we've probably had more mediocre or bad debriefings overall, than the really good ones. Way too many times it happens, that you are just escorted outside of this space back into the entry hall, requested to cover, possibly given a chance for a photo or a few minutes of chat, and then asked to leave (or just stand there ).
The couple awesome debriefings we've had included Going through the room , answering any questions that you might have, commenting and debating the puzzles, maybe explaining a little more how a few puzzles are joined to the story of the room. Some rooms also provide refreshments after the area has been completed, that is not crucial but it surely does not hurt.
Whatever The reason might be -- some area simply use it to cover up the absence of real puzzles and extend your escape room experience, some may overdo the narrative components -- some escape rooms simply contain waaaay to a lot of distractions. We've had quite a bad experience in one of"solve the crime" genre escape room. A normal detective office, with heaps, and that I mean, LOADS of paperwork, pictures, notes all across the area. Not only does this take a lengthy time to get through all of them, it turned out that they had been of very little value to us in the end. Many rooms resolve the issue with a particular markers which are used for items which are not a part of this game. Though it has a bit of a negative effect on immersion, it's fantastic for preventing individuals from wasting their time on parts of the scenery.
Tick, When it comes to preparing the room, there is not any room for sloppiness. All the puzzles must be reset, each of the locks locked, all of the keys in the right places. We have had it happen a couple of occasions that some locks weren't locked -- largely even the important locks such as the more info doors to another room. When you're politely asked that you go back to the first room because the doors weren't supposed to be opened yet (and they will let you know as soon as you're able to go to the second area ), it just demolishes the immersion.
Timing Hints properly can have a fantastic impact on escape room encounter. Experienced groups perhaps do not even need hints, but in regards to novices and visitors with a couple rooms under their belt, signs are still an important part of their expertise. Give clues too late, and they won't be able to address the room in time , not a fantastic alternative.
In a single Room, we had been given hints before we could even try anything ourselves -- and they lead us out of this space in about 40 minutes, with multiple hints one after the other.
The Other extreme has been left alone for the first half an hour (with no way to request a hint as it was a one-side communication), and consequently not completing over half of the space in the long run.
In our view, the Perfect hint system should help a group come from this space in time, or in a couple extra minutes.
Typical mistakes we came across in escape rooms. Most of Them can be easily avoided -- and it's really worth It, as it will tremendously boost the customer's satisfaction. What about you personally? Do you want to include something, make a remark about something? Tell Us in the comments!