Make: magazine provides readers with a behind-the-scenes take on how “making” is inherent to the swelling Escape Room industry.
Escape rooms have existed in some form or another for around a decade. Originally inspired by the escape-the-room genre of videogames, one of the earliest rooms was created in 2007 by the Japanese company Scrap in Kyoto, Japan. Rooms spread across Europe, Asia, and finally the United States, when in 2012 Scrap opened a room in San Francisco. Since then, they have become a popular tourist attraction, team-building activity, and general form of entertainment in the U.S., powered not only by the players who can’t get enough of the real-life puzzles, but also by the makers, who pour creativity, technology, and love into every design.
Powered by the makers. Yes, that is true. There is a lot of creativity, design and building behind a good game and more importantly building and running a business. The really excellent ERs out there model that, and I would argue do require a lot of start-up investment money. Whether the tech is in the foreground or the background, we hope that your experience at The Crooked Key will transport you and suspend time, just for awhile.
