How escape rooms adopted the latest technologies for a mind-blowing experience
Charlotte Lin is a content creator at escape room She’s a passionate young woman, mother to an amazing nine-year-old, and an avid reader. Over the years, writing has helped her explore and understand the world as well as her own self. She loves to travel, meet new people, and spend quality time with her daughter. You can find her on LinkedIn.
Are you looking for a fun activity that involves all your senses? Escape rooms are the best. They indulge you in an experience that is super immersive making you forget the real world. And how come a traditional game provides such immersion? And, the answer is ‘technology.’ Let’s take a look at how escape rooms adopted the latest technologies for a mind-blowing experience?
Escape Rooms:
An escape room is a real-life adventure game, where players are purposely trapped in a small room and are required to escape the room within 60- minutes to win the game. The room is based on a story, and the aesthetics of the room are similar to that story.
To win the game, you need to solve the astonishing puzzles, hidden clues, and brain-teasing activities that will put all your skills to the test. You are supposed to solve the mystery and win the race against time. You probably already knew what escape rooms are but do you know how the escape rooms began?
History of Escape Rooms:
Escape rooms were first established in the early 2000s, and since then, they have taken the world by storm. These games, which are just a little over 10 years old, were first established in Kyoto, Japan by a publishing company called SCRAP.
Since their establishment in 2007, escape rooms have been established as a form of entertainment that every age group can enjoy. Although the games were not using much technology then, they still became a roaring success for friends and family to play together as well as compete with each other.
Escape rooms now:
Escape rooms are now witnessing a new clientele that are born tech-geeks.
They can often be seen sitting on their chairs with a headset and playing games for hours straight. Therefore, when they leave their homes to experience these real-life escape games, they expect the game to fully engage their senses!
It is impossible to separate Gen-Z from technology. This generation comprises of child prodigies and geniuses. With children learning to code as soon as they are 6 years old, technology has become an inseparable part of their life. This tech-savvy generation loves innovation and to cater to the needs of this generation, escape rooms are becoming more tech-savvy as well. An escape room with high tech facilities is a paradise for this generation.
Steadily escape room games have shed their older, traditionally designed puzzles and quizzes behind and have employed different technology overtime to compete with their contemporary modes of entertainment.
Now, the escape rooms are designed in a way that integrates the OG escape room layout plus the virtual reality game for virtual birthday party– feel to attract the younger audience.
The help of technology in creating immersive escape rooms:
Every escape room is built around a story. After the game master’s dramatic narration of the story, an escape enthusiast naturally demands to be amazed as they open the doors to their escape adventure. A white room full of padlocks and puzzles is going to be a real let-down for sure.
Therefore, brands must push boundaries and harness the ever-growing technologies to create immersive rooms and offer an unforgettable experience.
To enhance the feel of the rooms, the brands pay absolute attention to the details. From the color of the rooms to life-like sculptures; from the lighting in the room to the tiniest of props, there is precision in everything.
Technology has certainly helped in creating a mind-blowing experience. Imagine playing a game which is set in the 1950s, having flickering lights and static noise made by the old TV sets gives it an authentic feel and immediately makes you feel that you are transported to the past. Escape games which are ‘Future- themed’, makes the use of present-day technology to give a feel of future technology.
Elevating the escape room experience with technology:
The brands have started using the technology to elevate the overall experience of the games and to make them more compelling to players. Even the most straightforward quests are often packed with visuals and interactive puzzles that have some electronics in them. Now, the escape rooms use tiny LED lights that illuminate the hidden clues and make them more fascinating to look at, advanced magnetic locks are used in the rooms that are even more challenging to figure out, even the classic combination locks and detonators now feature new looks and are operated via touch screens. Laptops and tablets are now a common feature of most escape rooms.
Except for these things, the games often employ infrared sensors that add extra excitement to the game by creating an invisible barrier around doors and escape routes. Some brands even use holograms for a more realistic vibe.
To provide the players with a top-notch experience, some brands now use motion sensors to create a real-time effect.
All these technological advancements have proved to be a real blessing for the escape room business and have aided in providing an exceptional experience to the players.
The future of escape rooms:
The emerging technology right now in escape rooms is the ‘full 4D sound effect’. This usually involves the virtual placement of sound sources anywhere in three-dimensional space, including behind, above, and on each side of the listener.
More and more brands are now investing in the same as it has helped upgrade the whole experience of the game.
The biggest advancement today in the escape rooms business is the introduction of virtual reality (VR).
The VR glasses/helmets bring a whole new reality into the room and reward players with never before seen experience. Virtual reality adds a unique twist to sci-fi themed games and rooms.
VR enables the players to interact with the environment in a never before seen manner. Imagine exploring a pharaoh’s tomb in a dark pyramid with a torch in your hand! This is all possible with a little help from VR technology!
Although this technology is still in its developmental stages, there still are a lot of promising results. One thing is for sure, the next year of escape gaming will be about the virtual-reality environment.
Final words:
Technology has certainly aided the escape room business in providing a mind-blowing experience. Although escape rooms have always been loved by the players since the introduction of technology, the escape room business has reached its zenith.
The themes of the room and the games themselves are in constant development, therefore, according to the trends, the escape game will not fade into mediocrity and this business is here to stay for the next decade as well!
