From the Montreal Gazette, Saturday, Oct 22nd
Escape rooms are popping up all over city, offering a 3D gaming experience
It’s something you don’t get to do in everyday life that’s more exciting than video games or movies . … It’s more tactile.
From page A1 The fate of the world is on the line and the clock is ticking down. A zombie plague is wiping major cities off the map and you’re pinned down in the one lab that contains the cure.
Running out of time means certain doom for all mankind. But if you can find the hidden cure and make your way out of the lab in time, you will get bragging rights over everyone who couldn’t hack it — playing one of Montreal’s latest escape rooms, an entertainment trend taking the city by storm.
The general idea behind the experience is simple, even if escaping can be complex. Groups of two or more friends or colleagues in a team-building capacity get locked in a room and solve puzzles to find their way out, with a time limit of about an hour.
Locales offer different scenarios to keep up with demand, with an average price tag of about $25 per person to play. At Question Games for example, players choose between several “missions,” including the quest for the cure described above.
“It’s pretty immersive,” says Gabriel Lawson, 22, prior to attempting a Question Games mission. Originally from British Columbia, Lawson has visited rooms all over the continent.
“It’s something you don’t get to do in everyday life that’s more exciting than video games or movies . … It’s more tactile. You get to do stuff with your body instead of just staring at a screen.”
Not restricted to North America, escape rooms originated in Japan back in 2007. They made their way to Montreal two years ago, with Échappe-Toi opening in October 2014. The operation wasn’t alone for long, with Find the Key, A/ Maze, and Obsidem having started construction at around the same time.
“We probably now have 14 different companies in Montreal and the suburbs,” says Emmanuel de Gouvello, Échappe-Toi’s co-founder. “We’re still growing.”
De Gouvello is not just referencing the industry, but his company, too. Another Échappe-Toi has since opened in France, with a third to follow in Boston under a different name: Dasuru, which translates from Japanese to “escape.”
The new name in Boston was to be expected for language reasons, but that’s not all that is changing, according to de Gouvello. Some of the most successful escape rooms deliver different experiences depending on the market.
Échappe-Toi is even starting a franchising program next year. Such is the nature of the rapidly expanding industry, featuring few barriers to entry, with first-generation rooms requiring minimal startup capital. However, a lot of word of mouth is needed, not to mention motivation, especially at the start.
“The small weeks were 60 hours and the big weeks were probably 80-85,” says de Gouvello, who had been working as a business coach when Échappe-Toi opened. He eventually had to choose between the two.
That those 80-hour weeks haven’t stopped altogether is a testament to the success of ÉchappeToi and de Gouvello’s passion for his business, which he says fits him perfectly. It’s a recurring theme among founders, many of whom were inspired to start one of their own by playing elsewhere.
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“It’s sort of a dream to work in this environment. You get to watch people come and work together and have fun doing something you created,” says Question Games cofounder Matthew Diamond.
As the number of locations increases, each escape-room company naturally tries to raise the bar. However, they don’t necessarily see each other as threats to one another. True fans of the genre are going to try as many different escape rooms as they can. As long as the overall quality stays high, owners stay happy.
“Right now, you can open a small room with keys and locks, call it an escape game, and you’re going to have customers,” says Alexander Reverse, the CEO of A/Maze. “However, people who are playing for the first time won’t want to do it anymore, and they won’t know to go where the quality is much better.”
To help separate them from the pack, Obsidem has added adventure games to their offerings. There, actors may help to further immerse players in a larger-scale environment, where, for instance, the goal isn’t to escape, but extract a separate group of prisoners. In fact, it’s got to the point where “escape room” is almost a misnomer.
De Gouvello compares the games to movies. He has used actors since almost the start, for the most part sticking to the tried and true formula of pitting players locked in a room against the clock. To keep things fresh, puzzles are updated once a year. The actors help, too.
Whereas in a movie actors have lines, Échappe-Toi gives theirs more leeway to move stories along. Groups playing the game each enjoy different dynamics. As a result, their experience interacting with the environment, actors and all, can be just as unique.
“The actor is supposed to be able to improvise something to get to an outcome, which will translate into the players being able to progress,” says de Gouvello.
Échappe-Toi’s games still have only about a three per cent success rate, so progress doesn’t always mean escaping altogether. That’s not the point, though. It’s not just about getting out. It’s about playing out a real-life 3D computer game.
“It’s the next dimension, where you can touch things and take away experiences,” Reverse says.
It’s at the very least an escape away from reality, even if only for an hour. As far as ways to pass the time go, it beats an actual zombie apocalypse, hands down. And it’s only getting better and more realistic.
“As technology becomes more readily available … there’s not much you can’t do,” Diamond says. “And we keep wanting to add and enhance that experience for people when they play.”
So the next time you and your friends are locked in a room, you just might be the last line of defence against a zombie apocalypse, finding a cure to fight a deadly virus, or attempting a daring prison escape … the possibilities are endless.