Lock yourself inside a room and escape your own reality

Inspired by computer games, a growing trend of escape rooms is rising. A live-action quest that perfectly suits millennials leisure time in this digital world in which urban tourism dominates.
 By Yemen Al Fadel and Stephanie Rosado

            As the players walk into a room with no idea of what is yet to come, the game master instructs its players to stay calm and emerge their minds into the mindset of someone who is trying to escape in order to survive. The clock is set for 60 minutes, and the countdown begins. Time knows no mercy and even though the clock seems to get slow at times, it continues ticking no matter what.  The players get anxious, scared and quite excited, “there is nothing worse than looking at the clock when you know you are stuck in a puzzle,” said Sebastian Vandborg, a player who had somewhat experience in solving escape rooms.

Budapest and escape rooms

In the city of Budapest, there is more than 80 escape rooms, all operated by more than 50 different companies such as Locked Room, Portal Quest, Neverland, PaniQ-Room, E-Exit among others. Each room has its own story, theme, and set of rules.

For the most part, escape rooms have become a big phenomenon in Budapest given its ruin pubs, and abandoned buildings.

 Hungarians have the unique talent of “turning shitty things into something that is actually saleable,” said Tünde Máté the general manager of E-exit.

Máté explained how Budapest is the place with all the weird places and unique buildings, however; they are still colorful, fun and creative so this city is built on creative ideas.

According to Business Insider people paying to be locked up in a room and trying to escape is one of the top attractions for tourists.

“Budapest is one of the main entertainment centers in Europe” said Csenge Kesmarky the

owner of an escape room called Neverland.

Kesmarky began his journey with escape rooms five years ago when he opened his first establishment in San Jose, in California. He explained that the business is not as astonishing as it is in Budapest.

Most of the games cost between 5,724 Forints, ($20 USD) and 12,000 Forints ($51 USD) depending on the size of the group.

Nevertheless, escape rooms in Budapest are more affordable then in other countries, according to Máté, one reason people like to come to Budapest and do these activities is, “because we have loads of them and they are cheaper than in western Europe or in the USA.”

These puzzle rooms have rejuvenated Budapest by giving light to neglected buildings, which used to be known as the ugly side of Budapest has now potential to become the maze of an everlasting set of rooms dedicated to challenge the minds of people worldwide according to Independent.

“As tourist, we look for something cheap and fun,” said Benjamin Lau, a tourist from Hong Kong that has been doing escape rooms for nearly five years.

“One of the things I always look for when I travel; is escape rooms,” said Lau, “this is my way of escaping my reality by pushing my limits.”

It becomes tricky for these companies to offer each player a unique experience, given that the competition gets higher and higher each year with the upgrowing market of people opening escape rooms from the first generation rooms to the latest fourth-generation rooms.

These types of activities not only entertain people, more than challenging people to push their limits, it also creates team building and better communication skills.

“A lot of people come specifically to do escape rooms,” said Máté. “They come in on a Monday and stay for a week just doing different types of escape rooms every day. By the end of the week, they have solved over 20 rooms.” 

Origin of Escape Rooms

It all began in 2011 when Attila Gyurkovics opened the first escape room in Europe called “Parapark” he explained in an interview with Atlas Obscura, that his inspiration came from a computer game. At the moment he had no idea that this game would cause such an epidemic that would change the Budapest experience for tourists all over the world.

One of the reasons behind Gyurkovics’s inspiration was  a mental state called “Flow” in which people tend to move into a state of hyper-concentration and creativity.

ParaPark was the beginning of a whole new era of touristic activities, according to Budapest Business Journal, most owners are not businesspeople, instead they are entrepreneurs who know how to invest the least and get the most out of the money.

 “Hungarians are very particular with their creations,” said Ildi Gratzer a game master who has been working for Mindcrime for two years.

Nevertheless, Hungarians have some history of puzzle solving with the invention of Rubik’s Cube in 1974 by a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, Ernö Rubik.

Not to mention, the “escape” factor with Harry Houdini one of the most famous illusionists in the world. He was a stunt performer and was known for his sensational escape acts.

 “When we create escape rooms, we try to make them unusual,” said Gratzer, “it is not about how difficult it is but rather how creative we are with the details of our creation.”

Escape rooms have been around for nearly a decade in Europe, most of the escape rooms have the same safety measurements, however; early in this year, there was an incident in Poland in which five teenagers died in a fire while doing an escape room.

 “The Poland incident was in someone’s garage, so it was in a building that was not equipped for an escape room, it was a homemade thing,” said Kesmarky.

After this incident, Poland closed 13 escape rooms and security measurements have increased, making escape rooms better equipped for their players.

The escaping challenges

With all the escape rooms opening up, the best way to excel from the other companies is to make the themes unique and breakthrough the typical locks and clues.

There are several types of themes, which include the panic experience of horror sounds, people and chasing you. Others are based on films, that are more fantasy based. Such as Alice in Wonderland, Wizards, spaceships. They also created a set of escape rooms that are more about a different culture, such as E-exits “Santa Muerte” which is Mexican based.

Nevertheless, the puzzles are categorized into mental and physical approaches, the rooms have a set of clues hidden all over. The first room tends to be smaller than the other rooms, this makes the players feel apprehensive and troubled which activates their survival instincts in their brains. According to Gratzer having a soundtrack makes their minds associate sounds with memories and this creates a diversion which makes it harder for them to solve the current task.

The challenge is explained by the game master at the beginning of the game, they explain what needs to be found and then lock the door before they leave

Given the recent events in Poland, most escape rooms tend to leave the entry door open in order for players to feel like they can get out at any point of their journey.

“The name gives it away, you need to escape the room,” said Lau, “You need to look for clues and find a set of numbers, a key, or a sensor that will allow you to get out before the clock hits zero.”

Escaping the real

There are some psychological aspects that occur within people while playing in an escape room. People tend to encounter the concept of flow, identified by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which is when they enter a mental state of creativity and hyper-concentration.

“Have you heard about the flow theory?” Attila Gyurkovics, the creator of the first escape room in Budapest in 2011 asked. “You lose yourself,” he said. “You become completely absorbed by the game.” 

Therefore, one of the characteristics of escape rooms is a disconnection from the real world.

When asked about the real purpose of escape rooms, Tünde Máté, the General manager of the escape room e-exit in Budapest said: “we like to think about escape rooms as adult playgrounds, where you can just let your inner child out in which you don’t think about work or any other issues” Mate continued, “ just to get out of the real world for an hour”.

What accelerates the feeling of excitement and happiness is the “Fast-thinking” used to solve puzzles in an escape room. “One of the things that we know from a lot of research over the last 10 or 12 years is that the faster you’re thinking, the better you feel,” says Art Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas At Austin. Moreover, it is a fact that fast-thinking helps with the release of dopamine – a feel-good and happy hormone. The tiny releases of dopamine add up to affect people’s moods by creating a positive mindset.

It is not only the satisfaction of the fast-thinking that drives people to spend their time and money on being locked in a room and having to escape it. Once the psychological immersion occurs or in other words, the players enter the mental state of “flow”, people tend to behave differently.   According to Kevin Swartout, a social psychologist and assistant professor at Georgia State University, people throw themselves in an exciting situation in which they will be more confident and more willing to express their opinions. “I think people in an escape room, when they know that there is a correct answer and the tasks are pretty specific, if they feel like they’re good at those tasks like maybe it’s a spatial reasoning type task or solving an anagram, they might feel more confident and be more willing to speak up, whereas they wouldn’t in other circumstances,” explains Swartout.

All of the above factors help people to have fun and forget their reality is their emotions, the tension and the adrenaline built within people. It is due to these feelings that people might get addicted to escape rooms. “I am pretty much addicted to them, I absolutely adore doing various different escape rooms”, said Lucy Hanley, an escape room enthusiast, “For me, the best part is the thrill of getting out.”

Tourist appeal

Hungarian escape rooms are succeeding at luring tourists from all over the world. According to TripAdvisor, despite the visually stunning places that Budapest acquires, what travelers most want to do in Budapest is to experience escape rooms.

Escape rooms are more appealing to tourists in Budapest than in any other European country.

“One reason is that we had loads of them we have more than 70 companies and each company has multiple rooms, and they are cheaper than in western Europe or in the USA” said Mate “Budapest is just the place to play escape rooms.”

Most of the millennials are looking for a unique experience to enjoy their time. According to the tick-tock escape room company, 78% of millennials would rather spend money on a desirable experience over a material possession. In addition, over 70% said their best memories are from an event or live experience. Therefore, millennials prefer collecting memories over items.

“they’re going for like some kind of teamwork exercise,” said Henrik Ravn, a game designer, and general manager of “escapist” an escape room located in Aarhus, Denmark, “they mostly come for the experience, to have fun together, since this kind of game brings friends and colleagues together.”

The company of people and the communication that happens between them is the main factor that drives a person to choose to go to an escape room rather than playing a video game online.

Furthermore, in Budapest people are more likely to experience flow once in an escape room. This is because of Budapest’s high-quality escape games in which creativity and design thrive.

“I felt like I was completely immersed and engaged with the challenge,” said Tony Yu, a player that experienced an escape game for the first time with his friends. “It can be frustrating but overall it is a good feeling” continued Yu.

According to Arsenio Villar Lama, a professor expert in urbanization and tourism: tourists attraction became significant and a key factor for escape room companies. The more diversified rooms there are the better is for tourist attraction. This tourist appeal is very positive for the city as it strengthens the economy and employment and diversifies tourism areas.

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Education through escape rooms

In addition, escape rooms can be beneficial in an educational way.

According to Scott Nicholson, a professor of game design and development at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, who has been studying the evolution of escape rooms since 2014: an escape room places the player into the game, reducing the barriers between the player and the experience, therefore making it more effective education wise, he stated on the “Breakout Escape Rooms and Their Impact on How We Think” blog.

These games are creative problem-solving that develop some of people’s skills such as critical thinking.

“It is more of a mental challenge normally than anything physical” said Mathew Hanley, another escape room enthusiast.

Some exercises can be done with kids such as making them solve puzzles or find clues with an educational twist. For instance, it could be an escape room themed on a specific topic that the students want to be educated on. However, the educational experience and the game experience must be balanced for the player not to lose interest and to be kept motivated to finish the game.

A team building activity

Good communication inside an escape room is the main factor that makes the people achieve their goal which is to solve the puzzles and escape the room. The people inside the room will perform under stress and unfamiliar situations where there will be built of tension and excitement. Some of the escape rooms do not allow the use of electronics which makes people engage on a personal level. Therefore, this game might lead to deepening relationships between families or friends.

“it is an adventure and it can be drawn upon in the future as a positive memory that helps define the group as "best friends" or "a happy family" that laughs and solves problems or puzzles together” said Dr. Melissa A. Milki a sociologist specialized in the developing of family bonds and relationships.

However, some people may say that “escape rooms help families to build healthy relationships”, others do not agree.

“I doubt there is clear evidence that escape rooms can actually, build healthy relationships,” said
Dr. Milki, “Escape Rooms probably do not negatively affect families, but probably not positively either” explained Dr. Milki.

Therefore, it is true that people get to know more about each other and may have a more deepening relationship after experiencing an escape game. But it is not necessary that it results in healthy relationships between families or friends. It is merely a memory to remember in the future.

The fear of being trapped

In 2012, Viktor Oszvald opened a theme called claustrophilia an escape room with a theme inspired by horror films. There is a lot of comparison between this type of escape rooms and haunted houses. For example, both of the activities unleash the “flow” theory in which the players or visitors feel the rush of adrenaline by running away from something that scares them.

Escape rooms are active, while haunted houses are passive, but given recent themes that are dedicated to scaring its players the feeling of distress goes side to side.

“I have only done one escape room that was somewhat scary”, said Matthew Hanley an escape room enthusiast that has been to several escapes rooms in Europe. “I think the biggest thrill people get from getting chased in a haunted house or getting scared in an escape room is the fear of the unknown.”

One of the biggest concerns from the public is that escape rooms could be dangerous if there is someone who is constantly pretending to kill you, however; according to Henrik Ravn, a game designer and general manager of an escapist, the only way this could be dangerous is if someone has a heart condition prior to doing this activity.

“There have not been any cases of heart attacks, most are panic attacks or claustrophobia but I think the feeling can be compared to watching horror films, ” said Ravn, “Escape rooms are about solving puzzles, not about fearing for your life.”

Nevertheless, there are some cases of panic attacks, and claustrophobia while doing these games.

“I hated the whole experience,” said Andy Kwok after having an anxiety attack while doing one of the escape rooms. “I was in the first room, which was smaller than average. There was three of us in this tiny space and the next thing I remember was getting out trying to get some air.”

He explained that what scared him was the sounds that the room had, such as chains, the room barely had any lights and his friends were trying to scare him.

“I knew I had no business doing this activity, but my friends told me to challenge myself.”

Four generations of escape rooms

According to Kesmarky, it started with the first generation of escape rooms, in which people have to find keys and open locks.

Most of these games have riddles and clues that guide you into a path of numeric combinations that allow you to open a door into the next room. 

The second generation involves more electrical games inside the rooms, these rooms tend to have sensors and as you walk into the hidden traps you may find yourself trapped in a hidden bookshelf hiding spot.

 The third generation is no added key or lock. It is just electrically operated, with a lot of sensors and cables that open the doors for the players.

The fourth generation allows people to choose the difficulty level and with one click they are able to modify the entire game. This new generation will involve virtual reality, which will allow players to see things that are not in the room yet will continue to have the luxury of opening doors and walking through several pathways that guide them to the next level.

“In 10 years escape rooms have changed so much,” said Kesmarky.

The sets, equipment, and props used are elevated from generation to another. More technology and electronics are being implemented constantly into the escape rooms systems. Escape rooms will continue evolving and will eventually start with the latest digital concept: Virtual reality.

“The future of escape rooms are going in the direction of high technological level” said Kesmarky “we are taking the next step by preparing for a virtual reality game.”