Crafting Worlds Around Puzzles

Building an escape room can be just about as simple or complex as you want to make it. If you want to find some puzzles online, then scatter the requisite props and locks around a room, you can do that. It won’t be a very good escape room, but it qualifies, and in some small markets that might be enough to maintain a business. People like escape rooms, and if your only option is “just okay” you’ll probably end up going with friends at least once. 

But in a market like Manhattan, “just okay” is not good enough to sustain an entertainment business. After all, there are many who would consider NYC to be one of the entertainment capitols of the world. One of the places where you can reliable find the best-of-the-best in just about any field. Naturally, this same logic applies to the escape rooms you’ll find here in NYC. 

Each escape game company here in New York City has their own way of differentiating themselves from the broader market. Some of them focus largely on sets, impressing you with style, even if substance sometimes falls between the cracks just a bit. Others are a puzzlers delight, challenging you at every turn with new twists in logic and deduction. Some place a greater focus on technology and gadgets. Things that move on their own, wireless solutions that communicate when players have solved a puzzle in order to unlock a door, without the players ever seeing or knowing how exactly the whole things works. 

At Clue Chase we’re focused on puzzles, and the story players tell themselves while solving puzzles. The environment must serve the story and gameplay, too much detail and the set becomes a source of annoying distractions, not enough and it can become hard for players to immerse themselves in the world you’ve created for them. 

We approach our games in the order of setting – puzzles – story. First we decide on a theme or setting that gets us all excited. What escape room would we want to play? How can we make this set? Can we actually pull this off? Once we’ve settled on that, we enter into the puzzle design phase. This can last a long time, sometimes 8-12 months. We prototype puzzle concepts, and ask ourselves “Why would someone in this setting be doing this particular action?” For example: solving a sudoku puzzle in an Egyptian tomb doesn’t make thematic sense. Sure, the puzzle might be fine, but you would never find something even remotely like that in an ancient tomb. It does not make sense within the reality that is being established by the set. However, a logic puzzle focused on Hieroglyphics makes sense within the reality of the game, and will be more interesting experience for players, as they’re unlikely to have much experience doing anything at all with ancient glyphs.   

This allows us to build escape rooms where the gameplay, set design and story all feed into each other. Every action the players need to undertake makes sense within the world, and has a result that pushes the story ahead. For example, fixing a bundle of wiring in the lair of a super villain in order to access their CCTV system so that you can track their most recent activity. The wires and the tracking via CCTV are both puzzles – but they also make complete sense within the context of the story the game is telling. 

Not only do we focus on story in our escape rooms, but we also focus on the story outside the rooms too. Our lobbies and interior spaces are all decorated to theme, and our staff are in-character as white labcoat wearing time-travel scientists. This helps further establish the world of the games for players, before they’ve even set foot in an escape room. We’ve all been in drab boring escape room company lobbies, and we’ve all seen the boilerplate “Plz don’t break things” intros. Why not have some fun with it, and turn what could otherwise be a dull and repetitive experience into something fun and unique, both for the players and our staff.

We’ve taken the same approach for our online games. The theme informs the puzzles, the puzzles in turn inform the story, and it all loops in together. Ideally creating a compelling and immersive gameplay experience.

We’ll be back with more updates and stories to share soon. So stay posted! 

We’re looking forward to re-opening and seeing you all for a game shortly. 

Until then,

~ Clue Chase