Virtual Vs. In-Store Escape Games

Hello dear reader, and welcome to another Clue Chase update. We’re getting ready to re-open our in-store experiences, and since we’re now offering a wider variety of escape room products, we figured it would be wise to provide some clarification for anyone who desires it. 

In-Store Escape Rooms

Our in-store games were our original escape room product. These games take place in our 32nd street location, and feature elaborate sets, custom coding/electronic elements, and original puzzles all hand-crafted by our in-house team of expert escape room designers. We’ve been open in NYC for almost seven years now, across multiple locations. We’ve had quite a bit of time to hone our craft, and we think the reviews our customers have left over the years for our escape rooms speak for themselves. When you play one of our in-store games you will be met by one of our staff, who will be in character as a time traveling scientist for the duration of your game. We find this helps more rapidly establish a sense of fun, and play, in both our staff and a guests, which is awesome, because at the end of the day we’re all just here to play some games with our friends and family. 

Virtual Escape Rooms

 Think of our virtual escape games as akin to Myst, or any other old-school adventure puzzle game. You and your team will be able to play the game entirely in your browser, and you can start and stop and save the game as you see fit. There is not time limit, you may take as long as you need in order to complete the adventure. Each game has a unique story and setting, and custom video and interactive HTML puzzles to ensure players stay engaged. Each puzzle has been designed from the ground-up by the same folks who make all of our in-person rooms, and each of our virtual games offers a unique set of challenges. We aren’t repeating or re-using any puzzles from our other games. Our currently available virtual escape rooms are “Mothership Over Manhattan” and “The Scarab’s Curse” . We have a third virtual game coming out very soon, and we’re really excited for you to all get the chance to play it. It’s got one of the stranger stories we’ve told, and we think it’s pretty “magical”. 

But you’ll get more information about that in the coming weeks. 

Our virtual games are designed for teams of up to six players, and they run $20 per team. (That’s under $4 per player on a six person team). They can be played in any standard web browser, but we recommend chrome. We do not recommend the game for mobile devices such as phones or tablets. It is theoretically possible to play on those, everything should load, but items are not scaled for mobile users and the mobile experience will be subpar. Stick to desktops or laptops. 

The games are family friendly and appropriate for all ages, there is no thematic content that would increase the ratings above PG, were games rated like movies. For an additional fee we can provide one of our staff as a live game runner for the duration of your game. They’ll serve as a host, clue master and technical support (should it be needed) for the duration of your game. We recommend this package for larger groups looking to split up into multiple teams (such as coworkers) or for children’s birthdays. Anywhere that extra human element would be appreciated and helpful. Otherwise the built-in hint system should allow most players to complete the games entirely on their own.

Re-opening

We’re looking to get our retail location back up and running as early as June 1st, but at this time that is not a set date. We’ll be sending out an email to our subscribers when we do officially re-open for games. We can’t wait to share more adventures with you all!

Here’s to escape games and the people that play them,

~Clue Chase