As home escape rooms and DIY escape rooms are more popular nowsaday, we think that it is a good idea to create a list of self-made puzzles for home game designers. These puzzles should be easy and cheap to made, yet they are cool to play with.

Luggage lock



You set up a 3 digit code. Hide the luggage somewhere in the house. This can be done in 1 minute. Unlock pattern of phone’s lock screen



Require players to draw something like this to unlock your phone. Use your phone’s home screen to provide players with information upon successful unlock.

A good thing with phone’s lock screen is that if they do trial and error, it will have penalty. Invisible ink

Write it on a mirror or paper. Can only be revealed when player exhales on mirror use steam (boil water) on the paper

Stop working clock

Make use of a stop working wall clock in the house (you can simply remove the battery). Use the time as the passcode. Usually players do not notice this until they read the information.

Mailbox key

Provide players with a bunch of keys, including the mailbox key. Players need to know that they have to use mailbox key and not other. TV screen with Chromecast

This is the one I like. Use Chromecast to cast a background photo (contain secret info) into your TV screen and turn off the screen. Remove the batteries from the remote control.

During the game, players will obtain the batteries. They will have to figure out what to do with batteries. They will check and find out the remote control is empty and thus know what to do. Barcodes



You can use BuildXcape platform to design games with barcodes. Simple scan a few objects to save the barcodes. Then choose secret information to be kept insde that barcode (text, photos, etc.). Later on during the game players need to scan the correct barcodes to get the secret information.

The good thing with this puzzle is that you can use many objects in the house to contain secret information. Since they are house’s objects, they are indifferent to others and thus players do not notice (good way for deception) Jigsaw puzzle

Buy a cheap jigsaw puzzle and draw something on the back before breaking into piece. Players need to assemble the jigsaw puzzle and then flip over to see what is written on the back

The list is not a comprehensive one, but it makes use of what you have at home. In addition to this blog post, you can also refer to this website for other puzzles that you can design at home as well. You are welcome to contribute your thought via the comment section below.