Brett O'Donnell (left) and Henry Jones (right) have created Crate Escape, a new game inside a shipping container in Christchurch's central city.

A barren central Christchurch corner is now home to a new attraction designed to keep people guessing, for a little while at least.

A nondescript shipping container on the corner of Armagh and Manchester Streets houses the game Crate Escape, based on the "escape room" concept popular around the world.

Up to six people will have one hour to work together to solve puzzles before they can escape the container.

IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ Henry Jones (pictured) tests one of the puzzles he created with Brett O'Donnell for Crate Escape - a game requiring up to six people to solve puzzles and escape from a container in less than one hour.

Christchurch software developer Brett O'Donnell along with mates Henry Jones and Logan McMillan have spent six months and about $25,000 developing the game in their spare time.

﻿Jones said developing the puzzles had been challenging because they could not be too difficult or too easy.

The storyline, set in three eras including 1980s New York, 1960s New Zealand and 1940s London, involves a mischievous time traveller who must be brought to justice.

O'Donnell envisaged Crate Escape was something people could do in their lunch break, or before dinner out with a group of friends. He was also hoping to capture the team-building corporate market.

There are 3000 escape rooms in cities around the world. They were created off the back of a Japanese computer game, where people had to solve puzzles to get out of spaces, but someone decided to create a real life version and the craze has taken off.

Crate Escape is the second escape room in Christchurch, but O'Donnell believed there was demand for two. Once people have solved the puzzles, they would probably not go through again, which was why O'Donnell and his team were already developing the next story.

Once the original story had been in place for a few months they would move it to another city and replace it with a new storyline and puzzles.

Crate Escape would open next week and people could book through the website. A session costs between $20 and $30 per person depending on group size.