We’ve been hard at work polishing our portable escape room kit and have come up with a few tips for anyone trying to do the same thing.

#1: Febreze and ventilation

You want as much air flow as possible. When you have multiple people moving energetically in a small space, even the nicer-smelling ones will start to give off the aroma of human body. Air flow is your friend. Febreze is also your friend.

#2: Robust furniture

You don’t want to set up with grandma’s fine porcelain on display over the mantelpiece. Players will pick up and turn over and knock anything and everything they can while looking for clues. I’ve seen Ikea chairs completely dismantled. The corollary is that furniture and light fixtures that look like they can be easily taken apart become red herrings for the players, and a room full of red herrings becomes frustrating.

#3: Parallel threads should outnumber players by at least 1

A linear game has clue 1 lead to clue 2, which leads to clue 3, etc.

A parallel game has clues A, B, and C ready at the start, which lead to clues A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, etc.

A single player can play a completely linear game but it’s more satisfying when there is at least one other avenue available for the times when the current puzzle is too frustrating. A group of people can also play a linear game, and more linear games force more collaboration. However, ‘collaboration’ sometimes means the bossiest one of the group takes over the decision-making, so having at least one open puzzle for each player means everyone can try to solve something.

So a game designed for 5 players should have at least 6 open puzzles/clue hunts at any stage (other than the very end, which tends to close off)

#4 Players are forgiving of anachronisms

It’s easy to obsess over theme (we’ve tried pirate, 1920s gangster, space, and ‘egyptologist’ (aka Indiana Jones)) but what matters are the puzzles and if a player needs a UV flashlight to see the hidden hieroglyph, they won’t complain

#5 No food. No beverages

You can’t force people to not have water with them, but your set-pieces need to endure and food stains are the last thing you need to worry about. So if you can, schedule the game before or after snack-time, not during.

#6 Keep puzzles as self-contained as possible

Minimize inventory. Small pieces get lost (or stolen) so use locks with combinations rather than keys. There is a type of combo lock that uses letters instead of numbers and that lends itself well to anagram puzzles.

#7 Have a timer

This may be obvious, but some players will linger unless forced to keep moving. You can build this in to the narrative (e.g. the kidnappers will cut off her finger if you don’t deliver the package within an hour) or just have a simple wind-up kitchen timer. People understand that games have time limits but you need to be explicit about this.

#8 Have a hint system

Players want to win, and most would rather win with help than lose without help. The actual help can take many forms, from a straightforward book of answers left in the room, or a fixed number of ‘calls to the oracle’, but there needs to be some option for when a puzzle is too difficult for the players.

#9 Actual escape does not have to be the goal

The most practical place to set up may be a room with doors that need to stay open, or outside. So having the final objective be to open a locked door won’t always work. Easier and more transportable is having the final objective be something like a word written on a slip of paper in the final locked box.

A popular one for us was a small music box locked in a box. Clues referred to the tune played by the box, but only when it was found could players hear it and identify it. That was a satisfying conclusion.

Have fun designing and playing escape rooms. Please feel free to contact me at matt@matchstick.com with questions.