METRO VANCOUVER -- You are blindfolded, disoriented and locked in a dark prison cell with nothing but a hard bunk and the skeletal remains of another prisoner. The person in the cell next to you is trapped with nothing but a bunk and a toilet. There seems to be no way out. Taped to the wall in your cell is a small scrap of paper with the words “sex offender.”

Was that the crime of the dead man you share the cell with, or could it be a clue left to help you escape?

“There are clues everywhere, and you have to work together solve them,” says Justin Tang, creator of Exit, Metro Vancouver’s first real life escape room game.

Exit opened last fall and offers four scenario rooms, in which groups of two to six participants are locked for 45 minutes and must solve a series of clues, riddles, cryptic codes and puzzles and even negotiate a laser maze in order to escape. Participants surrender their cellphones before entering, and have only two opportunities to ask for a “lifeline” hint from Tang.

The escape game phenomenon has exploded in Asia and the U.S. in the past year. Although high school students and computer nerds have played around for years with bringing the popular online single-player escape games to life, it is only in the last year that the trend has really taken. It started in Japan when fans of the online escape game Takagism began to create real life simulations as party events and in bars. Now it’s big business — in Beijing there are more than a hundred escape room adventures.

Tang, whose background is in creative event production, first played while visiting Hong Kong, and although he’s not an online gamer, he was hooked.

“I loved it,” he says.

Finding Exit, which is tucked away in a tiny strip mall in Richmond, is almost as challenging as getting out of one if its four rooms.

The most terrifying escape room is the mad scientist’s blood-spattered laboratory. When the door closes and the lights dim, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of horror. The air temperature is low, which adds to the chilling effect, and the clues are so well hidden and obtuse, panic can hit.

Tang has not had anyone freak out yet, but in the lobby there is a small display of broken locks, and a smashed skull prop. “People can get kind of crazy. Someone thought there was a clue inside the skull and broke it,” said Tang.

He has had to institute a $50 broken prop fee for participants who don’t have the patience to solve the challenging riddles and clues.

To give an idea of the difficulty, Tang says that only about one per cent of participants are successful.

Those teams are photographed, framed and displayed on the “wall of fame,” while the other 99 per cent get to hold a “Failed” sign and have their photos clipped to the tree of shame — another tradition that is true to the way the game is played in Asia.

Tang’s enterprise is relatively small, but each of the four scenario rooms is well-designed. In addition to the gory laboratory and the prison escape there is an ancient Egypt themed room filled with sand — complete with sarcophagus — as well as a lost ship room that gives the feel of peril at sea.

In each room there is also a hidden token, which if found, will garner a “random prize” from Tang. (He won’t say what it is.)

The real prize, however, is the possibility of becoming a one per centre, and a brief escape from reality.

The cost is about $91 for a group of four, says Tang. He also tweaks the clues and scenarios every few weeks to maintain the element of surprise for return players.

Tang says the escape game is popular with young adults and businesses that want to encourage teamwork, and he’s even had a few inquiries from schools.

dryan@vancouversun.com