The Opposite of an Escape Room?

One of the fads of the late twenty-teens in team exercises was the Escape Room. They sprung up everywhere. Used by families, groups of friends and as a company team building session alike, it became the “thing to do”. There was even a movie made set in one. And when the pandemic hit, Escape Room providers switched to a virtual delivery mechanism, mostly using Zoom and headcams of some kind on their own people. Both virtual and, once again, in-person escape rooms remain popular today.

For those not already familar with the concept, the idea is that a bunch of people are “trapped” in a room – sometimes in a series of interconnected rooms. To get out of it (or them), they must tackle a number of puzzles. Solving each of the puzzles provides them with something they need on the path to opening the room door. Without solving all of the puzzles presented, they cannot open the door. They cannot escape.

Quality and Variety

It can be great fun depending on the quality and variety of the puzzles. The quality is important because the puzzles need to be hard enough to present a real challenge yet not so hard that an average group couldn’t solve them. The variety is important because everyone is different. People like different things. If an escape room provider is not careful, they can provide a set of challenges that are interesting to some of the group but boring to others in the same group. That’s particularly important if the escape room is being used for team building. A good team building activity should allow all group members strengths to be highlighted and not just a select few.

Opposite

So what is the opposite of an escape room? A room with an open door and that requires no effort to get out of? Well, maybe. But we took a different take on that with our newest MiniScavenge scene. Set on Mars, the action takes place within a colony that includes two vital buildings. Each building is made up from airtight compartments. In other words, they are rooms. And we’ve created it so that the room doors won’t open until team challanges are passed. So that’s our take on the oppoosite of an escape room. Getting into rooms rather than getting out of them!

And the nature of MiniScavenge is that teams are collecting scavenger items and answwering treasure hunt clues that can only be completed by accessing all of the rooms. What items are they collecting in our Martian Colony? Well, aliens of course! Cuddly, cute looking ones. None of which are ever likely to pop out of the colonists’ chests!

A First

This is our first MinScavenge scene set, in part at least, indoors. Our other scenes are mostly set in the great outdoors, with the occasional building that can be entered. With Martian Colony, there is some some outdoors action but the majority of it happens within the two buildings. Each building has multiple levels within it, so it is still very much a varied scene. And the team puzzles are varied too, of course. Some of them can be solved by just one person, but many require coordinated team collaboration. Just like happens in real work life.

And just like in all of other scenes, there is a team leaderboard to add that special element of competition. The team that finishes at the top will not be there by chance. They will have proven themselves to be the best team for sure.

Demonstrating our Escape Room Variation

If our newest scene is something you’d like to have a look at, you can book a demonstration here. We will gladly transport you to Mars and show you around the colony. And maybe introduce you to the occasional cute alien too!