Room Escape Divas - Inverse Genius: Recent Episodes
Room Escape Divas
Hello, friends. We have a somewhat sad announcement to make. This week will mark the final episode of the REDivas podcast. You may have noticed Mike, Ruby, and Errol haven’t been around the last year, as their lives have gotten busy. Although I have continued in the meantime and could continue the podcast alone, my own life has been getting busier and I felt it was time to finally retire it.
And so for one last episode, we’ve gotten the old gang back together and returned to our very chaotic origins! Errol trolls everyone, everyone clips their audio at least three times, we talk about a couple of of our favourite moments, what we are doing right now, and some of our plans for the future (I’m certainly not done with podcasts yet!)
Thank you so much to everyone who has listened, whether you have been with us since the beginning or are just joining now. Thanks to all of our guests through the years for providing insight and expertise to this ever growing industry. This podcast has lead to us meeting so many amazing people and do some amazing trips and projects. And of course thanks to Inverse Genius for hosting us, supporting us, and giving us some great tips along the way. Finally, I personally want to thank Mike, Ruby, and Errol for being such fantastic cohosts and friends (I tried to thank them in the podcast, but Errol’s trolling gets in the way).
We will absolutely still be active in the community. Don’t worry, we have no intention of giving up escape rooms and puzzles any time soon! Episodes will still be available for download. And who knows. We might do an awful escape or do a crazy trip and just feel the need to record our reactions. Until that happens, though, here are some links of where you can find everyone and some other podcasts definitely worth your time. See you around the community!
Manda:
Twitter handle: mandawhitney
Blog: mandawhitney.com
Twitch: Manpans (Monday nights I stream mystery games)
Errol- He is everyone. Shout and he will likely pop up.
Mike
Twitter handle: MikeYuan82
Other Podcasts:
Reality Escape Pod: https://roomescapeartist.com/reality-escape-pod/
Escape This Podcast: https://www.escapethispodcast.com/
Infinite Escape Podcast: https://www.theinfiniteescaperoom.com/
This week I am joined once again by the esteemed Doctor Scott Nicholson to talk about his latest project with mEducation Alliance, EscapeIF! It’s a storytelling game system designed to create games for low resource classrooms. See the links below to find out more and try some out in your own classrooms!
EscapeIF: http://escapeif.com
mEducation Alliance: https://meducationalliance.org/
Global Proficiency Framework: https://www.edu-links.org/resources/global-proficiency-framework-reading-and-mathematics
EscapeIF Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/escapeif
Unlocking the Potential of Puzzle-based Learning book: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/unlocking-the-potential-of-puzzle-based-learning/book271877
This week I discuss The Book of Dreams, an anthology puzzle book, headed up by Lee Ballan and including entries from an all star puzzle design team! As of this posting, you can still support their Indiegogo campaign, with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders! Don’t miss your chance to get a great puzzle book and support doctors around the world!
This week we get nostalgic about text adventures with Chris Ainsley, creator of Adventuron and a guest star appearance from Errol! If you are interested in creating text adventures, check out Adventuron’s site which also has info on an upcoming game jam!
This week I am joined by Mike “Auggie” Augustine to discuss the world of ciphers and many tangents on treasure hunts and ARGs! Much fun ensues.
This week I am joined by Laura E Hall! We discuss her book, Planning Your Escape, which both teaches the history of escape rooms (going alllllll the way back), and everything you need to know to become the ultimate enthusiast!
We also go on this podcast’s most epic tangent yet. There is mystery! There is intrigue! There is even romance!
You can find info about Laura, including her book, at her website.
This week I am joined by the powerhouse that is The Wild Optimists! Ariel Rubin and Juliana Moreno Patel discuss their experience designing Time Drifters, a take home escape that can be played in separate households! Also discussed is their murder mystery series, Crimes & Capers, as well as tangents on the murder mystery genre, beta testing during COVID, and many…many 90’s references.
I am joined this week by the brilliant David Spira and Peih Gee Law of Reality Escape Podcast to reflect on 2021 and go down as many tangents as possible. Hope your 2022 is full of escaping fun so far!
Check out Reality Escape Pod through Room Escape Artist’s site! https://roomescapeartist.com/reality-escape-pod/
For the last episode of 2021, I am joined by Chris Waters, the creator of Constructed Adventures! We talk about his epic adventure creating business, the importance of community, and just how much metaphorical duck tape it takes to create a seemingly perfect experience.
If you are curious about his experiences, do check out his website at https://www.constructedadventures.com/
How can props help enhance an experience? What stories can they tell? And how awesome are animatronics? This week Haley Moore shares her passion for prop making! If you’d like to see some of the other amazing creations she has been involved in, check out her website at toenolla.com!
This week I am joined by Leanne Yong and Aaron Hooper of Next Level Escapes to discuss our non-escape room inspirations when creating designs! There are…many tangents in this one.
Apologies for the delay!
This week I talk with Ruud Kool of Diorama Games! We talk about the experience of translating and redesigning his first game, The Vandermist Dossier (originally the Boekanier Dossier), and how the design process is never truly done. This game is currently on Kickstarter, so don’t miss your chance to get your copy!
DISCLAIMER: I was involved with some of the narrative development of this game.
Visit Kickstarter to back this project.
Visit Diorama Games to see their other projects!
This week Manda is joined by James Cobalt to discuss the wonders of VR and their impact on puzzle games and escape rooms. Manda might talk about Beatsaber too much.
Follow James to keep up to date about his new escape room facility (yet another reason to go to RECON next year).
Manda is back and kicking off the REDiva season with the ever so talented Rita Orlov to talk about nonlinear game design and her upcoming Kickstarter for her latest project: Light in the Mist.
Visit postcurious.com to keep up to date on the Kickstarter campaign and to check out some awesome content!
Manpans and Errol talk to Leah Weitholter, a fraud investigator who made an escape room inspired game to help teach forensic accounting and fraud investigation!
Errol has a difficult time containing himself with this shorter podcast. Find out about her work, her podcast, and the game at https://www.workmanforensics.com/.
Sorry, it’s been a long time since the last update! Manda and Errol are joined by Lee-Fay and rant about a particular immersive adventure. Totally living up to their diva nature.
Manda, Ruby, Mike, and Errol are back together! At least while the baby sleeps. We talk about how escape rooms can help prepare for parenting, horror rooms, and all the tangents in between!
In this designer spotlight, we only have Errol because he left it until the last minute and no one else could make the time he booked! However he has a grand time chatting to Logan Giannini of The Enigma Emporium about design! They cover board games, puzzle games, escape room games, and running kickstarters!
We also learn all this new stuff about Logan! It was so exciting!
Manpans and Errol talk with professional puzzle designer Matthew Stein about empathy-driven puzzles and puzzle design in general. Huzzah! This is a pretty deep talk!
Matthew Stein (he/him) is a San Francisco-based puzzle designer, fiddler, composer, letterboxer, printmaker, origamist, and software engineer. With his company Enigmida, Matthew creates intricate puzzle hunts, alternate reality games, and puzzle-driven immersive experiences which aim to bring wonder to the mundane. To learn more, follow @enigmida on Instagram and subscribe to his newsletter.
Manda and Errol have a wonderful chat with Michelle and Yacine of Society of Curiosities! Listen in as they tell us about pivoting from an Escape Room business to an online mail-order puzzle game company!
And there are chickens.
Manpans and Errol talk to Tommy Honton! Originally, it was going to focus on Stash House and his creations but then we started talking about art! So now that's the title!
The Divas interview Brian Corbitt, who designed Miss Jezebel of 60out Escape Rooms. Miss Jezebel is rated as one of the top three online escape rooms by the 2020 TERPECAs, for good reason, and in this video, we get behind the scenes with its creator!
Also, we will endeavour to make all the videos as audio only as well, so it loads up into your podcast feed. Sorry about that!
The Divas chat with Lisa and David Spira about 2020 in escape rooms, and what's in store for Room Escape Artist in 2021!
This was recorded in front of a live audience! Huzzah! And you will be able to hear some of those people near the end as we all question REA about the escape room industry. So it’s unedited and given to you raw!
Also, there are minor spoilers in this podcast for Errol’s game Present Quest, so if you intend on playing it, you should do so first!
One last thing, even though we mentioned video, it didn’t record as we wanted, so this podcast is audio only. Here, however, is a wonderful screenshot of REA’s webpage when you search for eggs:
Now, before you listen to our podcast, you should check out The Infinite Escape Room Podcast which we reference all through the episode! We have a wonderful time with Mike and Ben.
Escape the Cat Cafe, featuring the Room Escape Divas
Then, come and listen to our podcast! Mike and Ruby and their baby join us as well! Huzzah for a full complement of hosts! And Mike and Ben of TIER are brilliant! ^_^
At the moment, we do not have a youtube video ready, but one is recorded, so if you are interested, you can come back later to see them all in their glory!
In today's episode, we talk about escape games you can play on your phone with Tammy Dorn and Andrew Ow. They both work at the indie-game company Haiku Games and discuss their design philosphy when creating escape rooms for the mobile phone.
Manpans and Errol have a fun chat with Nathan Glover of Agent November! We go into all sorts of behind the scenes details and discuss the design of games for the online escape room audience.
And if you are interested in the mentioned event at the end of the video, check out Mystery at the Museum with Steve Backshall!
In our 126th episode, Manpans and Errol have a fun time chatting to the founder of DASH, Debbie Goldstein! Listen in to learn all the secrets of starting a puzzle hunt that occurs in multiple cities!
Hello! We released two videos this week! Our latest designer spotlight is with Scarlet Envelope, and we chat to Lisa Levina & Anna Lysova about their subscription take home puzzle game!
We had a lot of fun with Lisa and Anna, because they’re hilarious!
Learn also about Clue Cards, their holiday themed Postcard and Greeting card series which has reached it’s funding goal on Kickstarter!
Allo, enthusiasts! Here’s our second video as we focus on designers.
Today, we have Jonathan Chaffer who has create an escape room in only 18 cards with Grand Gamers Guild. The game is called The Kringle Caper and is only available on the Grand Gamers Guild website.
Listen in as we talk to Jonathan and Marc Specter (of Grand Gamers Guild) about the challenges of making an escape room card game with only a few cards.
Manda and Errol are joined by Lee Ballan, designer of The Pyramid, and they talk about all the things they like and don’t like about online escape rooms. If we were going to do a click-baity title, we would have named this “EVERYTHING WRONG WITH ONLINE ESCAPE ROOMS", but then we would have needed to put it in list form with motion graphics, and we didn’t have time for that! :D
We have something new we’re starting, enthusiasts! We are going to do youtube Designer Spotlights focusing on specific games!
Our first one is with Nick Moran ofSpectre & Vox. Their kickstarter was funded in three hours, and they are well into their stretch goals!
If you want to hear the ins and outs about this game, tune in! Or tube in. I have no idea what young people say when they want others to watch their youtube vids.
In our latest episode, Manpans and Errol chat to Peih-Gee Law about Survivor (which Errol knows nothing about) and escape rooms (which Errol knows too much about.)
Peih-Gee Law is most well known for being a fan favourite contestant on the reality show Survivor, where she played first in Survivor China in 2007, and then again in a returning All Star season Survivor Second Chance. She calls Survivor “the greatest immersive game in the world”.In her professional life as a private jeweler, Peih-Gee has extensive experience with organizing and exhibiting at trade shows, as well as hosting, producing and facilitating large corporate events.She has also recently launched PeihGeePlays– an online community where she hosts live stream Survivor Game Nights on Twitch featuring different reality stars as well as organizes events and games for fans in the community. Peih-Gee is an ardent fan of escape rooms and immersive entertainment. She writes reviews for Room Escape Artist’s Hivemind collective and loves being an ambassador for the escape room community.
Social media is @peihgee on Instagram and Twitter.
Manpans and Errol talk to Jeb Havens (jebhavensgames@gmail.com) about Room Escape Jams! Listen in to learn about creating an escape room in a day.
Also, if you’d like to watch us talk, we’re also on youtube with very minimal production effort:
Jeb Havens is a game & interactive designer living in Los Angeles. He has been professionally designing games and software since 2003, working for companies such as Google, Electronic Arts, and YouTube. He has worked across a wide range of platforms, including mobile phones, gaming consoles, and Facebook. And he has designed games for big brands such as Disney, Marvel, Samantha Bee, SimCity, DoorDash, Spore, and Playboy.
Jeb has over 10 years of experience leading game design workshops for conferences and private companies, for groups as large as 200 participants, and he has given a variety of lectures about game design and cognitive science.
Jeb is also a multi-award-winning board game designer, a professionally-published puzzle writer, an international recording artist, and an Off-Broadway playwright. He has a love of travel and other cultures, and has backpacked through 50 different countries around the world.
Talked about in this episode:
This Sunday, October 19th, Spooky Virtual Escape Jam Event Link:
https://roomescapeartist.com/virtual-escape-jam/
Escape Jam Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2043198462627016/
Jeb Haven Games:
www.jebhavensgames.com
Jeb Haven’s Newest Crowd-Funded Party Game:
www.YouDontKnowMyLife.com
Today’s podcast is all about ARGs! The Divas talk with Michael Andersen of ARGn.com.
A great intro to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming.
Allo, everyone! This isn’t a podcast, but a video of us playing an audio escape game.
The game itself was first featured on Escape This Podcast, and Jen McTeague, the creator of the game, offered to run it for us!
Listen in as we don't do a good job solving her game.
Huzzah! Manda and Errol interview Shannon McDowell, a researcher at the Brantford Games Network Lab, about her latest paper on Cultural Bias in Escape Rooms.
Furthermore, she is collecting more data from enthusiasts now about online games! If you are reading this now and have done a lot of online escape rooms, fill out the survey!
And in our latest effort to make our podcasts also visual, here is the above podcast on YouTube!
Manda and Errol talk to Theresa Piazza about the Escape Room conference Reality Escape Con.
They discuss being an exhibitor and a sponsor, as well as the challenges of pivoting a conference to only being online in Discord.
And if you are interested, you can also watch this online! Huzzah!
All of the Divas are present as we interview Kellian Pletcher of Green Door Labs about her latest successfully funded Kickstarter that was just made available: The American Society for the Protection of Magical Creatures.
Listen in as we talk about puzzle hunts, world building, Club Drosselmeyer, and designing online puzzle games.
And for the first time, we have our podcast on YouTube! We were all in different places, so we did a Zoom recording of everyone!
Manda and Errol talk to Vincent Rubino of Fox in a Box - Chicago and Maren Rosenberg of Escape Artistry about their Chicagoland Escape Room survey and reopening escape rooms in a pandemic.
For more information about escape rooms and the pandemic, please refer to this informative article from Room Escape Artist, Approaches for Reopening Escape Rooms in a Pandemic.
Oh boy, that’s a long title. Manda and Errol talk to Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim about the newest escape room board game, Scooby-Doo!™: Escape from the Haunted Mansion. In this episode, they talk about design decisions, challenges, and upcoming games with the Coded Chronicles™ series from The OP.
Manda and Errol get together again to talk to Nick Moran, best known for creating Time Run and the BBC’s Sherlock Escape Room The Game Is Now. There is a lot of talk about escape rooms, but probably more talk about how we have no analytics.
In this short episode, Manpans has rants! So she rants, and the rest of the Divas interrupt her. It was amazing!
Manda and Errol talk with Rita Orlov of Post Curious about her latest Kickstarter The Emerald Flame! Listen in as we chat about game design, take home games, narrative puzzle adventures, and other topics Errol tangents on.
With all the online escape rooms available, a number of lists have been created to collate them all. However, soon there were a lot of lists to keep track of. So Manda and Errol talk to Brett Kuehner about the meta list of lists he compiled. You can find the list on his website:
That Guy With the Puzzles
With a meta list of online escape rooms and also escape room design links.
We also talk about the taxonomy developed by Dan Egnor to categorize the different types of online escape rooms.
Online Escape Room Taxonomy In-person escape room - as we know them (however you define that) * Live remote escape room - tell a GM what to do, they play an escape room-like setup for you (eg. Ready Mayor One, YouEscape, Seven Dwarves) * Live simulated escape room - tell a GM what to do, they pretend they're playing an escape room-like setup and tell you what would happen (eg. Escape This Podcast) * Escape room-style video game - video game that emphasizes puzzles, collaboration, discovery, and other escape room like elements (eg. Tick Tock) * Escape room-style tabletop game - board/card/paper game that emphasizes puzzles, collaboration, discovery, etc. (eg. Unlock!, Exit) * Online puzzle hunt - puzzles hosted online, without other escape room trappings (eg. most of puzzlehuntcalendar.com) * Puzzle book* - puzzles in a book, without other escape room trappings (eg. Journal 29)
Games Discussed in the Podcast YouEscape (live-remote escapeish with digital aspects and distributed team over Hangouts) - Review from Room Escape Artist. * Rock Ave - live remote with team over Hangouts. Created Ready Mayor One.* * Escape.Anywhere - live remote with team over Hangouts * The Palace of Destiny - online puzzle hunt * trap't - online escapeish puzzle hunt * Puzzled Pint - downloadable/printable puzzle hunt style puzzle * Tick Tock - two-player escape room-style video game * Alone Together - two-player escape room-style video game * The Room VR - Escape room-style video game
Phone or Videoconference Immersive shows Discussed in Podcast Ministry of Mundane Mysteries * Quaranteam * Candlehouse Collective - Under the Bed* was one project * Cluebox - mechanical puzzle box
Manda and Errol meet up with Lisa and David Spira Room Escape Artist who are in self-isolation after returning from Europe.
Ruby, Manda, and Mike get together and discuss 101 Best Escape Room Puzzle Ideas as published by Now Escape in 2016. It’s four years later, how do these puzzle ideas stack up now?
Mike learns about this year’s Cryptex Hunt! Manda and Mike question Errol about what it’s like writing a novel, writing a puzzle hunt, and dealing with server issues.
Yes, people this year have to read a novel.
The Divas are all here! And in this episode, we discuss different mechanics and practices that may or may not work in a room. For example, saboteur mechanics, multiple paths, and other topics. Errol’s also pretty loopy.
Huzzah! We talk to Lee-Fay Low, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and an avid enthusiast of escape rooms, about the 2019 Escape Room Enthusiast Survey! Listen in on her insights and what it was like putting together a survey translated into 14 different languages.
The 2019 Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiasts’ Choice Awards was released! This year, 50 top English speaking escape rooms have been identified.
In this episode, Manpans and Errol talk with Rich Bragg (co-founder of ClueKeeper and a Guiness Record holder for most escape rooms done in 24 hours), to discuss TERPECA, or the “Braggs” as we like to call them.
Wow! We discussed so many things with Lisa and David Spira of Room Escape Artist. And we have a parody song by Benito Suppa of Durham Escape Rooms! Huzzah! Something to get you into the holiday spirit.
Listen in as we discuss so many things:
- 06:20 - A new convention, the Reality Escape Convention.
- 19: 50 - Escape rooms on TV, the Create the Escape pilot episode.
- 24:33 - On CBS Sunday Morning TV!
- 27:22 - Being on the media and representing the escape room world
- 33:24 - Escape Rooms then and now
- 37:19 - When do you choose to give feedback?
- 53:34 - What's your kryptonite?
- 55:16 - Golden Lock Awards
- 58:23 - Escape room injuries
- 1:00:36 - 5 Years Later
- 1:02:00 - Montreal Tour
- 1:04:26 - Escape Enthusiast Meetups
The Divas are all here! Huzzah! And they had a lot of fun chatting to Risa Puno about her escape room art installation called The Privilege of Escape put on by Creative Time. Listen in as Risa tries really hard not to give spoilers to her game, and then tells them all. You have been warned. :D
We have Green Door Labs back! And four years later, we see how Club Drosselmeyer has grown! Listen in as Manda and Errol talk to Kellian and Brian Pletcher about their puzzle, theatrical, escape room, Nutcracker Suite, musical, dance show!
Manda and Errol are joined by Melissa Eapen of Improbable Escapes! She did a talk at the Escape Summit called “How proper marketing can result in higher sales for your escape room”, and she brings some of that wisdom to this podcast! Also, you can hear about Manda’s dating life! Huzzah!
About Melissa Eapen: Melissa Eapen’s professional and personal journey is a great example of what happens when you merge the power of creativity, the love for business and the thirst for adventure into one. An established business owner, international traveler, passionate adventurer and inspired writer, Melissa is always on the lookout for ways she can continue to inspire, empower and encourage others. Melissa has won awards for marketing Improbable Escapes, and works with various travel organizations to market their destinations.
Manda and Errol met with Bill and Dani of Escape This Podcast! They are doing a tour of escape rooms in North America, and the divas were so happy to meet up with them in real life.
And they sing! I’m so happy they sing!
In this episode’s parody, we do the Confrontation song from Les Mis!
*ERROL:
So Bill, we're trapped
We're tied up in these chains
But over there
I see the answer plain
BILL:
Before you say another word, Errol
Before we try answers in vain again
Listen to me! We should try to think things through
This problem needs some time and discerning eyes
There is none but me who can set us free
As I've explained, this phrase is all we need
If we can discern, the secret word
Just need to discern*
ERROL:
I just think you're mad!
There's the solution plain and clear
Many times I have explained
It's all from that clue.
ERROL TOGETHER WITH BILL:
Many times I have explained
Many times I have explained
Try 24601
I've told you what I saw!
You'll see I'm right!
Enter it - 24601!
That's the only thing we've found
What is left, but nothing, now?
Can't you see we're wasting time
Soon there'll be a price to pay
Every chance we have to win
will be gone. We'll lose this way!
You see nothing, it's unfair!
We'll be stuck inside this jail
I am trapped in here with you
This is why I hate split rooms
BILL TOGETHER WITH ERROL:
Believe of it, what you will
There is an answer, but it's not from you
You know nothing, here's advice.
Why won't you help out instead?
You know nothing of this word
You would sooner see us dead
But not before I see this room is won!
Quit ignoring me, I swear
How will we escape these bars?
And the hours not up yet!
Our game is not yet done!
You know nothing, it's unfair!
There's a clue but who knows where
Seems I am alone in here
It's why I hate split rooms
Manda and Errol talk to Brett Kuehner and Justin Seventko who taught a high school class how to create and build an escape room. There should be more escape room classes in education! And also, here is the document of Escape Room Design Resources mentioned in the podcast.
And we are bringing back parody songs! We’ll see how long that will hold up. This episode’s song was sung by Rachel Arpin, who also sang in the last episode!
It’s a parody of Natalie Imbruglia’s song Torn.
Worn Well, we could see it had a nice decor
but did they know, were they aware
Of game design before
Cuz all of that was just ignored
Were they aware? Did they "ask why"?
Explanations felt so dry
And what's going on
For all their locks were worn
That was such a waste
This is how I feel. The room was kinda lame
And the puzzles were a bore
nothing was maintained
The wires weren't concealed
The rooms decayed and I can see that all the locks are worn
What did I just play?
All the locks are worn
Would you have guessed there weren't enough flashlights
We couldn't see what was there
and nothing did go right
we really hate this game and now
I don't care, we're so stuck
and it seems we missed so much
we want to put this code in
again this lock is worn
Huzzah! We hit a 100 episodes!
You can watch our shenanigans live, because the whole thing was streamed, and it includes a number of room escape parodies too!
However, if you’d rather listen instead, the podcast has a higher quality audio! Enjoy, and thanks for joining us for such a long time!
This pic was taken when we learned the “Anxious” had to answer all the puzzles. Ha ha ha! Love it.
Our 100th episode will be live on
September 21, at 1:00pm EST.Mike, Manpans, and Errol have made some puzzles, and we are going to challenge each other to do them!
And because this is live, you can join in and solve puzzles with us! Well, Mike made a puzzle to troll Errol so you can join in and watch Errol and Manpans suffer.
Be sure to register ahead of time. Why? Because we will see if you can solve the puzzles before we can. It will be very exciting!
Errol wrote another article called How Escape Rooms Do Difficulty Wrong. In this episode, the Divas discuss the article, the Escape Room Player Loop, and the upcoming 100th live episode where they want you to join in!
Manda is interviewing solo! And she got a chance to interview Noah Nelson, the founder and publisher of No Proscenium – the guide to everything immersive. No Proscenium is a newsletter, web site, and podcast of the immersive arts and entertainment industry.
If you have any interest in the immersive industry, they are the people to go to!
The Divas meet up with Kyle Cacilhas who runs an escape room club at the University of Windsor, Ontario called Escape Artists. Kyle has taken his love for escape rooms and turned it into a club to raise funds for other organizations!
The Divas interview Barbara-Audrey Bergeron, who has acted in escape rooms and was also an actor in their events!
Manda and Errol head off to the west coast with Margaux and Leezet to do an escape room Marathon! They hit 16 escape rooms in about 3 and a half days. It was amazing! They also got a chance to talk to so many people! And Errol rants only two times out of 16 escapes!
To read about our adventures, Manpans has a three part blog series on our adventures!
Episode Outline
- 01:47 - Brian Hughes - Pandora's Locks and the Vancouver Escape Room Market
- 10:20 - Margaux & Elvina - Discuss Find & Seek and awful logic puzzles
- 15:22 - We're in Seattle!
- 18:48 - Seth Wolfson of Hourglass Escapes
- 20:11 - Emile Wang and Justin Nevins after Epic Team Adventures
- 30:12 - Kristine Atri of Escape Artist
- 34:27 - Margaux, Leezet, Manpans, and Errol discuss their final thoughts
-
61:05 - Shoutouts to GMs and friends
- Russel of Find and Seek
- The wonderful GMs at Hourglass Escapes (And thanks to Seth)
- Amber and Jessica of Epic Team Adventures (And thanks to Jennifer Geske as well!)
- Kristine of Escape Artist
- Michael, Kenneth, Nate, Tad of Locurio (And thanks to Summer)
- Harrison of Quest Factor
- Giselle and Michelle of Pandora's Locks (And thanks to Brian)
- And a special thanks to our friends who joined us in our escapes: Margaux, Leezet, Elvina, Justin Nevins, Emile Wang, Michelle, John, Dina, and Evan. It was great to have a crew to eat with, play games with, and talk for hours.
Music: Lutoslawski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Errol and Manda meet up and do escape rooms with Randy Hum and Sarah Moliner-Roy of the escape room blog EscapeRumors.com!
Errol mentions someone forgot to press record in the first part. If it isn’t clear, it was him who wasted everyone’s time.
Also, he talks a lot this episode. Good grief.
Our after room shot at escapegames.ca!
This is our third live podcast and we deliver it at the Escape Summit, an escape room conference in Canada!
We talk about a number of things, but the first question we tackle is “When is an escape room good enough?”
Mike, Ruby, and Manpans leave Errol behind to explore the escape rooms of Louisiana! They also do a quick jaunt into Houston, Texas!
In this two hour special, listen in as they talk to:
- 32:09 Megan Mouton of Clue Carré
- 34:23 Andrew Preble of Escape My Room
- 41:32 Dwayne Sanburn of 13th Gate
- 47:15 Noah Sylvester, an enthusiast who drove in from Florida just for 13th Gate.
- 51:09 Errol being prank called on the phone
- 56:11 Eugene Byon, a friend and newbie to escape rooms
- 1:29:15 Haley Cooper and Cameron of Strange Bird Immersive
And then, hear their closing thoughts:
- 1:36:04 - Manda Thoughts
- 1:48:27 - Mike and Ruby Thoughts
- 1:55:55 - Ruby's thoughts on food
Errol is alone while the other Divas are in NOLA, so he talks to Fred Preddy of Escape Maze about the upcoming Canadian Escape Conference, The Escape Summit.
Dan Egnor has organized a crowdsourced document of Frequently Argued Questions about Escape Rooms, which you can find on theCodex.ca.
However, the Divas don’t cover these questions, considering the doc does a good job of that. Instead, they chat about the topics listed at the bottom of the document:
- Refunds for tech issues
- Should photos of the room be shown or not?
- “first timer reviews” vs. enthusiast reviews — are reviews useful at all?
- Franchises
- Traditional locks vs. “no lock” rooms
The Divas interview Nick Vanikiotis, the creator of YouEscape! YouEscape is an online, live escape game where you speak to the game master through your microphone (or smartphone) in order to interact with the objects in the live video stream.
It’s pretty cool and Manda and Errol talk about their experience as well without giving any spoilers!
Manpans and Errol get together with Dustin Freeman, creator of Aluminum Cat, an online adventure, immersive experience, with a live actor.
In this episode, Dustin gets a chance to talk about creating this project, as well as the Immersive Design Community.
The Divas also have a Let’s Play version if you wish to see the game in action before listening to the podcast!
Buzzfeed released an article where Gamemasters describe weird escape attempts. The Divas decided to go through each one and discuss whether or not the attempt is because the game designer did something wrong, or if the player really is just clueless.
We also get around to how may times we get scared in escape rooms!
The Divas got a request from Jonathan Driscoll of Escaparium to talk about themes. So we did! Huzzah! :D
For a list of themes, we used the ones from the 2018 Escape Room Enthusiast survey.
This topic came up a few times in the enthusiast groups, and so we decided to tackle the sins committed against mimesis in escape rooms, as discussed in Roger Giner-Sorolla’s essay “Crimes Against Mimesis” which can be found in the IF Theory Reader.
We also talk about the “Bill of Player’s Rights” which is discussed in Graham Nelson’s essay The Craft of Adventure.
There are a lot of people looking to start a podcast, blog, or youtube video series, and so the Divas have dedicated a whole podcast to talk about how to start one! They talk about the 4 C’s of creating content for public consumption, and they also answer the frequently asked question: Why do they call her Manpans?
And for those of you who are interested, here are the two links about podcasting discussed in this episode.
How to Start a Podcast (Ultimate 26,000 word guide!)
NPR’s Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students
There was a small bit of drama, and Errol loves drama, and that spurred on this podcast!
The news of the tragedy hit the escape room industry pretty hard. The Divas discuss escape room safety in their latest episode.
And since we recorded this last night, we are releasing this with no edits! Well, ok, there were 4 edits, but only 4!
If you haven’t heard about the Top Escape Rooms Project, you should check it out. Seventy enthusiasts around the world got together and voted on the top 25 escape rooms!
In this episode, we caught up with Rich Bragg (also the co-founder of ClueKeeper), to discuss how he started the Top Escape Rooms Project. Instead of talking about the winning rooms, we talk more about the details on the genesis of the Enthusiast Choice Awards, or the “Braggs” as we like to call them.
It is now tradition to catch up with Lisa and David Spira of Room Escape Artist. We talk about a lot of things, and for a full time signature breakdown, check out REA’s post!
This is the photo talked about in the podcast. Photo courtesy of EscapeRoomZandvoort.nl.
For Escape Room and BBC’s Sherlock fans comes a new game called The Game Is Now. Manda and Errol get a chance to talk to the game director, Nick Moran, best known for creating one of the top escape room companies in the world, Time Run.
On October 2nd, 2018, Richard Bragg, Daniel Egnor, Amanda Harris, and Ana Ulin set the Guinness World Record for most escape rooms attended in one day! Listen in as they tell us logistics and anecdotes of accomplishing this amazing feat!
The Divas discuss their trips to Montreal and they also debate which has the greater rooms: Montreal, Toronto, or Ottawa? Contentious topics!
Mike and Ruby at Escaparium!
Over a thousand escape rooms, wow! The Divas chat with Sera Dodd and Sharan Gill, also known as S2, about escape rooms enthusiasm, game and puzzle design, and ERIC, an escape room conference in the UK.
And Manda got a chance to meet up with them!!
The Divas get together to discuss Errol’s post 13 Rules for Escape Room Puzzle Design.
You may want to read the document first, because we reference it a lot!
Errol was in Los Angeles and he had a wonderful time. In this episode, he meets up with a number of escape room enthusiasts and interviews as many as he can. He also gets distracted a lot.
Here is a list of people interviewed:
- David and Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist
- Tammy McLeod
- Amanda Harris
- Brian and Cam
- Belle
- Ariel of Escape Room in a Box: A Werewolf Experiment
- Sarah Willson
Photo taken at Stash House
In this episode, Errol gets into a nerd competition with David Hernly. They also talk about escape room software and David's own Mythric Mystery Master, a software platform for running escape rooms!
Escape Rooms pretty much started in Asia, and their market has matured over the years. The Divas have a great chat with Yolanda Chiu of Asia Escape Game. She's from Taiwan and has been doing research on the escape room industry in Asia. Manda first met her when Yolanda gave a talk about at Up The Game 2018.
Errol and his family went to Boston! There, they met up with some other enthusiasts (Lisa and David Spira, James Cobalt), checked out Make Way for Ducklings statues, and also did eight escape rooms. It was an expensive trip but fun! Listen in as Errol talks and talks and talks about his experiences with Boston Escape Rooms.
You may not know, or care, but Errol has a daily webcomic about his life. He's quite the narcissist.
In this podcast, all the Divas chat with Russell Leasure, who will be holding a seminar at Transworld's Escape Room Conference called How to Unlock Your Game Master's Potential.
Listen in as we discuss hiring good game masters, being a good game master, and ghosting.
Next time, we'll get a cool picture of Russell doing actual game mastering. :D
Delaney Anderson and her crew of Portable Escapes run escape rooms at different comic conventions! Listen in as Manda and Errol discuss with her the ins and outs of running an escape room for the geeky masses.
Stephanie Frey hosts the Games in Schools & Libraries podcast here on Inverse Genius, and we got the chance to talk about her work creating escape rooms in libraries, doing an escape room camp, and using escape rooms to help educate children!
Manpans got a chance to attend a lot of seminars at Up the Game in the Netherlands. She attended Jasper Wille's seminar on "Meaningful Choice" and immediately decided to have him as a guest on our podcast.
Jasper Wille is a narrative designer and has been active in the world of Real Life Experiences since the early arrival of Escape Rooms in Western-Europe.
Listen in as they discuss the future of escape room narrative.
Having finished her whirlwind tour of the Netherlands, Manpans rounds up her thoughts on the Up the Game conference she attended. And Errol went to visit his parents in Calgary and did seven rooms over the long weekend.
Listen in as they ruminate on narrative, puzzle difficulty, and Manda's drinking habits.
Manda Whitney was just in the Netherlands attending the escape room conference Up The Game! She got a chance to talk to a whole host of people, and for your reference, we've included a timeline for the very first time. We should be doing this for all of our podcasts.
0:00:25 - DAY 1
0:06:40 - Juliana, Ariel, and Mike of Escape Room in a Box
0:13:58 - James Cobalt and Salem
0:23:18 - DAY 2
0:26:51 - Bill Sunderland of Escape This Podcast
0:28:57 - Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist
0:30:44 - Jake Walling of Escape Maze
0:34:16 - Watson by Sherlocked
0:39:41 - Time Quest Lab
0:41:44 - Lina of Exit Ventures
0:43:00 - Loco - Urban Escape Games Platform
0:44:17 - Lauren Scott of Evolo Room Escape
0:47:00 - Sebastian Bayer of Tabtracks
0:49:23 - Yolanda Chiu of Asia Escape Game
0:54:33 - DAY 3
0:58:50 - Benito Suppa of Durham Escape Rooms and Jake Wall of Escape Maze
1:02:10 - Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent of Escape Industries
1:04:28 - Dani Siller of Escape This Podcast
1:09:11 - Nicole soon to be owner
1:11:03 - Nick Moran of Time Run
1:13:51 - Bill and Dani of Escape This Podcast
1:16:13 - Ralph of Kosmos Games, producer of the Exit games
1:17:57 - Toon of De Kelder in Ghent, Belgium
So much fun!
In response to the controversial topic of public games and playing with strangers, Scott Nicholson shared this wonderful post on the FB Enthusiast group called The Trust Spectrum by Raph Koster, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design.
Manda and Errol discuss the Trust Spectrum and see how it applies to escape rooms!
Are escape rooms good for team building? Surprisingly, not really. In this two hour special, Listen in as the Divas interview Dr. Linda Carson, a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. She has a Ph.D. in Psychology (Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience) and teaches teamwork, creativity, design thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
All the Divas are back to talk about Hint Giving in Escape Rooms!
People asking for hints during the #CryptexHunt!
Huzzah! In our latest episode, David Spira of Room Escape Artist guest interviews the crew of the Cryptex Hunt, an epic puzzle hunt presented by Justin Nevins of the the Cryptex® Security Box.
David interviews six people in total: Justin Nevins, Errol Elumir, Darren Miller, Dan Egnor, David Lewis, and Manda Whitney.
There are going to be all sorts of spoilers in this podcast, so if you have not done the Cryptex Hunt, or you WANT to hear spoilers for the Cryptex Hunt, be forewarned.
And the parody song is from an old band Errol used to be part of called Debs & Errol. It seemed appropriate at this point.
As a text game enthusiast, I love this picture. Hah!
Errol and Manda are off running the Cryptex Hunt, so Mike and Ruby chat with Leader (aka E4G's CodeGreen) about life with escape rooms, travelling and how things have changed for them in Toronto.
No song again. Sadness. Hopefully we will be less busy soon!
Huzzah! If you don't know Scott Nicholson, he is a Professor of Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario and the director of the Brantford Game Network game lab (BGNlab).
And he ran a Escape Room Design course! How awesome is that?! ^_^ Listen in as we talk about the course, and the final escape event they created!
Oooh! Intrigue!
The Divas interview Justin Nevins and Errol Elumir about their upcoming puzzle hunt, the Cryptex Hunt! It will start on Feb 24th, and features such prizes as a custom cryptex®!
In the interview, we talk about puzzle hunts and Justin speaks on what it's like working with Errol, which is as you expect. Justin also does his best not to give any spoilers.
The Divas join Haley and Cameron Cooper, professional actors who run Strange Bird Immersive, to discuss Immersive Theatre, Escape Rooms, and combining them to create a whole new experience. This is a topic dear to our heart, so we were very excited to do this interview! But because Errol has been busy developing the Cryptex Hunt, there is no song again. The interview is fantastic though!
Haley also has a wonderful blog called Immersology. There, she chronicles their journey developing their escape room, as well as articles on Immersive Theatre and Escape Rooms.
One day, we will be able to get to this Escape Room.
Another escape year come and gone! In this episode, the Divas look back at the year, and hint at things to come.
And there's no song. Sorry. Errol is busy with so many things again.
Manda and Errol have a great time talking to Jason Garvett, the owner and game creator for Mobile Room Escape in Chicago!
Interested in the mobile world of escape rooms? This is the podcast for you!
(And apologies ahead of time for the parody. There was a last minute substitution which will be updated at a later date!)
We should have posed with one! We need to get better at this picture taking thing.
"Jason Garvett is the Owner and Game Creator of Mobile Room Escape which is headquartered out of Chicago, IL with operations in Atlanta, GA. Mobile Room Escape is both an operator of escape rooms along with a creator of mobile escape rooms for other business. Whether it is building escape room trailers, consulting other business's in their operations, or designing high quality escape games Mobile Room Escape is dedicated to delivering quality products for their customers. The partners of Mobile Room Escape have over 30 years experience in automotive design, theatrical production, and DOT Regulations to help escape rooms hit the roads with success."
David and Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist are back and wow, did they have an awesome year! Listen in as we discuss their latest projects and also reflect on the escape room industry and where we see it going!
We need a picture with these people.
The first escape room board game on kickstarter was wildly successful, and we got to interview the creators Juliana Patel & Ariel Rubin!
Not only that, their game was picked up by Mattel and is no available on Amazon to purchase, and will be available in stores early next year!
Tune in to hear all about how Juliana and Ariel brought Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experiment, to the world!
If we were smart, we would have taken a picture of us posing with the box!
The parody was written by Manda Whitney, and a huge thanks to our returning guest singer, Noelle Sorrell, who has been singing since she came out of the womb. She works as the Ops Manager at Hidden Trail in Windsor, Ontario.
Allo, all you fans and soon-to-be fans of the cryptex! We were fortunate to get Justin Nevins on skype for an interview about the history and development of the cryptex, first conceived in Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code".
Even better? Justin and his wife, Julie, wrote and performed the parody song today! Huzzah! Errol is so happy.
And Justin sent us one of these! Look how awesome it is!