There was a clear goal for each stage of the puzzle written down on a piece of paper. In Great Houdini, there were very clear indications of our progress. Consistent indications of progressįeedback on progress through the long experience was important, to know that we were on track and moving forward. This rare glimpse of the inside of “The Great Houdini Escape Room” at Palace Games showcases the attention to detail in set design, theming, and player feedback for a team’s progress through the puzzles. My favourite was a poster for a Houdini act of placing a person in a box, that was on a cupboard in the corner, and in the room, physically closing someone in that cupboard led to mechanical opening of a secret passageway. There were specific lighting choices that highlighted important parts of the room, and helpful diagrams that showed us the order in which to solve the puzzles.Īdditionally, there were helpful hints on room elements, like photographs to show which corner of the room was intended for which character, around which that character’s puzzle was located. What impressed me most, however, was the level of set design thought that went into it. Great Houdini is a high budget escape room set in the Palace of Fine Arts, so it was no surprise that the room is artistically and thematically decorated. Designing for puzzles that absolutely required more than one person was one of Great Houdini‘s strengths. However, there were also moments where real teamwork and communication was needed, like when we had to link arms across the room to turn a light on, when we had to physically close someone in a box to open a secret passageway, or when we had to shout through the walls to pass information that the other side needed to use the decoder. Twelve is a crowd for an escape room, so there were moments where I noticed some of us were unsure what to do or how to help. Good and necessary use of multiple players Solving puzzles for Helen Keller (using Braille) or Luther Burbank (weighing vegetables on a scale) made sense in the world and didn’t require much more buy in on our end.ģ. There was a clever way Great Houdini got around having lots of random puzzles in its room, by using a simple bit of storytelling that the room was indeed an escape room that Houdini designed to test the mettle of some of his famous luminary friends. Justified puzzles that have nothing to do with the room’s world The challenge is to add more variety in how you unlock them. You can’t avoid locks altogether, as it is a locked room you need to escape from. There was also a group of keyed locks but the variety in the size and shape of keys kept our interest. A set of combination locks relied on using a two-sided decoder, and revealed gems that opened another door when placed on the correct positions on a painting. There were definitely locks, but a variety of different types of locks. Here’s how it deals with the five design problems listed in my previous post. While not perfect, Palace Game’s The Great Houdini Escape Room was a memorable and satisfying experience. Addressing the Most Common Escape Room Design Mistakes But as this is a case study of The Great Houdini Escape Room with specific examples, meant to highlight game design concepts, it will contain spoilers for the room. My write-up of their latest offering, The Attraction, is also spoiler-free. Palace Games, located at the Palace of Fine Arts, boasts several excellent escape rooms ( Houdini, Roosevelt and Edison), which I’ve compared in a previous spoiler-free blog post. This post follows up with a design deep dive into a well-executed escape room, The Great Houdini Escape Room by Palace Games in San Francisco. My last post was dedicated to identifying some of the most common design blunders in crafting escape rooms.
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