Mind-bending fun: Interactive escape rooms test your detective skills

You walk into the room with six strangers, and the door locks behind you.

The clock starts now. You have 60 minutes to escape.

You frantically start searching the room for clues, keys and codes. Solving one puzzle leads to the next. No object is left unturned.

Thirty minutes. The clock is ticking.

Do the number of couch pillows matter? One guy stares at a bowl of plastic fruit.

Two minutes. Will you make it?

You start scrambling through the piles of clues on the desk, the floor, the couch. Did you miss something?

A woman excitedly exclaims, “I found the password” and another woman’s frenzied fingers arrange it into the puzzle.

The first woman snatches the final key from its unlocked box and shoves it into the locked door. The group anxiously watches to see if the key will turn the lock. The woman turns the key and pushes down on the door handle, stopping the clock and freeing you all. The group begins to celebrate, cheering and high-fiving each other.

This is what you can expect from interactive room escapes, an entertainment trend that is spreading across the country.

Escape rooms, first documented in 2007 in Japan, started gaining popularity in the United States in 2012. Based off of the PC point-and-click adventure genre of online gaming, escape rooms contain puzzles, riddles and locks. A group of people are locked in the room and given a certain amount of time to escape by finding the hidden clues, keys and codes. Groups are not actually locked in the rooms because of fire hazard, but rather agree to the role-playing scenario posed by the theme of each escape room.

There are about 3,000 escape rooms worldwide, according to the Escape Room Directory website. In Kansas, escape rooms are in Bonner Springs, Hutchinson, Manhattan, Topeka, Kansas City and Wichita. The two Wichita locations, Wichita Room Escape and Key Quest, opened in the past few months.

Wichita Room Escape

Wichita Room Escape, owned by Bryan Edwards, Justin Selby and Kerry Selby, opened Oct. 30. It has two rooms, The Studio and The Company, and is adding a third room, The Mission, which is expected to open by the end of February. Each room has an eight-person limit.

Edwards, an engineer for Textron Aviation, said after trying room escape games himself, he was hooked and decided to open a room in Wichita.

Edwards said people seem to be searching for new ways to be entertained.

“It’s different. It’s not cosmic bowling, it’s not going out to eat at restaurants,” Edwards said. “It’s something different and interactive.”

Wichita resident Heather Roe, who made it out of The Studio in Wichita Room Escape, said it was definitely a new experience.

“I’m so happy that we got out,” Roe said. “I would have been so mad if we didn’t. I was having that moment of thinking, ‘We’re going to get down to the last box and not get out of this place.’ It was fun.”

Roe’s group made it out with one minute and 43 seconds to spare. Edwards said that the average escape time is somewhere within the last five minutes. The success rate for each room is 20 percent.

Edwards says the escape room trend is here to stay.

“I believe that it will last for some time,” Edwards said. “I don’t think that they’re going to go away anytime soon. People seem to enjoy it too much.”

Aside from those seeking a new thrill, escape rooms are also desirable for businesses who want to improve employee teamwork, Edwards said.

“It’s not just pure entertainment,” he said. “There are so many more things to it, with the team-building and the corporate and HR side of it. We get groups in here just for that.”

Although some escape rooms have age requirements, Wichita Room Escape welcomes children as long as they are accompanied by a parent or guardian. Room reservations should be made on the Wichita Room Escape website. They can be made up to the day of, as long as spots are still available. Walk-ins are welcome but not guaranteed.

Edwards said all ages have been trying out the rooms.

“Everyone seems to enjoy themselves equally, it’s not a generational thing,” Edwards said.

Key Quest

Key Quest, a part of Laser Quest, a national company that offers laser tag and arcade games, has been open since the first week of July. The Laser Quest company has added live-action escape rooms to most of its locations nationally, said Dean Jenkins, general manager of Laser Quest in Wichita.

Although the Key Quest escape rooms are in the Laser Quest facilities, customers can reserve the escape rooms without having to pay for laser tag.

Each room has a time limit of 45 minutes and a seven- to eight-person limit. Key Quest recommends participants be at least 12 years old, but will allow those who are younger to play. Walk-ins are welcome, but if participants want to choose the theme of the room or ensure there is no wait, they must make a reservation at least one day in advance.

Jenkins said Key Quest has the option of two themes, Vacation Vandals and the Cellar.

“Everyone has the same theme options right now,” Jenkins said. “But they’re (corporate) continuously trying to make us new themes and come up with new ideas.”

Jenkins said that since rolling out the escape rooms in July, he has seen a lot of public interest in them.

“People have done these online, but these are kind of live action,” he said. “It’s the same thing as doing laser tag here. You’re not just playing the game, you’re in it. To be a part of it is fun.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Mind-bending fun: Interactive escape rooms test your detective skills."