Our group wanted to build an escape room that best suited the space we were given in Durand. We also especially liked themes of corruption and murder, and wanted to toy with the possibility of solving a mystery to exit the room and complete the game. I focused on the following ideas: 1) a “Corporate America” themed game involving a mundane project gone wrong, 2) a Stanford-themed escape room centered on an administrative scandal, and 3) a completely dark escape room that requires you to hunt for clues in a small space with limited tools.
My mood board is linked here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TM68dnrNHrvRctl97GSeoBTMBpC5xwEF02qFLoAdi80/edit?usp=sharing
And my playlist is linked here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4UtQaFUTrJd1TLfcfBLGJN?si=f886d4b0c119469c
Three Directions in More Detail:
All three ideas prioritize fun in the fellowship of solving the escape room as a team of players, as well as the immersive narrative that determines the types of clues used in each. While ideating on each type of game, I wanted to prioritize storylines that don’t require too much explanation and instead allow the users to participate in an embedded narrative (as Laura Hall also suggested during her guest lecture.
- For this storyline, I envisioned players entering the room during a mundane meeting. Suddenly, their boss leaves the room and locks the door. Over the speaker, players hear him talking with the CEO outside, saying that “it’s too late, she/he/they know too much.” Players have an hour to uncover the sinister part of your project and escape the room.
- For this direction, I hoped to again emulate the feeling of a Stanford board meeting. I thought that players could try to uncover a scandal similar to “Varsity Blues,” and specifically try to find the one corrupt university official trying to take down the entire school. Clues could be Stanford-themed and rely on some basic knowledge about student life.
- Finally, for this direction, I wanted to completely immerse players in the dark (with perhaps a small flashlight each). The players would be in a “And Then There Were None”-type storyline where they are all trapped by a killer and need to figure out who it is; most of the clues would rely on sensory skills like touch and hearing.
