Ask many enthusiasts what they look for in an escape room and they’ll say, “I love good puzzles.” I think the puzzle aspect and the thrill of an ah-ha moment, a good solve, and frankly feeling superior to other groups who didn’t succeed or took longer to solve is a big part of why escape rooms initially caught on. (And there’s no denying a secret passageway and an amazing set do a lot too!) Recently, we’ve been playing games that lean more towards immersive experiences with actors in the games. In parallel to this, we’ve started seeing a change in puzzles. They’ve moved from those delicious ah-ha moments to instructions – where if you follow what an actor tells you to do, you’ve basically solved the “puzzle.” From ah-ha to uh-huh – instead players are verifying they’ve received the instructions and follow through with “solving.” It’s been awhile since I’ve had a satisfying solve.
This realization has made me think about why escape rooms seem to be heading in this direction. First thoughts that come to mind: 1) It’s incredibly hard to design a game and puzzles that will satisfy both new and experienced players. 2) Instructions move players more consistently though a game, leading to “completing” the experience, instead of ending abruptly with the clock. 3) Interactions with actors – even though often dumbing down puzzles – gives renewed novelty for games and allows designers to give more story – albeit often through cut scenes instead of storytelling through puzzles. Actors also allow the easiest way to vary difficulty. 4) Fewer players get stuck on uh-huh puzzles, keeping momentum throughout the game.
We’ve recently re-opened our Tiki Lounge escape room. It was a game that we had in Hawaii and moved to Trois Rivieres Quebec. There were about five years between the closing of the game in Hawaii and the opening in Canada and we are seeing significant differences in the way the game is played. We wrote an indepth article on this, but for the purpose of looking into why designers might be removing ah-ha puzzles, here are changes we’ve seen: 1) Players seem to have a harder time holding multiple clues in their head 2) Communication within groups seems to be less or less efficient than before 3) Players seem to have less perseverance and resilience – they’ll give up on a puzzle more quickly. 4)The difference between games played from beginners to enthusiasts can be huge! Before we’d see enthusiasts with 30 games played and they’d be an outlier. Now we can see enthusiasts with over a thousand, and very commonly in the hundreds.
Oftentimes, ah-ha puzzles involve taking in various pieces of information to figure out a solution. If focus, communication and perseverance are less, it’s harder for players to find a solve. This might be one reason we’re seeing more task based puzzles or actor interactions that basically tell a player what to do. Also, experienced players have such an impressive rolodex of puzzles played, that they might not have the ah-ha moment since they’ve been introduced to so many solves. As I said earlier, it’s incredibly hard to design ah-ha puzzles that are accessible to new players but satisfying to enthusiasts.
Personally I prefer well designed puzzles in an escape room over instructions. I just love the feel of a good solve, but I’m not saying that one is better than the other – they’re just different – pretty significantly different in experience – and as an industry, we need to think of how to inform players of what to expect when signing up to play a game – to set expectations for the best receival of the experience.
