A brief History of Escape Rooms

 A Brief History of Escape Rooms

Words: Emily Ingram (Game Master at Lucardo Manchester)

Games Operator Emily takes us on a trip through time (and space) with a brief history of our favourite subject: Escape games.

No-one can really pinpoint where or when the very first Escape Room was birthed. Historians can only assume that it was a pretty awesome big-bang-esque sort of affair, with lightning and explosions. However, we’re pretty sure that Escape Games (as we know them today) evolved from retro childhood favourites like Laser Quest, The Crystal maze, and the humble fairground Haunted House.

Early incarnations of the Escape Room started popping up across East Asia in 2010, the most famous of these being Real Escape Games (REG), a game comprised of logical maths and colour-based puzzles, launched by SCRAP in Kyoto, Japan.

Before long, the craze for these incredibly immersive games had spread like wildfire to North America, Europe and – thankfully – Manchester, where the idea for Lucardo was formed by a handful of evil geniuses in December 2015. 

Some have even utilised these games as educational tools, due to their unique ability to boost problem-solving skills. In 2012, a Swiss physics professor created a scientific escape game for his students, which soon exploded into the AdventureRooms franchise and spread around the world.

Since then, Escape rooms have evolved above and beyond their original live action video-game style. Independent rooms and franchises alike are finding innovative new ways to dazzle escapees, be it with actors, new technology or mind-blowing themes (see: any of our games here at Lucardo Manchester and Rawtenstall).

So, what’s the future for Escape Games? We can’t know for sure, but we hope it involves robots.