Aren't you tired of the same old family parties? It seems as if they don't bring the family closer. Some watch the game (whichever game, it doesn't matter, so long as they can watch it), a few people sit at the table and look at old photos, and two people do the dishes so that they can hide out in the kitchen. 

You need something new, exciting, and without television! You need to try a family escape room! What is an escape room, you ask? Really? You don't know? We have the answer!

An escape room is a live-action puzzle-solving, heart-pounding game. It's an adventure experience that you partake in together, as a team.

Playing in an escape room makes you feel like James Bond, but without the cool gadgets and the Aston Martin. (We're trying to keep this within a reasonable budget, after all, your day job doesn't take you to exotic locations or require high-tech surveillance equipment.)

At the start of the escape room, you and your family will find yourselves in a perilous position. Perhaps the zombies are at your door, you're trapped in a crumbling Egyptian tomb, or a serial killer is on the loose. Your mission is to escape this sticky situation in under 60 minutes... or face the consequences...

How do you escape? Simple. By solving a bunch of fun puzzles!

The room that you're trapped in will contain a series of interconnected puzzles. Once you solve them, they'll guide you to the solution of one final puzzle (normally, the key to the escape door), and you'll escape!

Along the way, you can request hints from a gamemaster who will be watching you. (What's a gamemaster? They're someone who works for the escape room and is there to help you get unstuck and ensure that you don't destroy clues. Don't worry, they're here to help you... even if they look a little devious!)

At the beginning of the game, you and your teammates will spread out across the room, gathering any clues you think may help solve puzzles. As the information comes in, one or more team members will begin working on the first puzzle while everyone else continues to gather additional information. You'll need to designate one person to keep track of all the information the team finds. That person is responsible for communicating the information to the puzzle solvers.

If you're still confused, you should check out this article. It goes through it all, step-by-step. But it's time for us to move on!

   ? Book ahead. Escape rooms frequently sell out. Waiting to book until the day of the game invites disaster. You don't need an unhappy family heading back to your house.

   ? Arrive early. You will need to sign release forms, put your valuables and phones in a locker, and use the restroom before beginning the game. Most escape rooms recommend arriving at least 15 minutes early.

   ? Determine if you need to play in shifts. Most escape rooms accommodate 4-6 people. However, some allow for as many as 10. Check the escape room's website to determine the capacity of their games. We do not recommend using 3 people or fewer, as you don't have enough time to find clues and solve puzzles. If you have more than 6 people in a room, communication begins to break down, and people can get lost trying to decide what to do.

   ? Communicate! What is good escape room communication? The clue gatherers need to ensure that the puzzle solvers have the clues. If someone gets stuck solving a puzzle, they need to ask for help. Keep everyone informed and on the same page. If everyone wanders off to do their own thing, you will be food for zombies. Or maybe not. They like brains.

   ? Solving clues usually means connecting information to the puzzle within the context of the game. If the info you found doesn't line up with the game's theme, you should put it aside and move on. The connections may require outside-the-box thinking but will be logical.

   ? Ask the gamemaster for hints. You don't want to waste all of your time on one puzzle. Find out before the game if time penalties are added for hints. Some escape rooms give 3 hints for free, and others charge 3 minutes per hint requested. Don't worry. You still get the full 60 minutes. The time is added to your final escape time.

   ? Do you have a competitive family? Make it a race to see who can escape the fastest! Choose captains and let them draft their own teammates!

Still a little nervous? No worries, we've got even more tips for you here.

Remember when we talked about reasonable budgets? Yeah... escape room venues can be pricey. You'll pay $40 a player plus taxes at many commercial escape rooms. It's easy to reach a $400 bill. Add that to a trip to a reasonably priced meal at a not-greasy and cheap restaurant, and you can easily reach $600 for the night. Ouch!

The alternative? A DIY escape room. All you need to do is download an easy-to-assemble kit from our website and print out a copy of the game for every 4-6 players. You'll provide your family with all the excitement of a commercial escape room at a fraction of the price!

DIY escape rooms come with copies of puzzles and clues. They also come with optional posters and printable photo booth props to create the right atmosphere. Without much effort and without remodeling your living room, you can create the right mood for your DIY escape room.

Of course, you won't have the same amazing atmosphere as a professional escape room. There won't be sand covering the floor of Tut's tomb or snakes, frogs, and alligators surrounding the voodoo queen's hut. (If you create that, your neighbors may stage an intervention.) You also don't have any trapdoors or hidden passageways in your home unless you live in a 19th-century castle. If that's the case, you don't need additional decorations.

With a printable escape room kit, you get all of the suspense of a commercial escape room without braving traffic or driving across town. You have the dire situation. You have an hour to escape. You have a series of puzzles that require cunning and focus to solve. Your adrenaline will pump, and your heart will race until you find a way to escape alive.

Perhaps the best feature of a downloadable escape room is the spoiler-free setup. You can buy, download, print, and set up our games without seeing the puzzles' solutions. No game master is needed to supervise the experience (our website takes care of all the hints), so this means that you can set up the game AND play alongside your family. Win!

It's simple. Divide your family into teams of 4. Send each team to a different room. Start the timer! First team to win gets the chicken nugget party pack!

Each team needs to be in a different room, or at least tables far enough away from each other that they can't be overheard. You don't want one team eavesdropping on another's solutions. Or, for those with a more devious bent, you don't want one team passing false information to the eavesdroppers, no matter how just that sounds.

Start the timer and yell, "GO"! You can leave the timer in a common area, like a hall outside the rooms, or have everyone start their timers simultaneously. However you choose to do it, everyone should have easy access to the timer.

Each team has access to the same website gamemaster but won't be able to see hints that other teams have requested. It will track the number of hints each team requested so that time penalties can be added to your score at the end of the game.

The race is on! Solve those puzzles as quickly as you can! You don't want to listen to the winners crowing until the next game!

Part of the fun is transforming your home into an immersive adventure set!

You can make the decorations for your escape room as simple or elaborate as you, please. We don't recommend hauling in sand or adding water features and mist, but it's your house! However, we recommend these simple tricks to add flair to your home escape room (plus, more ideas here).

   ? Print out the posters and photo booth props, and hang them around the room. Place them on shelves, mantles, and frames without tape to make cleaning up a breeze.

   ? Buy props from the local dollar store (or search your attic for past Halloween and New Year's decorations) that fit your theme. If you're playing an Egyptian tomb game, add spiderwebs and insects. If you're playing a war-themed game, grab some walkie-talkies. We'd hold off on buying the amphibious car.

   ? Make your own decorations. You can do wonders with construction paper or your kids' old toys ? you know, the ones that have been sitting in the garage for three years waiting to be donated or in the attic just in case your teenager's future kids want to play with them.

   ? Get locks and lockboxes to hide clues. The game is fully customizable, allowing you to point the puzzle to a four-digit combination to open the lock. This requires a little extra work. If you're planning to have multiple rooms, remember that the setup in each room needs to be identical.

   ? Make an epic Spotify list that fits your theme or open one of ours.

You can't have an epic escape room family gathering without an epic post-escape game party! Pack the dining room table with snacks and drinks. Run down the results, letting everyone know who escaped the fastest and who was didn't get out in time. Then let the bragging begin!

The best part about the celebration is hearing what people liked about the game. Which puzzles were the hardest? Who provided the best off-the-wall solution? Who made the others scratch their heads and wonder how they tied their shoes without help?

The game works brilliantly as an ice-breaker to push you straight past the small talk, and into deeper connection.

Everyone will have a different story about a different aspect of the game. Some will talk about how they made it to the third puzzle without a hint, while others will talk about feeling scared and foolish because they needed a hint right off the bat. Some will wonder what would happen if the zombie apocalypse really did happen. Do zombies like pizza? Should we get fried chicken for the next party? Listen to them as well. You never have enough blackmail material.

Eventually, everyone will focus more on catching up and less on who won the race (except for the winners, of course). They'll talk about sister Suzie, brother John, and Auntie Gin and ensure they're invited to the next party. The after party is even more fun than the escape room!

They'll also start planning the next party. You hosted this escape room family get-together, so someone else needs to do the heavy lifting for the next one. You can make it the responsibility of the last place team to arrange the next one. Have everyone break out their phones (unless they have flip phones, then they can break out their calendar) and choose a date on the spot. It's much easier with everyone there together.

Finally, a family get-together that gets the family together! Remember when you asked, "What is an escape room?" Now you have the answer! It's a fun for all ages, adrenaline pumping event that brings people together before and after the game. Your family will love it and love you for it!