Almost every DIY escape room kit on the market follows an annoying puzzle flow:

• Players try solving a challenge.
• They check their answers with some mechanism, like:
• Online answer box via app or website (one of my original games, Rebel Revolt, does this).
• Physical device (slide, rotate, align...)
• Turn-over two-sided cards and check if they're correct.
• Asking the organizer, or Game Master, who is running the event (like during a team building challenge).
• If they're correct, they're told to 'Go to the next part of the kit'.

• You don't need to be told what type of answer you're trying to get.
• You don't have to 'ask' the padlock if it's the right code. You just enter it.
• You don't have to read a note instructing you to open the door and go through it. You just go through it.

Or, consider this puzzle from Escape Room Z. So long as players are observant, they'll notice the first clue card is, in fact, an enlarged version of the stamp on the postcard. 'Aha!'

This idea is critical for printable or boxed escape room kits since there's already minimal contextual understanding. It's very common for designers to just create 'floating puzzles' that don't really exist anywhere in a world. They're just puzzles on a page with no context.

Players just don't know where to start.

So don't do this. Just don't.

Some children have to escape more than just a room and they need your help.

Every time a Game Master delivers a verbose intro a fun fairy dies somewhere...

But there's something even worse - reading an intro!

Reading during a game is boring. Sooooo boring.

So don't use words to describe the storyline, scene, goals, or puzzles.

Instead, use images and videos:

• Describe the scene in your printable escape room with an image of the room, not bunch or text. Or make an intro video like in Rebel Revolt. You can still include a transcript, but make this optional (some players relish in-depth storylines, but don't force them to understand it in order to complete the game).
• Design puzzles that don't need explaining. Here's a big list and here's another.
• Make the goal of the room obvious, like a locked box or door, rather than telling them what they're trying to do.

Real life escape rooms 'make sense' the moment you step foot in one.

• Is there a giant blue door? You probably need to open it.
• What about a big locked pirates chest? I bet it contains the loot.
• Sword stuck in the stone? You get the picture.

## OBVIOUS ##

Many computer games use a 'String of Pearls' script involving many stages and changes (the red side of the picture). While it feels natural to follow this formula, unless you're making a game for kids, in a DIY escape room it will fail.

Miserably.

This is because you're (most definitely) following Secret #1 and Incinerating Checking Mechanisms. There's just no way for players to know they've 'succeeded' in this part and to move onto the next stage. (well, ok there is, but they all make the game less fun and are not worth doing just to add a morphing storyline).

Solution?

Just make the story occur in one location and have just one major goal. After all, people are playing the game to interact and have fun, not experience an interactive theatre play.

• Example of a tiresome storyline:
1. Players start in a magic library.
2. After casting a teleport spell they appear in a dungeon.
3. Lastly, they defeat a dragon.
• A more immersive storyline would be:
1. Players are stuck in a magical library and must solve several concurrent puzzle chains. These will result in a partial solution to the single big puzzle.

Why a string of pearls storyline is ok for kids Escape Rooms

It's obvious you'll need a variety of puzzles in your escape room.

What's not obvious is a dreary old ghost. He hides in your room and feeds off a lack of consistency between your puzzles. Worst still, this ethereal design theory is one of the biggest fun killers in your game, and many designers don't spot him until it's too late!

Consider this inconsistency:

All clues in your escape game are only used once, except for one. Players will learn to use and discard all clues, then get stuck on the puzzle that requires something to be reused. Instead, make every clue used the same number of times.

Or this:

Each puzzle type is included as an easy version and a hard version. Such as an easy and hard cipher. When players solve the easy one they'll have learned the approach to crush the harder one. This style can work great, but if you have a hard puzzle with no warm up players will start looking for it, only to find themselves stuck and frustrated.

Build consistency into your puzzles and you won't need to call anyone, that depressing old spectre will just leave!

The most challenging part of crafting the perfect escape room is balancing the difficulty between too boring and too hard.

If your game's too easy, it's dull and lifeless.

Too hard, and it's table-flippingly frustrating!

That sweet spot in between the two is 'Flow', and it can make or break your game.

How do you get it?

Start by understanding who you're designing your escape game for:

• Hyper competitive group of lawyers at a team building day? Make it super tough.
• Fun activity for those 3 hours of downtime at a wedding? Make it short, easy and add some laughs.
• School teacher making learning fun with an escape room? Pitch it to the age that your students are at.

Believe it or not, people don't want an escape room where they solve a linear sequence of puzzles.

They want a delightful adventure with their friends.

That's the whole idea. FUN!!!

Therefore, your goal as an escape room designer is to mix in a variety of experiences that get friends talking, laughing, and facing a challenge together.

You can include these in any ratio you like, but the suggestions below work well for keeping everyone interested. Remember, everyone finds different activities fun so keep everyone engaged by including a good mix from this list.

Red Herrings are those 'extras' in an escape room that exist solely to distract players.

If you're creating your own escape room business in real life, they suck.

In printable escape rooms, they're noxious infractions against the human soul.

It's because there's so little context and players are already using their imagination to craft the world.

Don't do them, lest you be swallowed whole by the mystical red herring in the sky.

Die-hard fans of your escape room will want to suck the marrow out of every last puzzle, challenge, and game (don't worry, they're not undead, they're just passionate!).

Reward these weathered adventurers with a bonus super-hard puzzle that's totally optional.

You can do this without getting in the way of the main game by making the start of it quite obvious:

• Add a QR code to one of the puzzles, like this one from Rebel Revolt (click the image to zoom in).
• Include a hidden message in a common code type like a Pig Pen Cipher. (like on one of the images on this page).
• Add strange markings around the edges of the puzzle sheets that when combined together make a smiley face or something easy to recognize.