Escape room games have taken Asia and Europe by storm throughout the past decade, and recently began popping up across Canada. Fredericton has joined the craze and now has its own escape room, courtesy of new company Escape Logic Games.
Escape room games are a series of puzzles that usually follow some sort of storyline. A team of players is placed in a themed room and must complete these puzzles within a time limit to achieve the goal or “escape”.
Escape Logic Games will be opening Jan. 15 and is owned and operated by Kody Belliveau and Brad McCann. Both were laid off from their jobs this past summer, and soon after began to seriously look into the escape room business.
“We love coming up with the puzzles and watching people play them. We legitimately think that this concept is cool,” said Belliveau.
Escape Logic Games’ first room is called “The Study.” The Study is designed to test a player’s puzzle-solving skills in a challenging and fun way. Some basic math is involved within the room, however everything can be solved with a third-grade skill level and some outside the box thinking.
The room also tests a team’s ability to work together and communicate. Several clues need to be deciphered; one person probably won’t be able to complete the room within an hour.
Overall, working through the Study room was a lot of fun. It was an experience I’d recommend to anyone.
“We picked the Study because it was a familiar setting, and then we just said, ‘Let’s hit every cliché that we can. Let’s have it be murder mystery style,'” Belliveau said.
Over 20 hours of thought went into designing the puzzles found in the Study, plus the additional hours of physical labour and decorating to complete the room.
Completing the Study room links directly to Escape Logic Games’ next room: the Tomb. The Tomb isn’t currently available to play, but Belliveau and McCann hope to have it up and running sooner than later.
“We’re motivated to get it open as soon as possible. We’ll be working night and day to do that, it’s just hard to say how long it’s going to take. We’re hoping a month’s time,” said Belliveau said.
Escape Logic Games plans to open a third room at some point in the future.
McCann says he and Belliveau started their company in Fredericton partly because of local universities and student traffic.
“We thought with the universities here, Fredericton could probably support an escape room so we started looking at it,” said McCann.
McCann says the interactive puzzle game is a great experience for students because it provides a bonding experience between classmates.
“When I was in school I lived in a residence and residences would always have Hall events where they would all go out as a hall and do…some kind of activity,” he said. “[The escape room] didn’t exist when I was in school, but this would be one of those activities that I think would be really good to do as a group.”
An hour in the Study costs $25 per person, but Escape Logic Games is offering a discounted price of $22 per person to those who like and share their Facebook page. This price may seem steep at first glance, but it’s about the same price as a movie ticket and a bag of popcorn at the theatre.
The experience was completely unique and allowed for bonding with teammates and the chance to use critical thinking. Most importantly, it was a ton of fun. Escape Logic Games should be a great addition to Fredericton’s dynamic culture.
