Nov 17, 2015
We’re all insane—at least, according to Albert Einstein, that is. Everyone is guilty of doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Don’t deny it! Remember the time your smartphone froze and you kept tapping the screen? Or that time you kept poking the remote control for your television, only to realize moments later that the battery was dead? Yeah, we’ve been there too.
At The Escape Game, trying to enter the same (i.e. wrong) combination code or trying to force the same (i.e. unfitting) puzzle pieces over and over again only wastes your time. Yet, when teams are stuck and don’t know how to move forward, we’ve noticed they tend to focus on the same problem as the clock ticks away.
Insane? Well, we weren’t the ones who said so!
To win The Escape Game Dallas, it’s important to keep the momentum going. After all, you’re racing against the clock! Here are a few tips in case you get stuck in the middle of a room—and by “stuck,” we mean in addition to the fact that you’re trapped inside.
Search for Uneven Features
Does a patch of carpet look unusual? Does a painting look like it contains a subliminal message? Does that tiny hole in the wall not belong? Look for unusual features in the room to guide your progress forward! And don’t forget—sometimes the most important clues are right below your nose and feet!
Retrace Your Steps
There’s a reason Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and other famous investigators retraced their steps in their stories—because it works. If you get stuck, try retracing your steps to make sure your team didn’t overlook anything. Then come back and approach the solution from another angle. You’ll be surprised at the various ways clues can go together!
Give Someone Else a Try
At this point in the game, you may find that your team has split into smaller groups to complete the mission. A few people might gather by a board to solve a math challenge while others figure out how to assemble pieces of a contraption. Before using one of your free hints, make sure everyone in the room has had the opportunity to solve the challenge. You never know how someone’s unique perspective could be the missing piece you needed!
Ready to put these tips to the test? Book The Escape Game today. Reserve your room online.
READ MOREOct 27, 2015
Studies have shown that one of the most important factors in your happiness is the number of Escape Games you can successfully break out of. Relax, we’re kidding! But we totally understand how badly you want to make it out of your room, and we can’t help but cheer you on!
Believe it or not, when it comes to escaping, there is a fine art to making mistakes. However, teams often come out of their rooms with precious insight about ways they could have be more efficient in their escape adventure. So what if you could avoid some of their most common (and time-consuming) mistakes altogether? To save you some time and make you look like an expert escape artist, let’s go over a couple of the most frequent mistakes we see teams make at The Escape Game. In no particular order, here we go:
We know what you’re thinking – you just wanted to take a good look at the whole room and admire our interior design skills. Completely understandable! But don’t forget, some of the most important clues are the smallest. You may have to rethink your approach and dig a little deeper into your surroundings. Don’t be afraid to really look closely at your surroundings, and search down low and up high as well (just don’t forget the rule about standing on furniture!) Remember: sometimes, the beauty is in the detail.
Afraid you might get stuck and not know what your next move should be during your escape? Don’t worry – your team will start the game with three free clues that you can use at any point throughout the game! Where does the mistake come in, then? Often times, teams know that they’re stuck but decide to wait it out in case they need their free clues later in the game. While this is a fair point, we recommend asking for a clue if you notice that a few minutes go by without any progress or new leads. Keep the momentum going, every second counts!
We totally get it – when you find a new clue, it’s natural for everyone to want to come check it out and offer their insight! There’s nothing wrong with this instinct at all, but after everyone has had a second to contribute, we recommend leaving just one or two people working on that task. That way, everyone else in your team is free to search the rest of the room or continue on the things you were already working on. By having different people solving different clues simultaneously, you increase your team’s productivity and efficiency, which really increases your likelihood of escaping.
Believe it or not, this happens! Sometimes, you might find a clue, key, or combination early in the game when you don’t actually need to use it until later. When the time comes to use the precious info, sometimes the whole team has already forgotten you even had it! We recommend keeping all clue components in one central place in the room, so you know exactly where to go looking when you realize you need something from twenty minutes ago.
This final mistake is pretty similar to number four, but it happens just as often so we decided it deserved a spot of its own. Sometimes, one person in the team will find a clue or combination, but they keep the information to themselves or only tell some of their teammates. Then, later in the game when your team needs that combination, not everyone knows about it! Your teammates who were left in the dark earlier might think you’re missing valuable information, when really, they just didn’t know what you found! Make sure to communicate anything that seems promising to all your teammates, so that everyone is on the same page moving forward.
By avoiding these mistakes, you will have a smooth first experience at The Escape Game Dallas. Do you think your team is ready to take on the challenge? Book your experience online today – good luck!