Fun Activities That’ll Turn Your Kid into a Sleuthing Genius

Photo: Melissa Hillier (CC-BY 2.0)

You’re a complete escape game fanatic, and you've only got so much time to make sure your kids follow in your footsteps.

Luckily, it’s not too hard to get your kid hooked on all things sleuthing, code breaking, and problem solving. Why? Because these things are super fun.

Observe:

Clue

A complete classic, the board game Clue—or Cluedo, if you’re outside North America—has made detectives out of many generations of kids. It’s nearly 70 years old, but it’s still one of the best ways to introduce young kids to the wonderful world that is sleuthing.

Spy kit

Remember writing secret messages to your friend in invisible ink and—just to make it extra secure—using a decoder ring? Of course you do! Spy kits have come a long way since you were a kid though: now they include things like audio enhancers and UV flashlights. Jealous? Us too.

Harriet the Spy and Encyclopedia Brown

What better role model for budding escape game enthusiasts than successful detectives who are around their own age? Harriet the Spy and Encyclopedia Brown both have some solid tips to pass along to sleuths in training, whether in book or TV form.

Scavenger or treasure hunt

Summer holidays mean camping, and camping means no internet (if you’re doing it right, that is). Curious kids plus the great outdoors makes for a great opportunity to devise one of the greatest scavenger hunts your children have ever seen. Turn up the difficult by making a clue list and requiring a compass and map, and your kids’ problem-solving muscles will get a hefty workout.

Kid-friendly escape game

It can be surprising how quickly kids, even young ones, can figure out clues in escape games that even adults have trouble with. Make sure the theme is age appropriate (maybe try our Alice in Wonderland room rather than the Saw one!) and watch your kid kick your butt at your next escape room experience.

Book an escape room at Krakit for you and your family here: http://bookeo.com/krakit

Escape the Office: 5 Benefits of Team Building for Small Businesses

Team building at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game!

When someone brings up team building, the first thing that pops up in many people’s minds is of 200 employees who barely know each other doing trust falls in a forest somewhere. But that’s not what team building means in 2017! And it’s not just for large companies where employees might not know each other’s names.

Team building activities are just as important and beneficial for small companies. Maybe you all work in the same room, just inches from one another, but there’s always room to improve communication, teamwork, and comradery.

Escape games are a perfect team building choice, especially for small businesses. Why? Because escape rooms usually fit maximum 7 people, which means you can get your whole team in on one game! Plus, they’re super fun (duh!).

Here are five of the best outcomes we see for small businesses who do their team building at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game:

1. Increased communication

When you have only 45 minutes to solve several puzzles and make your bid for freedom, everyone needs to step up their communication levels. In small teams, it can be easy to assume everyone knows what’s going on at all times when that’s not really the case.

2. A chance to bond

There’s a good chance everyone in a start-up knows everyone else’s name, but does everyone really know everyone? Especially if you have a recent addition to your team, a fun team-building challenge allows everyone to get to know one another on another level—and one that’s email free!

3. Testing relationships and skills

In small companies, relationships between staff members can become rigid out of necessity. A teambuilding activity like an escape game lets you see what skills your staff may not be getting a chance to use.

4. Oiling the teamwork machine

Small businesses don’t work if everyone’s commitment to teamwork isn’t in tip-top shape. A fun tune-up is a great way to make sure all is in working order for all team members.

5. Good vibes for all

The high of outwitting the puzzle master and solving an escape game puts everyone in a good mood for weeks!

Book one of Krakit’s four themed escape rooms for your team building day here.

Five Things to Do in Vancouver before the Fall Semester Starts

Though summer’s not officially over until September 23, Vancouver’s postsecondary students are saying adieu to the season in just one week’s time.

The best way to make the most of what’s left of summer is to do. Recent science confirms that experience, not material goods, is what makes us happy. So get out there and have experiences that stick in your brain—and that you can pine for once the winter rains hit. 

Whyteliff Park. Photo: Ruth Hartnup CC BY 2.0

1. Go to the drive-in. The chance to attend an outdoor movie is coming to an end. Grab a carload of friends and hit the last River District Drive-In Movie Night. Which just happens to be a massive tribute to summer and friendship and the coming school year: Stand By Me on Sun Sept 6 at 8.30 pm.

2. Get into the great outdoors. Your butt is soon to be glued to a lecture hall seat, and visiting the “great outdoors” will mean the walk between classes. Do yourself a favour and finally conquer the Grouse Grind. Or, if you dislike sweating, jump across the rocks at Whytecliff Park instead.

3. Be a hero for a night. Bind your friendships, or even make some new ones, at one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape rooms. The problem solving needed to save your pals from a horde of hungry zombies is also the perfect jolt to get your brain back in working order after a summer off.

4. Watch Willy be free. For a web of reasons, the whale pods around Vancouver have been extra active this year—but they won’t be around for much longer. If you’ve got some spare cash, grab a whale watching tour to get up close and personal. If not, the ferry to Vancouver Island has also given people quite a view.

5. Soak up the city. Vancouver really shines in summer, but its music and arts scene hums all year round. Get out to the annual Victory Square Block Party (Sun Sept 6 from 1.30–9.30 pm) to catch a huge line-up of local bands and get into the spirit of community that makes Vancouver more than just some pretty mountains and beaches.

Things to Do in Burnaby

The sun is out, it’s warm and Burnaby is your oyster. The more you have in terms of options for leisurely activities, the more you’re going to attract people around you and improve your social life this summer. Let’s start with the basics of getting yourself out there.

• STYLE: Metropolis at Metrotown has over 300 shops to choose from to get you fresh; make sure you have a great bathing suit and a good cologne or perfume. Lougheed Town Centre Mall has 175 shops, Brentwood Mall has 110, but if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind shops, head over to traditional street-front shopping at The Heights with over 350 unique storefronts.
• ENTERTAINMENT: Have you ever played an escape game? What an experience. While many people are looking for pure leisure with a bottle of their favourite beer or wine in Burnaby park they may head to Barnet Marine Park (which has a swimming beach!), Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park, Deer Lake Park, or Burnaby Lake Regional Nature Park; others are looking for something more unique and edgy like Krakit. Krakit is a real-life escape room challenge that will help you grow and challenge your instincts. A perfect date should be unique, build trust and friendship, while showing your intelligence. Smart is sexy. 
• FOOD: You might need to replenish some brain cells now that you’ve cracked some codes and emerged victorious from Krakit’s escape room. You’re date might be hungry, too. Burnaby boasts awesome seafood and elegant choices for your adventure. Whether you’re looking for seafood, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, dine-in, take-out, or something quick, hundreds of  delicious restaurants are around each corner ready to serve you.

3 of 7: Helpful Hints to Prepare for the Apocalypse

This is a seven part series outlining survival techniques based on Maslow's hierarchy (beginning with physiological needs). In the final segments (self-actualization and self-fullfilment) I'll work my way into team building culture, role diversification/intelligent responsibility-delegation, and, above all, leadership techniques.

It’s been days, weeks, months since Satan has waged his war on humanity and you’ve finally become accustomed to your daily routine: it’s a never-ending daily cycle: you wake up to the cacophonous screaming of demons dispensed from the depths of hell and the walking dead bereaving their miserable souls within the traps you’ve placed, then you dispense heavenly justice and re-set each trap tripped and carry on. You’re well armed now, having escaped to loot a local gun shop and an abandoned grocery superstore store loaded with caches of food. You have found a fresh water spring by plowing through a wall in the basement of your school and are supplemented by a large supply of bottled water. But, you've become depressed from the sounds and situations around you and you’re dreadfully lonely. One day, having followed the dim glow from the your high nesting ground, a mother and her child arrive, chased by a small hoard of living dead.

• LOVE AND BELONGING: After vanquishing their pursuers with your small arsenal of defences, you, cautiously, examine the couple’s physicality. You prod them both with a series of questions you’ve prepared for such a situation, determining to a small extent that they are actual living humans. Nevertheless, you request they both remain in detention for a time until you can be absolutely sure they pose a minimal threat. On the first day of their arrival, you prudently lower food into their gymnasium cage via a rudimentary pulley system you’ve crafted referencing library books; you include within this exchange a change of clothing from the lost-and-found, clean blankets from the school’s dormitory, and a book. The mother expresses she’s broken her reading glasses and cannot read on her own; her young daughter is terrified. So, you read them a book aloud, daily, from the school’s library and observe calmness wash over their faces with each word you speak. After a week, you’ve developed a rapport with both of them, and release them from their lockup. The previous looming feeling of emptiness has disappeared. For the first time in months, you feel hope. Suddenly, the morning screaming doesn’t seem as bad.

Defy Reality at Vancouver's Escape Room

This week Krakit awarded ten lucky escape artists the chance to attend a sneak preview of the latest film in the Divergent movie series: Insurgent. Our lucky winners were amongst the first fans in Vancouver to see Tris, with her new pixie coif, take her place as a Divergent, a free mind in a divided Dystopia.

All month long, Krakit will continue to give away Insurgent prizes to lucky escape fans who brave the Krakit themerooms. Prizes include limited edition movie t-shirts, posters and gloves based on the popular movie.

Insurgent, the second film in the Divergent series is adapted from the novels by Veronica Roth. The novel and the films contain themes of rebellion, free will and self-sacrifice. The central figure Tris, uses her unique divergent mind to expose the flaws in the caste system, the system set in place to control the population of a future colony.

The colony resides in a post-apocalyptic Chicago that is divided into five factions. Every adolescent goes through a ceremony where they choose their faction. The faction defines their personality, their place in the colony and their future occupation. Tris is one of a small group of free thinkers who is able to avoid the control of the central power and work independently from the faction system. She is able to combine all five of the faction traits in her personality: selflessness, peacefulness, honesty, bravery and intelligence. This combination awards her more opportunities for leadership roles, autonomy and problem-solving superiority.

Krakit gamers need to harness similar traits when they enter the theme room of Vancouver's most exciting escape challenge. Clues are only useful when paired with an open mind. Narrow thinking will only lead to frustration. Creativity, decisiveness and teamwork are all important for success.

Try your skills today and be in the running for some excellent Insurgent swag.

Harry Houdini's Most Notable Escapes

When one stops to ponder the art of escape, the mind often drifts towards one individual: Harry Houdini. A popular vaudeville performer in the early 1900s, Houdini stumped the world with his miraculous breakouts. He was a showman first and foremost, but his ability to escape complex restraints is unmatched in modern times.

His career started with open challenges to police departments across Europe. After being chained and handcuffed, he would escape the shackles of local law enforcement officials, earning the nickname: "The Handcuff King." His act would later move to America, where his stunts became more elaborate and the crowds of onlookers grew. He became 'the' escape artist, freeing himself from straightjackets, ropes, jails and of course, handcuffs. He even encouraged the public to devise escape scenarios. If only he had been alive for Twitter…

Houdini has become so renowned with art of escape that his last name has now become a verb: "How did you Houdini yourself out of that Krakit escape room?"

Here is a short list of some of Houdini's most popular escape stunts:

Siberian Transport

After being strip-searched and shackled in a military van headed for Siberia, Houdini escaped a trip to Russia's most severe interment camp. Putin won't let this one go and still credits the evil Western Alliance as aiding Houdini.

Reflecting on his life, years later, Houdini was quick to cite this stunt as a standout in his career:

I think my escape from the Siberian Transport was my most difficult performance. I was placed in the great vault usually assigned to political prisoners, and when the great door was shut, I had the hardest time of my life, perhaps, in releasing myself. But nevertheless, it took me 18 minutes to walk out, and face the dazed officials.

The Mirror Handcuffs

In 1904, Harry Houdini accepted a challenge from the Daily Mirror to escape from a pair of specialty handcuffs. Legend has it the cuffs took five years to make. The cuffs required a six inch key to unlock. Houdini did the impossible, and broke them after a hour and ten minutes. 

He was also able to cutoff his suit coat during the escape.

The Milk Can

This escape challenge was a crowd favourite because of the visual confinement element. Houdini was a shorter gentleman, but even with his small frame, the sight of his body being squeezed inside a milk can must have been quite the spectacle. Houdini upped the danger factor by filling the rest of the can with water. The top of the can was latched shut and then secured with a padlock. Oh, and of course Houdini entered the can handcuffed.

Houdini focused the performance on the water element, asking the audience to hold their breath while he was submerged. Of course no one could remain breathless in the time it took him to escape.

The Chinese Water Torture

Jesse 'The Body' Ventura would have firmly disapproved of this trick. For the Chinese Water Torture, Houdini was suspended upside down in a glass case, with an inner cage that prevented him from twisting his body. He was of course handcuffed as well. Another crowd favourite, Houdini preformed this trick until his death in 1926.

The Straightjacket Dangle

Unlike the escapes mentioned above, this one was done without cover. Houdini was suspended from a crane upside down in a straightjacket. Done as publicity stunt in New York City, Houdini escaped his restraints in two minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

All of these stunts are incredibly dangerous and should not be attempted. Houdini's mastery came in his ability to stay focused and calm. These are the same elements that will lead to success at the Vancouver Escape Room. We've dialed back the danger factor considerably, but it never hurts to channel the accomplishments of one of the greats.

Vancouver Escape Room: Fall Themes

The Krakit team has put together a bubbling pot of Halloween escape games to keep the scares and screams going through the fall. With four wicked traps to choose from, you and your friends can harness your brain power to overcome the challenges offered at Vancouver's escape game headquarters.

Our current spooky challenges are:

The Wicked Witch

Fearing for your life in the forest, you and your friends seek shelter in what appears to be an abandoned cottage. The dust and grime is thick, but so is the mysterious smoke that lingers like a blanket of fog in the Vancouver escape room. Your eyes scan your surroundings and you begin to realize you have stumbled across a laboratory dedicated to the dark arts. Spells, potions, and a dark feline lead you to believe this is the home of a witch. What if she returns? You look for a quick exit but you are now firmly trapped in the sorceress's layer. Your freedom lies in your ability to outwit the witch.

Difficulty: Average

Zombie Apocalypse

World War Z has come to Burnaby. The zombie infection that we all fear has taken over. Who is bitten? Who is free of the brain-loving madness? Devastation surrounds you. Your only hope is finding the remedy before the undead claim their final victims. Do you have what it takes to save humanity? Your bro Chris thinks he does. Do you listen to him or go with your gut? 

Difficulty: Average

Bonus: Live zombie interaction

The Butcher's Block

Your head is throbbing. You slowly open your eyes and take in the frightful scene that now surrounds you. You are trapped in a bloody meat locker. Cleavered  animal parts hang from hooks, dripping with plasma. Wait! Are those animal or human cuts? Your mind spins and you contemplate your own dissection. What would your rib cage look like separated and hung to dry? Escaping with all your organs is now your only concern.

Difficulty: Average

The Padded Asylum

You've been locked up in the cuckoo's nest. You find a medical chart and discover you and your friends have been found criminally insane. The doctor's schedule indicates you have less than 45 minutes to escape the medical chamber before permanent sedation. You quietly wish you'd chosen Big Chief as a game partner instead of your friend Jennifer.

Difficulty: Hard

Bonus: Live doctor's visit