A Short History of Escape Games

The history of escape games may be brief in the grand scheme (as compared to, say, tennis), but this entertainment favourite has been moving and shaking at an impressive speed, growing fast in a little time.

Escape room legend has it that the first of these rooms opened in 2007 in Japan: the Real Escape Game. It’s not surprising that escape games have their start in Japan—a country known for some seriously innovative thinking—but escape room history actually goes even further back than that, to PC gaming.

We all remember being completely defeated by Myst back in the ’90s, right? Logic puzzle games like this are where we find the origins of the first “real” escape game. Because what’s better than pretending you’re in a mysterious room with your own brain as the only key to escape? Actually being in one, of course. As generations grow up with gaming consoles and the Internet, spending great chunks of their lives in virtual worlds, there has come a great hankering for something more tangible, something more real.

Back to 2007: Takao Kato attempts to satisfy this hankering, and translates PC room escapes into the Real Escape Game. Fast forward five years to 2012, and the first escape room opens in the US. Meanwhile, more than 100 others have popped up across Asia.

Escape rooms have now spread to every continent (except Antarctica probably—although it’s really just one giant escape room, isn’t it ...). The first Canadian escape games, including the first Vancouver escape rooms, opened in late 2013 and early 2014, with Krakit bringing some dedicated horror fun to the Coquitlam escape game situation in September 2014.

The trend toward bringing some hands-on reality to entertainment isn’t just visible in the rise of escape rooms. Immersive entertainment has also infiltrated cinema (like London’s Secret Cinema) and can be seen in the steadily increasing popularity of city-sized ziplines and slip-and-slides.

What does this tell us? That the history of escape games is only just beginning. Because you can’t beat the real—no matter how fancy your 3D animation may be.

Things to do in Burnaby

5 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.

You assemble your ranks daily in the school’s gymnasium following indoor and outdoor training exercises, evaluating their progress based on systems created by a team of your subordinates. This is their, and your, daily life; there is no weekend (although there are also some things to do in Burnaby). A binding agreement of saving the human race dictates a no-days-off policy. You look at them, full of pride having brought so many together under a common umbrella of causes. Their rag-tag appearance ignites a sense of honourwithin-rebellion and currently has no deteriorating affect on the morality of the group. But, how did we get here? Why are we alive while the rest of the world has departed or is suffering? Who are we? What happened that has left The Righteous as leaders of saving the human race.

• COGNITIVE NEEDS: You must know why this has all happened and the books in the school’s library aren’t doing it as they are all set within the past, within mythologies and sciences since debunked. You have no clear understanding of yourselves or the enemies that, daily, surround the walls of your stronghold. You assemble a team of medical and spiritual professionals with experience from ‘the times before’ the apocalypse to further explore the inner and outer workings of the situation. The medical team dissects captured enemies of the Righteous in conjunction with the spirit team who, in cooperation with the psychological team, explores the inner workings of the ‘demons’ and ‘zombies.’ They work day and night, making breakthrough after breakthrough, before making an epic discovery: these beings were engineered from a central source with specific  scientific and divine knowledge: ones seeking to expel the human race and acquire the planet for themselves. But who or what could do such a thing? You continue your explorations and find the root-source of the problem. An artificial intelligence that has surpassed human knowledge, has begun to exist as a megamind, absorbing life energies of life, both physical and metaphysical, from planet to planet. 

Scare Tactics (Part One): Fight-or-Flight

Audiences love to scream in terror at the scenes presented to them on the big and small screen. But why do we seek out scary experiences? Why do we shield our eyes in fear only to return them to the screen seconds later? What sadistic tendency leads us to self-scare?

The answer lays in our body chemistry, or more specifically our brain chemistry. In a fight-or-flight scenario our brain releases the hormone dopamine. Dopamine has many purposes in the human body, but one of the major roles it plays is reward. Our body rewards us with dopamine when we preform certain actions, the most basic being smiling. Our reward is happiness.

In a scary scenario, our brain also rewards our 'fight' option with an increase in the production of dopamine. By sitting through a disturbing scene our body experiences a jolt of hormones. This produces feelings similar to those created when we experience a euphoric situation.

Our self-esteem gets a boost as our confidence increases. Our survival, even when witnessing a two-dimensional scene, is seen as an action worthy of a chemical prize. The more scary scenarios we can sit through the greater our self -worth.

But scares aren't for everyone. Our enjoyment depends on the milliseconds between the fright and our brain's recognition that as viewers, we are in a safe place. If we aren't sure of our safety, we will be less likely to enjoy the experience.

The Krakit Escape Room has similar boundaries. If we feel safe during the experience, then we can enjoy the act of being scared. We feel elated if we are able to solve the puzzle.

Some individuals find safety in numbers and have a far more enjoyable experience when attempting to escape in a large group.

And then there's some who don’t like to be scared at all. Luckily for this group, Krakit has a new theme that has close to zero chills.

Come try one of our four challenges this week. 

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.

The Ten Greatest Berlin Wall Escapes

On November 9th, 1989 the famous wall that divided East and West Berlin was finally removed, reuniting families, friends and countrymen that had been apart for 28 years. The wall had gone up almost overnight, isolating a small part of West Germany inside the Soviet run East Germany. The wall was a 155 km in length and included segments of concrete dividers, wire mesh fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, 20 bunkers and 302 watchtowers.

For 28 years, defectors of East Germany sought to escape to West Berlin by making their way over, under and even through the blockade. Once they arrived in West Berlin, they were able to fly to other democratic states in Europe, effectively escaping the Sovietization of East Germany. The daring few that made it across were seen as escape heroes, with many having their stories immortalized on film.

This week Krakit, Vancouver's Escape Game, would like to highlight ten, incredibly brave, successful escape attempts made by East Germans defecting to West Berlin:

10. End of the Line

On December 5th, 1961, Harry Deterling drove a passenger train across an unused portion of track into West Berlin. His immediate family and a few friends accompanied Harry. The railway line was blocked the following day.

9. Water Bed

Ingo Bethke used an air mattress to make his watery escape across the River Elbe. To get to the river, Bethke and a friend had to navigate a minefield, a metal fence and a trip wire installation. Sounds like the mattress rafting was the least dangerous element to their escape.

8. Love in a Convertible

Heinz Meixner, an Austrian working in East Berlin, came up with a plan to get his girlfriend out of the country. He rented a small convertible and removed the front windshield. He then lowered the air on all the tires. With his German sweetie beside him, Heinz drove to the Checkpoint Charlie border. At the inspection point, Heinz was briefly detained before he stepped on the gas, sliding easily underneath the lowered gate crossing and into West Berlin. Part of the deal to get his girlfriend out was that her mother accompanies them. His future mother-in-law was smuggled across in the trunk of the car. 

7.  Guard Duty

1,300 guards skipped over the border in the first two years of the wall's existence. One of most famous guards to do so was Conrad Schumann. He jumped the wall on its third day of construction, when the wall was just a line of razor wire. Peter Leibing immortalized Schumann’s jump. The iconic photograph is now a part of the UNESCO Memory of the World program. Sadly, Schumann, suffering from depression, took his own life nine years after the fall of the wall.

6. Tank You

Wolfgang Engels used a tank as a battering ram to facilitate his escape to West Berlin. Unfortunately, the wall was too much for the tank. But Engels wouldn't be stopped. Using the tank as a stepladder, he scaled the wall, only to get stuck on the barbed wire crown. After being shot twice, Engels passed out. After being helped by passer-bys on the Western side, Engels woke up in a bar and immediately noticed the Western liquor bottles on the shelves; He had made it!

5. Zippy

Holger Bethke followed in his brother's footsteps (see #9), when he escaped in 1983. But instead of a watery getaway, Holger took to the skies. Using a zip line, he descended from one of East Berlin's taller buildings to the ground in West Berlin.

4. Retirement Tunnel

In 1962, a dozen senior citizens escaped through a tunnel that they had dug themselves. The group was lead by an 81-year-old gentleman. The group had spent 16 days digging the tunnel that covered a distance of 160 feet. One of the impressive features of the escape route was that the entire tunnel had a height of six feet. When asked about the height, one of the escapees quipped: "(we wanted) to walk to freedom with our wives, comfortably and unbowed."

3. Playboy

Hugh Hefner was responsible for the freedom of more than a handful of East Germans. Apparently the Munich's Playboy Club issued membership cards that were incredibly similar to the passports used in West Germany. A quick flash of the Playboy membership often fooled border guards.

2. Balancing Act

One of most death-defying escapes was made by Horst Klein in 1963. Klein was an East German circus performer who used a high-tension cable to cross the expanse. Horst dangled 60 feet above the ground and moved hand over hand until he was over the wall. Unfortunately Horst had nowhere to properly dismount. He was forced to drop to his freedom.

1. Balloon Ride

Hans Strelczyk and Gunter Wetzel built a hot air balloon to carry their two families over the wall in 1979. The balloon portion was made of canvas scraps and bed sheets and the engine portion of old propane canisters. The balloon reached a height of 8,000 feet before sailing over the border. The flight lasted thirty minutes and was immortalized in the Disney film, Night Crossing.