What to Expect at Your First Escape Game

Fun!

This one’s pretty obvious, but it is the number one thing you can expect at your first escape room experience. At Krakit, we kick the fun factor up to its highest level with live actors, who take our horror-themed rooms from eerie to downright heart-racing. Or, you can have a more chill time in our non-horror-themed escape room, which rotates regularly.

Puzzles galore

Along with the experience of being immersed in a fantastical world, puzzles are the other main component of what escape games are all about. Logic puzzles, number puzzles, factoids that make you dig old information out of the dark recesses of your brain—all of these can appear somewhere during the course of play.

Each puzzle will lead to a key that together add up to your escape from the room!

Total recall

Much like all those detective shows we’re all totally obsessed with, escape games require you to not only solve puzzles, but to “read the room” in the truest sense.

In order to access the puzzles that will lead to your freedom, you need to first figure out where they’re hiding. This requires you and your teammates to assess the room, figure out what’s “off” (that is, a clue), put together different elements you see, and remember what’s happened earlier in the game.

Stress, but the good kind

With only 45 minutes on the clock, sniffing out all the clues, putting all the pieces together, and solving all the puzzles can make you feel like you’re in a pressure cooker. But trust us, this sort of countdown-to-doomsday scenario is one of the best things about escape rooms. Gets all your adrenaline pumping, that’s for sure!

To find out what your friends—and you—are made of

You and your teammates will need to work together if you have any hope of solving all the puzzles and cracking the room—leading to your freedom. Find out who’s the leader, who’s the numbers guy or gal, and who’s the one who keeps the calm.

Book your escape game experience with Krakit here: bookeo.com/krakit.

Escape Game First Date: 5 Revelations You Will Learn about Your Future Bae

On paper, it may sound a little intimidating: enter a locked room with a person you’ve exchanged very few words with, and who you likely only just met in person for the first time, and then attempt to escape that locked room through close collaboration.

We’ve seen plenty of first dates at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room, and we’ll tell you why it’s a fantastic way to jump start what could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. (And OK, maybe it’s a little intimidating, but what first date isn’t?)

Here’s just a few of the qualities that a high-pressure situation, multiple brainteasing puzzles, and a 90-minute countdown will reveal about your next bae.

1. How they deal with stress

Put anyone in any situation with a countdown clock, and you’re guaranteed to get the stress hormones flowing. This is great for a first date, because you get to see if that guy who seemed so easygoing on Tinder is actually a tightly wound spring.

2. What their imagination is like

If you’ve chosen an escape room also your first date, odds are you’re a creative person who likes to immerse themselves in challenging situations and, yes, get lost in a little fantasy. No other first date will reveal if your future gal is on the same imaginative wavelength like an escape game date.

3. How well they communicate

We are all very aware that good relationships are built on good communication. So, why not throw this budding romance into the proverbial fire and see how quickly the two of you can get those verbal juices flowing. Without them, you certainly won’t win the escape game, and your date probably won’t win your love.

4. How they cope with failure

Whether or not you solve the escape room, there’s a good chance each one of you will fail at least one of the puzzles. Will your date take failure like a champ? Let’s hope so. Will they take your failures with grace? Let’s doubly hope so!

5. Whether or not they will put you first

A brain-hungry zombie rattles on the door—does your date shield you, or use you as a shield? VERY important to know. Might as well find that out asap.

Book your escape game first date in one of our four themed Vancouver escape rooms.

10 Reasons You Should Play an Escape Game RIGHT NOW

1. Escape rooms are fun fun fun

Let’s just get this most obvious reason out of the way. Why play an escape game? Because it’s 45 minutes of pure fun, from the word go to the last second on the timer.

2. All the kids are doing it

Although people of all ages love a good escape game, they’re especially popular with millennials. Clearly, hitting an escape room is the hip thing to do.

3. Escape games work out your brain

Not just fun and popular, escape rooms offer a chance for you to put to work brain muscles you might not have exercised since high school. Keeping those synapse firing and your logic gears working means escape games provide great brain care.

4. You can impress your date with your bravery

Not only can you show your new beau how smart you are, you can impress him with your bravery when the zombies begin snapping their teeth at you, with only 5 minutes left on the clock …

5. Being under pressure is good for you

There’s proof that pressure makes us accomplish more, helps our brains work better, and turns us into more resilient people. Thanks, escape games!

6. Escape games make for some serious bonding

Need to make a team gel? Throw them into an escape room. Then see what a well-oiled machine they are after working together to crack all the codes and clues we throw at them.

7. A little scare never hurt anyone

Although not all escape games are scary, our favourite ones sure are! Here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game we currently have three horror-themed rooms to get your blood pumping. Extra shot of adrenaline, coming up!

8. Belly laughter is the best medicine

What follows a jump scare or a seriously fumbled clue but serious laughter? You and your friends are guaranteed at least three giggle fits with each escape game you play.

9. You get your money’s worth

Pound for pound, a ticket to an escape room provides you with more than any movie ticket or baseball game (especially on Cheap Tuesdays at Krakit!). Why? Because immersive entertainment is more fulfilling and memory-making.

10. Escape is good for the soul

Taking some time for a little fantasist escape is necessary to staying sane in today’s hyper-paced world. It’s like Dungeons & Dragons come to life! What’s not to love.

Test your skill in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape games by booking here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Under Pressure: Timed Escape Games and the Benefits of Stress

Out here on the West Coast of British Columbia, we like to think of ourselves as people who live a relaxed, go-with-the-flow lifestyle. But maybe sometimes we take things a little too easy.

As it turns out, a bit of stress can actually be a good thing. And in the controlled environment of a Vancouver escape game, it can be a fantastic thing.

There’s nothing to get those brain cogs turning like knowing a clock is quickly ticking down to your ultimate failure or success.

1. Healthy pressure makes us accomplish more

Although the phrase “I strive under pressure” sounds like something made up just to impress at job interviews, it’s actually true.

Quite simply, when we’re under the gun—like have 45 minutes on the clock and a mad doctor waiting to lobotomize us—we’re more likely to really, really, really try to accomplish the task at hand. In the case of escape games, pressure pushes us to make our way through all the puzzles and unlock the last lock that leads to freedom.

2. Low-level stress makes our brains work better

No, really. When you’re stressed (but not too stressed), your brain will pump out more chemicals called neurotrophins. These work to strengthen the connections between neurons in your brain, meaning you will start to sort out all of those escape game puzzles a lot faster.

Basically, what this means is that the time limit we place on you at Krait Vancouver Escape Game only really helps you to win. So, you’re welcome.

3. Dealing with pressure makes you more resilient

The more you put yourself in situations that are a little stressful, the better you will be able to cope with the next one.

So instead of that super calm, uber relaxing yoga retreat deep in the forest, perhaps the best way to deal with real-world pressure is to exercise your stress reflexes within the controlled (and fun!) stress of an escape game. Maybe even a weekly regimen is in order!

See how well you do under the gun at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game in our brand new Wonderland Room. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

The Fine Art of Staying Calm under Pressure

The clock is tick-ticking away. Everyone is chattering at super speed, each with a different idea, a different plan. The pressure is on in a big way, but you know you’ve got to pull it together: if you don’t, a zombie is going to eat your face.

Unfortunately, we can’t all stay as pathologically calm as Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock in the face of stress (or zombies).

But you’ve only got 45 minutes to escape Krakit’s game rooms—which is definitely not enough time to have a nervous break down before getting on with it. So what are you going to do?

Master the fine art of staying calm under pressure, of course. 

Easier said than done, but here are a few tips to get you started before your next Krakit adventure.

Breathe

“Just breathe.” Obvious, right?

But more than a way to slow down your heart rate and blood pressure, a few minutes of focused breathing provides a steady sound to concentrate on. You can use this sound to pull yourself out of a stress spiral and block out distractions, allowing you to concentrate on solving the task at hand

Create an Anti-stress Trigger for Yourself

When the clock is ticking down the seconds, your thoughts can start racing faster than you can process them. Honestly, who can take time to breathe when you’ve got a mad doctor to escape? Before you find yourself locked up in Krakit’s Asylum, take time to develop an anti-stress trigger for yourself.

This could be a certain song lyric or a specific memory of a place, or even a scent, that you use to force-stop your racing thoughts and gain back control, like placing a finger on a roulette wheel.

Visit Your Mind Palace

When you know ahead of time you’re going to be overwhelmed with too much information, take a page out of Sherlock Holmes’s book and setup a Mind Palace (learn how here). 

By being prepared, you can break down and master information before it even has a chance to stress you out.