As a party entertainment specialist, how did you get into online escape room design and creation?
I started working for a Team Building company just before COVID hit, here in Australia. For a company whose core business is face-to-face events, this was a horrible time. We had to make a decision - close down or pivot.
I designed a bunch of virtual events for corporates in lockdown; trivia, games shows, virtual Amazing Race and a load more. I have always been involved in Live Actor Murder Mystery events and wanted to create a virtual version complete with live actors. I hit two issues with what I wanted. I needed a way to allow the players to virtually "walk" through a crime scene looking for clues and I needed a way to hide evidence and create clues to solve.
Zoom became my platform with a piece of software that Real Estate Agents use to show off new houses and a borrowed 360 degree camera. Together with live actors, it was a really good interactive game, however the clues were a little hard to create as part of a website and not particularly elegant.
After a load of research and lots of trial and error I found the platform Telescape. After a steep learning curve it has become my go-to platform. While it wasn't particularly suited to the original Murder Mystery event, the ability to create secure, elegant clues and puzzles really got me and it wasn't long before I had my first escape game.
Something Strange at Sea, one of the two debut escape rooms featured on the platform, is about waking up alone in the cabin to discover that all the other passengers have abandoned ship. What inspired this intriguing storyline?
I was a cruise ship officer for over eleven years. My first game was always going to be a cruise ship based game. I love the layout of cruise ships. They are like a small city so perfect for a very large game. Casinos, Cabins, Shops, Technical Spaces, Pools, Lifeboats and more... the story lines are endless.
In fact the first version of the game had a library, a casino, a second cabin and much more in it. It was stunning but was just way too big. It took my first testers over 3 hours!
The art is very stylish and detailed! How did you achieve the realistic look?
In the first version of the game, I drew the scenery as a comic strip. It was very magazine cartoon styled and looked great but I wasn't happy with it. I wanted it to be much more realistic. I also found I had to go back to the scenes a lot to add clues, extra parts or change things as the game progressed.
I started playing with CAD programs and found that I could draw an entire room then simply move the camera around to take a shot of a new scene. The best part is I could change things and simply retake a photo.
The integrated video and chat system is a welcome convenience. Many other platforms require an external livestream. Tell us a little bit about the seamless integration, and why you saw it fit to go the extra mile to include it.
I always had an integrated video system in my mind for the game. I wanted the players to play the game, all on one screen, without having to download anything. I did a lot of research and tried a lot of things before finding a system that was standalone. It was an independent small company who were happy to help. As it happens the platform was happy to integrate with the video system.
There are actually two versions of the game, one with the video integration and one without. I use the one without with zoom to host large scale tournaments.
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