When you walk into an escape room, you see the finished product: the scenery, puzzles, hidden compartments, props, lighting, sound effects, and hopefully a few surprises along the way.

What you do not see are the hundreds of hours that go into getting an escape room from an idea on a piece of paper to a fully functioning game.

At Escape Oshkosh, our games are designed and built in-house. That means creating a new escape room involves much more than purchasing a few puzzles, putting some locks around a room, and opening the doors. Every new game starts completely from scratch.

It Starts With an Idea

The first step is deciding what kind of world we want our players to step into. We start with the theme and storyline. Where are you? Why are you there? What is your mission? And why do you only have 60 minutes to complete it?

Those questions help shape everything that comes afterward.

Once we have the basic storyline, we begin imagining what the physical space should look and feel like. We think about everything from wall finishes and flooring to furniture, props, lighting, sounds, and how players will move from one area of the game to another.

We want each room to feel like more than just a room filled with puzzles. The goal is to make it feel like you have stepped into an entirely different environment.

Designing the Puzzles

Once the general layout and storyline are established, we begin designing the puzzles. This is probably one of the most complicated parts of the entire process.

A good escape room puzzle has to be challenging without being impossible. Players need enough information to eventually figure it out, but we also do not want the answer to be obvious.

We also try to create variety throughout the game. Some puzzles may require observation and attention to detail, while others involve patterns, logic, communication, technology, or physical interaction. The puzzles also need to make sense within the environment.

Instead of simply placing a combination lock on a random box, we try to ask ourselves: Why would this object be here? Why would the players interact with it? How can the puzzle become part of the story?

Sometimes an idea that sounds amazing on paper does not work nearly as well once we actually build it. Other times, a simple idea turns into one of our favorite puzzles. There is a lot of experimenting along the way.

Then Construction Begins

Once we have enough of the game mapped out, the room starts looking more like a construction site than an escape room.

There are usually piles of lumber, plywood, screws, wires, tools, paint, props, electronics, and partially finished projects everywhere.

Walls may need to be built. Structures have to be framed. Props are constructed. Hidden compartments are added. Wiring needs to be run. Doors, sensors, buttons, monitors, speakers, lighting, and other electronics have to be installed.

Then everything has to be themed. That might mean making something brand new look old, damaged, abandoned, weathered, dirty, futuristic, magical, or completely unlike the material we started with. This is where a lot of the personality of the room begins to appear.

The Details Make the Difference

Some of the smallest details can take an incredible amount of time. A wall that players may look at for only a few seconds could take hours to build, paint, distress, and decorate. A prop might need to be rebuilt several times before it looks right. A puzzle mechanism may work perfectly 20 times and then suddenly fail on the 21st test, sending us back to figure out why.

There are also plenty of moments where we build something, stand back, look at it for a while, and decide we simply do not like it. Then we change it.

Designing an escape room is an ongoing process. The room continues to evolve as it is being built. New ideas are added, puzzles are changed, layouts are adjusted, and sometimes entire concepts are removed because something better comes along.

Making Everything Work Together

Eventually, all of the individual pieces have to become one complete game. 

  • The puzzles need to flow together logically. 
  • Players need to understand what they should be working on without being told exactly what to do.
  • Technology needs to communicate correctly.
  • Doors need to open when they are supposed to.
  • Lights and sounds need to trigger at the correct moment.
  • Props need to survive being handled by hundreds—or eventually thousands—of players.
  • And everything needs to reset properly so the next group receives the exact same experience.

One small change can sometimes affect several other parts of the game, which is why this stage involves a lot of testing, adjusting, rebuilding, and testing again.

Then We Bring in Test Groups

Before a new escape room officially opens, we need actual people to play it. This is one of the most important parts of the entire design process.

As the people who created the puzzles, we already know how everything works. Something that seems incredibly obvious to us may make absolutely no sense to someone seeing it for the first time. Test groups show us what works and what does not. We watch where players struggle, where they move too quickly, which clues they overlook, which puzzles take too long, and whether the overall progression of the game feels natural.

After every test group, changes are usually made. Sometimes it is a small adjustment to a clue. Sometimes a puzzle needs to be redesigned entirely. The game continues evolving until we feel like we have found the right balance between challenging, fair, immersive, and fun.

Finally, It Becomes an Escape Room

Eventually, there is a point when the sawdust gets cleaned up, the tools disappear, the final props go into place, and the room finally starts to look like the game we originally imagined.

Then the first official team walks through the door. That is one of the best parts of building escape rooms. Something that started as an idea months earlier is suddenly being explored, solved, and experienced by real players.

And while most players will never know exactly how many hours went into building the wall they are standing next to, wiring the button they just pressed, or creating the puzzle they finally solved after ten minutes, that is part of what makes designing these games so much fun.

At Escape Oshkosh, creating the experience is just as much of an adventure for us as playing it is for you. And every time we start building a new game, we get to do it all over again.